Eva Ibbotson

I was so shocked to hear of Ms. Ibbotson's death last week. I have only just discovered her and have fallen in love with her writing. I know that so many of you guys loved her writing too - I got inudnated with comments on Twitter which made me feel fuzzy and warm when I tweeted about me reading The Journey to the River Sea back in September.

I've contacted her UK publishers, MacMillan and asked them if MFB can perhaps put something up to commemorate this very talented lady. They have sent me the official obit they had drawn up and I copy it below.

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Eva Ibbotson, the much-loved and celebrated children’s author, died peacefully on the 20th October 2010 at her home in Newcastle. She was 85.

‘Eva Ibbotson weaves a magic like no other. Once enchanted, always enchanted.’ – Michael Morpurgo

Born in Vienna, Austria, which she noted was ‘a very beautiful city ringed by green hills, and a wonderful place for music and the theatre’, Eva Ibbotson came to Britain in 1934 at the age of eight with her family, refugees from Hitler. They were ‘a bedraggled party consisting of my fey, poetic mother, my irascible grandmother and confused aunt (my father – as was customary in my family – was somewhere else)’.

Eva was the author of many magical, rich and evocative adventures – over 20 novels for children and adults. She was especially well-known for her books’ fantastic creatures, outrageous characters, and brilliant storytelling – all the product of her famously lively imagination and astute observation of human foibles. In a career stretching over 35 years, Eva’s novels touched the hearts and souls of generations of children (and their parents). She wrote with immense wit, economy and elegance – and her deceptively funny, engaging books always pack an emotional punch, whether she was writing for eight-year-olds or young teens. Eva’s own fierce intelligence, self-deprecating humour, and wonderful quick wittedness are reflected in and will live on through her books.

Her success over a generation of writing children’s books was well recorded, and she was shortlisted for the Carnegie Medal with Which Witch?, the Smarties Prize with The Secret of Platform 13 and the 2001 Blue Peter Book Award in the Book I Couldn't Put Down category with Monster Mission.

Her novel, Journey to the River Sea, was runner-up in the Guardian Children's Fiction Award, shortlisted for the Whitbread Children’s Book of the Year Award, won the Nestle Smarties Prize and has also been selected as a top 20 ‘brilliant book’ to celebrate the 20th anniversary of this award. This extraordinary book will mark its 10th anniversary in 2011.

The Star of Kazan received the silver award in the Nestle Smarties Prize 2004 and was also shortlisted for the CILIP Carnegie Medal. The Beasts of Clawstone Castle was published in May 2005 alongside the paperback edition of The Star of Kazan followed by A Song for Summer in 2006, The Secret Countess in 2007, A Company of Swans and The Dragonfly Pool in 2008. Eva continued to enjoy critical acclaim for her writing and was delighted when her latest book, The Ogre of Oglefort, published this year, was shortlisted for Guardian Children’s Fiction Prize 2010. Eva was writing to the end, and her last book One Dog and His Boy will be published in May 2011.

For Eva, writing was a joy, and she especially enjoyed the research she conducted into the Amazon area for her book Journey To The River Sea – ‘For years I researched that part of the world. I learnt about the ‘rubber barons’ who went out at the beginning of the century to harvest the rubber trees which grew wild in the forest, and who became so rich that they could send their shirts back to Europe to be laundered, and wash their carriage horses in champagne. It was they who built Manaus and sent for famous actors and dancers and singers across the sea to perform in their beautiful opera house. Yet all the time the untamed jungle was on the doorstep, waiting to take over if they failed…


Meanwhile I wrote books for children about wizards and witches and harpies and ghosts – and books for adults about all sorts of things.


But my interest in the exotic world of the Amazon never left me. Journey to the River Sea is my attempt to share this world with you.’

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It really saddens me that she is gone. But then she left behind fantastic stories to discover and read and share with younger folk and older folk, like me. I am sure she will continue to inspire a great many readers and writers alike. Farewell lovely Eva, your fans - old and new - will miss you.

Journey to the River Sea by Eva Ibbotson

Synopsis:

It is 1910 and Maia, tragically orphaned at 13, has been sent from England to start a new life with distant relatives in Manaus, hundreds of miles up the Amazon. She is accompanied by an eccentric and mysterious governess who has secret reasons of her own for making the journey. Both soon discover an exotic world bursting with new experiences in this highly colourful, joyous and award-winning adventure.

I am thinking of changing this month's themed title from Under 14's Only to Books that Liz Should Have Read Ages Ago. Also, I apologise for any new obsessions that may result from reading this month's reviews. *evil laughter*

Ack! Another new to me author (you'll be seeing a lot of those this month) is Eva Ibbotson.

I have had her books on my shelves for ages and ages but somehow never got around to reading them. Until now that is.

Reading "Journey to the River Sea" reminded me of some books I read as a child. These books were old and musty and belonged to my dad and sat on the shelves unloved until I came to them. One I remember particularly well is where a group of young American kids go on holiday to an Eastern Block country and have tremendously fun but tidy adventures. There is an element of deep nostalgia about these books, as they were written in the 1940's / 1950's. And there was a sense of expectation and breathlessness about them that I loved. I have only come across one other book in a similar vein recently, and that was Dead Man's Cove by Lauren St John. And now, of course, Journey to the River Sea.

It is set in 1910 so we are in relatively modern(ish) times. There are such things as telegraphs and electricity. A lot of big discoveries have been made, several during the past century, but everything is still very different and new and although the world is shrinking it is still a big place. We have explorers going into the Amazon, discovering new plants and animals. Expeditions to far-flung places are still undertaken and local tribes in areas are still "savages" to us. Travelling long distance still takes a decent amount of time by ship and boat and there are carriages and empires to be built in foreign countries. Adventure definitely awaits anyone gutsy enough to put a foot out their door.

Bring in the lovely Maia who is this brilliantly heroic and intelligent main character. Having lost her parents in accident, she has been living in care for a little while now whilst the authorities try and find out her nearest relatives. Maia is the type of girl who is studious and honest and a good academic. She is thoughtful and sweet and a little bit mischievous. If she has a fault, it is that she is perhaps too trusting and too optimistic. When she hears that she does indeed have family, and that they are happy for her to come and live with them, she is excited. But when it becomes clear she is heading for the Amazon, she becomes a bit nervous. Her school mates all exaggerate the dangers of the Amazon, giving us a good close-up view of how some of us still see places like the Amazon.

'There are huge crocodiles in the rivers that can snap your head off in one bite. Only they're not called crocodiles, they're called alligators because their snouts are fatter, but they're just as fierce.''

"And if you just put one hand in the water there are these piranhas that strip all the flesh off your bones. Every single bit. They look just like ordinary fish but their teeth are terrible,' said Melanie.

Daisy offered a mosquito which bit you and gave you yellow fever. 'You turn as yellow as a lemon and then you die,' she said.'And it's so hot the sweat absolutely runs off you
in buckets.''

"Not sweat, dear, perspiration,' corrected Miss Carlisle.

But Maia is made of stronger stuff. After spending a night in their library, she comes away feeling stronger, more confident in her decision to go and live with her Uncle, his wife and two daughters, twins.

But she is not to go on her own. Her uncle has decreed that she should travel with a chaperone who is also to be her and her cousins' governess, Ms. Minton. Now, personally, when I heard this and initially read the description of Ms. Minton I thought "oh great, another miserable bizarre old spinster" but of course, I got shown up, because Ms. Minton, although she is unfortunate looking, has the soul and attitude of a survivor and explorer, loving books and discovering the world. Well, as much as you can on an underpaid wage.

Maia and Ms. Minton (Minty) become close during their extended sea journey. Maia is held rapt with thoughts of exploring the jungle, the exotic lives her cousins are leading in Manaus and adapting to living in the jungle where things only appear to be tamed.

Once Maia comes to meet her family, she's not sure if it's her of it it's them, because things are by no means what she expects. The twins are spoiled rotten and are mean, her uncle is a recluse, preferring to spend time in his study with his collection of false eyeballs (yes, you read that right) and her aunt is manipulative and obsessed with eradicating anything "foreign" from their house on the banks of the Amazon. She obsessively sprays insect repellent all over the house to keep the bugs out and refuses to acknowledge that she is in Brazil. She sees the locals as barbarians and are mean towards them. This is not the life either Minty or Maia expected.

But being who they are, they find a way around these things and soon Maia has the freedom to explore the jungle and her own creativity.

There is much I'm not telling, but let me just say that it is a wonderful bit of writing, with rich characters and in a way it is a love letter to Brazil and the jungle. There is a sub-plot with a lost English heir, some questionable actors who travelled to Manaus to perform in the opera house there and a whole tranche of other reveals that are just excellent.

I enjoyed Journey to the River Sea and will be reading The Ogre of Ogleford for later this month. Definitely try Eva Ibbotson if you've not had the chance to do so before. And just a further comment about the cover - the writing does the cover justice and vice versa. Am a bit smitten.