Book 5 - Journey to the River Sea - Eva Ibbotson

This little gem was suggested by my daughter, Bethany but i have read it once before. It has recently been published in a a new cover to celebrate 10 years since it was first published in 2001.

The story based mainly in and on the Amazon river in Brazil. Maia is 13 years old and when the book begins she is at school in England but we as the reader soon become aware that she is now an orphan. Distant family relatives are found for her in Manaus on the Amazon where both she and the new governess Miss Minton, affectionately known as Minty are transported too.

Maia dreams of a romantic Manaus and Amazon river but what she finds when she meets her relatives is that they are very English and refuse to become involved in local ways, to the extent that Mrs Carter, the mother, has English food shipped regularly and refuse to engage or eat anything 'native'. The twins Gwedolyn and Beatrice who are Maia's cousins are not the friendly, charming companion's she had hoped for and Maia does her best to tolerate them.

On the sea crossing over Maia meets Clovis, who she promises to go watch when he performs in Manaus but the twins even try to prevent her from doing that by saying all the tickets have sold out and not buying her one. In the end Maia sets off to walk to Manaus but becomes frightenly lost and is rescued by a native boy who takes her safely to Manaus by the local rivers.

That's has far as i have read for now - the best is yet to come?


Eva Ibbotson born 21 January 1925 and died 20 October 2010 is a Austrian- born British novelist. She has written for both children and adults and many of her adults books have recently been re-published for teenager's and have become well read and well liked.

Eva was born to non-practising Jewish parents and fled to England in 1934. She originally wanted to be a physiologist like her father but decided against it. The thought of disecting animals was not for her. She attended school in England then went to the Cambridge University and later she became a teacher after attending Durham University, but her first love was writing.

Her first book The Great Ghost Rescue was published in 1975 and The Journey to the River Sea in 2001. She has written 23 books and 2 dramas, The Morning Gift (1993) and A Song for Summer (1997). She has been nominated and has won several awards including the Smarties Prize and Nestle Children's Book Prize Golden Award for Journey to the River Sea.