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This story is deliberately written in
the style of Frances Hodgson Burnett. This is because Eva Ibbotson
wanted to write a book like the ones she had enjoyed when she
was a child.
The year is 1910. Maia is an orphan at a boarding school in England.
She is happy at school but she still wishes she was part of a
real family. Then her lawyer guardian manages to trace some distant
relatives, the Carters, who agree to take Maia. The Carters live
in Brazil and they have twin daughters the same age as Maia. Maia
knows she is going to live in a house on the shores of a tributary
of the River Amazon - the River Sea - and she reads all she can
about the region and is excited about seeing all the plants and
animals. She also fantasies about the twins.
But when she arrives she is in for a series of disappointments.
The twins are unkind to her and their parents have agreed to take
her only because they need the money her guardian pays them. Even
worse, the Carters have an incredible lifestyle. All their food
is brought from England, either canned or powered, and they never
go outside their house. Mr Carter is interested only in his collection
of glass eyes and the lessons the girls learn are dull and unimaginative.
Life would be unbearable if it was not for one thing. Maia has
a wonderful governess, Miss Minton, who has her own way of getting
round Mrs Carter. For example she tells Mrs Carter that Maia is
keeping the twins back and gets permission for Maia to do her
lessons separately. From then on Maia works on her own from Miss
Minton's stimulating books.
Then a touch of drama enters the story. The girls' dancing class
in Manaus is interrupted by two men dressed in black -- Maia at
once names them the Crows -- who have an important announcement
to make. They are detectives and they are looking for a boy whom
they want to take back to England.
Maia later meets the boy and learns his story. He is Finn Taverner.
His mother was Indian but his father was English. His father had
been brought up on a large English estate where he had been very
unhappy. Eventually he had run away from home and made his way
to the Amazon where he had made his living by collecting medicinal
plants and selling them. He had been drowned a few months ago,
but, because of what his father had taught him, Finn is well able
to fend for himself. But now the Crows are looking for him to
take him back to the estate wher his father was so unhappy. This
is because his father's elder brother, the heir to the estate,
was killed in a hunting accident. Finn is now the heir to the
estate and his grandfather wants him to return.
Between them Maia and Finn work out a plan so that Finn can stay
in Brazil. On the ship from England Maia met Clovis, a boy actor.
He was playing the part of Cedric in Little Lord Faunteroy --
of course. Then his voice breaks and the company have no further
use for him. Clovis is desperate to get back to England. He hates
Brazil -- the heat, the insects, the food. But he has no money
so how can he return to England?
Maia and Finn work out a scheme to make the Crows think that Clovis
is really Finn. If all goes according to plan then Clovis will
be taken back to England instead of Finn, who will be able to
continue studying and collecting plants and who, one day, might
become a doctor. Does this ingenious plan work? And why was the
governess Miss Minton so eager to go to the Amazon?
The historical background may be rather slight but it is authentic
and interesting. The reader is given a fascinating picture of
the Manaus of the wealthy rubber planters, busy Manaus a thousand
miles from the mouth of the Amazon. Manaus with its mansions with
colourful window boxes and large gardens with blossoming orange
and lemon trees, churches, elegant shops, a museum. And, above
all, at the far side of a square paved in swirling mosaics, the
magnificent theatre roofed in tiles of green and gold and with
the Eagle of Brazil in precious stones at the top.
Journey from the River Sea has another historical interest.
Because of the style in which it is written it also gives the
flavour of the kind of stories which were written for children
in 1910 -- a time when stories were much simpler than they are
now. Characters tend to be black and white and several of them,
the Carters and Finn's English family for example are deliberately
over drawn. The ending is completely satisfactory. The good characters
all get what they want. At first sight it also appears that the
Carters get what they want too but what appears to be their hearts'
desire turns out to be their come-uppance.
At the same time there is also a very modern touch in the emphasis
on the wealth of the plant and animal life of the Amazon and its
importance to medical research.
This is a delightful book with an unusual story.
Gold award winner for the Nestle Book Prize 2001. Shortlisted
for the Carnegie Medal and the Guardian Book Prize.
10 to adult.
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