She was born in Vienna, Austria, in 1925. The Star of Kazan is a book that can make you laugh, and more importantly a book that can make you cry - and that, in my opinion, is its greatest achievement.įrankly, a book that no childhood is complete without.Eva Ibbotson (born Maria Charlotte Michelle Wiesner) was a British novelist specializing in romance and children's fantasy. But if we were to sum up just the literary aspects of this book then we would not even get a fraction of the true value of this book. The language she uses is simple and to the point, and there is no additional fluff in the book. Ibbotson writes from a variety of different points of view, switching from one to another frequently, but you are not often confused. By the end of this book, you fall in love with this city and all of its inhabitants. Ibbotson's descriptive skills must be praised. This book is likely to make you hungry, because of the brilliant descriptions of the Christmas trout and the cakes and pastries of Vienna. Another great description is that of the cooking. You can feel the author's love for this place in every page of this book. The sounds, colors and especially the tastes of Vienna are portrayed gorgeously in this book. The setting is another great thing about this book. Of course, the high point of Ibbotson's characterization is that even Rocco, a horse, is so well-written that you come to sympathize with him. Zed - who comes in later in the story and helps Annika at a very crucial time in her life - is also a great character. Everyone from Lorelai, the snobbish girl living next door, to Ellie, who is just about the sweetest person anyone can imagine, to Pauline, the agoraphobic girl who is Annika's best friend - each and every character steals your heart. The other, secondary characters of this book are also great. Even in the first two or three chapters, you fall in love with this little grey-eyed girl who desperately wants a dog and who loves to act out the stories that she hears, and as the book continues you start to care more and more about her.

She's a great heroine - she's simple, honest, extremely brave, kind and imaginative.

Annika is one of the reasons to like this book. The Star of Kazan is the story of Annika - a young orphan girl in Vienna, who gets found and adopted by a servant and a housekeeper (Ellie and Sigrid) in the house of three eccentric professors. Eva Ibbotson is one of my favourite authors, and The Star of Kazan is, in my opinion, her best book.

The star of kazan by eva ibbotson