Journey to the river sea

Journey to the River Sea by Eva Ibbotson

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.

Maia is sent to live with relations in a town on the Amazon in Brazil. Nothing turns out as she had expected and she has a pretty miserable time until she makes friends with Finn who lives in the jungle near her house and Clovis a child who works in an  acting company on tour in Brazil
This was the last book we read before the Summer holidays, I love this book as it has lots of twists and turns, the characters are interesting and it's a really great story. It wasn't everyone's  favourite as it is quite long and there is a lot going on in the plot. Some people found it a bit confusing to keep track of everything that is happening. Some of our group would recommend it though.

As this was our last meeting before the summer we had a vote to see what our most popular books during the year were. Our top three reads were:

1st "Beyond the Cherry Tree" by Joe O'Brien

2nd "There’s a boy in the Girls Bathroom" by Louis Sacar

3rd "The Firework Maker's Daughter" by Phillip Pullman

Everyone loved Joe O' Brien's book "Beyond the Cherry Tree" We were lucky enough to have a visit from Joe for one of our meetings where we got to quiz him on the characters and story. Louis Sacar and Philip Pullman were close and highly recommended as well

For our January meeting on the 15th we read "The Lion the witch and the wardrobe" by C.S Lewis

Four adventurous siblings—Peter, Susan, Edmund, and Lucy Pevensie—step through a wardrobe door and into the land of Narnia, a land frozen in eternal winter and enslaved by the power of the White Witch. But when almost all hope is lost, the return of the Great Lion, Aslan, signals a great change . . . and a great sacrifice.
The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe is the second book in C. S. Lewis's classic fantasy series, which has been drawing readers of all ages into a magical land with unforgettable characters for over sixty years.

Thanks to everyone who came along to our last meeting. We just want to say a goodbye to Charlotte who is going to be moving house, maybe  you can check out what we are reading through this blog.

"The lion the witch and the wardrobe" is a great read and  I think a lot of us really enjoyed this story. There are lots of interesting characters including the White Witch who was a favourite! Lucy first discovers the world of Narnia while hiding in a wardrobe in a big old house she and her brothers and sister have been sent to stay in during World War 2. She goes back and tells  Peter and Edmund and Susan all about it, but they don't believe her. Eventually they all get transported to Narnia through the wardrobe and find a magical land ruled by the evil White Witch!

The White Witch gives Edmund enchanted Turkish Delight to put a spell on him. We also had some magical Turkish delight of our own to get into the spirit of things ! Not everyone's favourite but fun to try

 

 

I also found some magical maps of Narnia in the library and in case anyone ever gets lost there we handed out copies

 

The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe is the second book in the Narnia series and some of us are going to try some of the other books. FYI many of the books have been made into movies.

 

Our book for next month is "The Firemaker's Daughter"  by Phillip Pullman, if anyone missed the last meeting and needs to pick up a copy please ask for it at the library desk. Our meeting next meeting  will be on  Thursday the 26th of February, see you then!