Journey to the River Sea

I read this recently to the Wee One and we LOVED it! It is by Eva Ibbotson who I had not heard of in spite of her having been writing for much of the 20th C. What we missed! I managed to find a deal by the Book People and bought three books; Journey to the River Sea, The Dragonfly Pool and the Star of Kazan (the last one being currently read.)

Journey to the River Sea is a story about an orphaned English girl who is taken to the Amazon to live with relatives. She is hoping for a loving family and adventure. She does not find the former but she does experience the latter! Maia falls in love with the rain forest and finds friends in her surprising governess Miss Minton, and a boy called young Finn, who like Maia is orphaned.

The Wee One and I had a lot of conversations about why the characters felt the way the did. Reading aloud can lead to all sorts of discussions. Eva Ibbotson gives a lot of description and the stories are very evocoative of place. One learns a lot and there are plenty of opportunities to build on what you read to learn a bit more about Brazil and historical travelling and the flora and fauna of a very different country.  We looked up a few photos of animals that were mentioned and we looked at a map of South America but to be honest we were enjoying the story so much and getting so much from it that I didn't push the experience to be any sort of unit study.

The writing was at times a bit verbose for a 7 year old, but she listened and was constantly asking me to read- which we did for a few weeks as it is a long story.  We also had a few conversations about why so many stories for children that we have read have got protagonists who are orphaned or away from their parents?  Pippi Longstocking, The Secret Garden, The Little Princess, The Chronicles of Narnia, Five Children and It, etc. I like how reading leads us to have these discussions and talk about the wider world. That is why it is my favourite thing to do with the Wee One!

I would recommend this book to be read aloud to 6 - 12 year olds. I think it is targeted to 9 - 12 year olds but some of mine would have enjoyed it well into their teens.

Comments

Popular Posts