Maia is without a home. Her parents passed away in an accident and since then she has been a wealthy orphan girl compelled to spend her vacations alone at the Mayfair Academy for Young Ladies in London. And when Maia meets a mysterious boy who lives alone on the wild river shores, she begins a spectacular journey to the heart of an extraordinary and beautiful new world. Cleanliness: mentions a lady’s corset a couple of times. Mentions someone dying shortly after childbirth. A man collects human glass eyes - slightly disturbing. Mentions a witch doctor in passing. There are people/children who do bad things and there are consequences. Everything is righted in the end. There are a few somewhat intense scenes, one involving a fire and a house burning down.

A very fun read. Eva Ibbotson has become one of my favorite writers recently. She's a British author who was born in Vienna and emigrated to England as a child in the early 30s. I raced through her adult historical fiction/romances (which are currently being re-released as YA) and enjoyed all of them, even though I was familiar her plot pattern by the third book. Although Maia is looking forward to the adventures she is going to have, she is a little bit apprehensive. Before she travels she spends a lot of time researching in the school library and imagining what her exotic new life will be like. On the long sea voyage she meets Clovis, a boy actor with a travelling theatre troupe who are due to perform in the grand opera house in Manaus. She also gets to know Miss Minton who insists on teaching her some Portuguese to prepare her for living in Brazil. Eva Ibbotson (born Maria Charlotte Michelle Wiesner) was a British novelist specializing in romance and children's fantasy. I was pleased with all of the main characters and their development, and thought the book held some great practical and down to earth lessons too. Perhaps the natives and their lifestyle was a little too romanticized, and the investigators stereotyped into their typical bumbling personalities, but it seemed to work for the book.

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I enjoyed this through and through, and somewhere in the second half it sailed from a 3-star rating to a 4-star one. I think it’s because, by the mid-point, almost all the events that an adult reader would predict have happened, and from then on it’s all about seeing how everything plays out and, most important, seeing Maia in her element: While Maia doesn't get along with her cousins, she has the company of her sympathetic, but mysterious, governess, and she makes friends with the local Indians who work for her cousins. She also becomes friends with a boy about her age whose European father recently died and who plans to go deeper into the interior of Brazil to find his Indian mother's people. Maia desperately wants to go on this adventure too, and, eventually, she does. Ibottson began writing with the television drama 'Linda Came Today', in 1965. Ten years later, she published her first novel, The Great Ghost Rescue. Ibbotson has written numerous books including The Secret of Platform 13, Journey to the River Sea, Which Witch?, Island of the Aunts, and Dial-a-Ghost. She won the Nestlé Smarties Book Prize for Journey to the River Sea, and has been a runner up for many of major awards for British children's literature. Maia herself is a charming protagonist. She’s resourceful, she’s intelligent and kind – I just adored her character. But while Maia might feel like what could only be described as a typically “classic” heroine don’t make the mistake of confusing her for a Mary Sue. Ibbotson rounds her character’s determined resourcefulness with flaws. Maia can be impulsive and her curious nature often leads her into scrapes. But it’s Maia’s determination, her ability to look for the best in people that makes her such a lovable heroine. Journey to the River Sea is just the kind of book I loved reading as a child. It is set in the late 19th century (I've always enjoyed those books more than the ones set in more recent times) and is an adventure story with strong female characters and intelligent kids.

She was born in Vienna, Austria, in 1925. When Hitler came into power, her family moved to England. She attended Bedford College, graduating in 1945; Cambridge University from 1946-47; and the University of Durham, from which she graduated with a diploma in education in 1965. Ibbotson had intended to be a physiologist, but was put off by the amount of animal testing that she would have to do. Instead, she married and raised a family, returning to school to become a teacher in the 1960s. Ibbotson was widowed with three sons and a daughter.

Some of the books, particularly Journey to the River Sea, also reflect Ibbotson's love of nature. Ibbotson wrote this book in honor of her husband (who had died just before she wrote it), a former naturalist. The book had been in her head for years before she actually wrote it. But then Maia meets Finn, a wild boy in a canoe…..a boy who’s wrapped in mystery and adventure and who will soon take Maia on an unforgettable trip into the fantastic and magical rainforest. The characters are given flesh and bones in the most beautiful, solid writing. Not a word wasted, not a phrase that didn't enhance the story. Descriptions of the places and people formed magnificently clear pictures. The characters did not change and blow about in the wind and I really liked their solidness. It fit the story perfectly.