Journey to the River Sea

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With the opening extract included, this comprehension resource includes questions and answers for this classic text by Eva Ibbotson. What a lovely adventure / coming-of-age story! Maia is a strong female character – intelligent, kind, generous, brave, resourceful and loyal. I loved how she reserved judgment until she was certain of the facts, and even when faced with greedy, spiteful people she maintained her dignity and, with the help of Miss Minton, found a way around obstacles. Her willingness to explore and learn about the native culture was also a fine lesson. And I liked the way Ibbotson made heroes out of some unlikely characters. 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. I've been thinking a lot about how children's fiction can play a role in the moral development of a child. Ibbotson writes in a variety of genres, but even her most humorous and farcical stories always have a particular moral clarity about them. She reminds me of Dahl in that way. The baddies are lazy, selfish, greedy, grasping -- and usually rich. The goodies are kind, honest, brave, resourceful, modest and hardworking. They yearn for connectedness, not things. There were girls at school who wanted to ride, and others who wanted to go on the stage, and there was a girl who had made a terrible fuss till she was allowed to learn the oboe – not the flute, not the clarinet, it had to be the oboe. They knew that these things were for them; and Maia knew that boats were for her. Boats, and going on and on and not arriving unless one wanted to.”

Hi! I made this when I was teaching the novel as a mixture between a classroom novel and home project, so I didn't make resources for the missing parts. Sorry! comprehension questions on the opening of *Journey to the River Sea. An ideal activity for Key Stage 3 classes who are studying the novel or as a stand-alone comprehension task. There is a foreword and a note from the author at the beginning of my book. The former explains the significance of this author (I had never heard of her before), the latter is she herself telling us what made her write this book.

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. In my initial review, I talked about how the novel was quite flat and very slow-paced. There were serious issues with the representation in this novel; racism, exoticism, and romanticism. I do not feel that the author represented their culture fairly and accurately (due to the problematic content). I vividly remember writing something in my review about the writing being very 'armchair'-esque. It reminded me of the days where Western anthropologists would sit comfortably in their homes writing about people from other cultures, obviously not very fairly and in a very "Othering" manner. I think that I may have also mentioned themes of colonialism and "white saviourism"? I was also certain that the author had little knowledge/experience of the cultures she was harmfully and incorrectly depicting. Not to say that you cannot write outside of your own experience, but this is not how you do it. 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. I’d give the book 4.5 stars, maybe even 5, but the writing/divulgence of the plot was a little too simplistic. I know that sounds petty, and possibly even is, but I actually think the author could have done better and that the book itself somehow called for more depth/delivery. 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:

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. I like that Ibbotson shows an equally valid desire in the decidedly less adventurous but certainly realistic Clovis, who yearns for the…ahem…creature comforts of England. His cravings for shape and other “stodgy puddings” made me laugh. 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.Nevertheless, Maia is the typical heroine of such a story: brave, positive, full of life and cheer and good manners. So it doesn't take her long to make friends elsewhere. 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. 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. In Ibbotson's attempt to invoke racial discussions, there was further, assumedly, unintended racism. This undermines the intent of the novel and plays further into the "saviourism" trope. Ibbotson is also not exactly an authority figure when discussing racism against Brazilians and South American Natives. Although, I appreciate the critique of Western/British colonial heritage and imbedded racism/white supremacy in Western cultures.

I have never read this, but it looks very interesting and I will definitely read it! It looks like my kind of book. Besides, many reviewers say that the book was amazing, and one even said that it has some romance in it, even more my style! I look forward to reading it. 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. Eva Ibbotson's style of writing about her characters, where she often seems to leave things unsaid, somehow makes the characters seem even more real because you use your own imagination to fill out some of the details. This was a very original book, the setting, the characters and the plot were all unusual but incredibly engaging. I highly recommend this book to anyone, I would give it 10 out of 10.Suitable for children working towards/at the expected standard in Y5/6, the questions are closely linked to the National Curriculum and therefore adequately develop their comprehension skills. It can be used as a guided reading text, an assessment piece or as an introduction to the text in general. 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. I hated this book as a child, and basically, my re-read as an adult solidified this. I can understand why I did not like it. I feel it was also very forgettable. All I remember was the harmful content and little else about the storyline.