The Star of Kazan

Eva Ibbotson was born in Vienna, but spent her early childhood travelling backwards and forwards across Europe between the homes of her father, a scientist, and her mother, a novelist and playwright, who separated when she was three. When the Nazis came to power, her family fed to England and she was sent to boarding school. She planned to become a physiologist, but hated doing experiments on animals, and was rescued from some fierce rabbits by her husband-to-be. She became a writer while bringing up her four children, and her bestselling novels for both adults and children have been published around the world. She lives in Newcastle.

The Star of Kazan won the Nestlé Silver Award and was shortlisted for the Carnegie Medal.

Journey to the River Sea won the Nestlé Gold Award, was runner-up for the Whitbread Children’s Book of the Year and the Guardian Children’s Fiction Award, and was shortlisted for the Carnegie Medal. Anne Fine, then Children’s Laureate, said of it: ‘Any reader presented with this book will be enriched for life.’

For more information about Eva Ibbotson and her

books visit: www.bebo.com/evaibbotson

and www.panmacmillan.com/evaibbotson

Books by Eva Ibbotson

The Dragonfly Pool

The Star of Kazan

Journey to the River Sea

The Beasts of Clawstone Castle

The Great Ghost Rescue

Which Witch?

The Haunting of Hiram

Not Just a Witch

The Secret of Platform 13

Dial a Ghost

Monster Mission

For older readers

A Song for Summer

The Secret Countess

The Morning Gift

Praise for The Star of Kazan:

‘Every bit as compelling as . . . Journey to the River Sea. An ingeniously plotted story, with a compelling sense of character and place’

The Times

‘Eva Ibbotson creates a marvellous world of rich and poor, kind and unkind, young and old against a background of Viennese convention. The Star of Kazan is a heartwarming, old-fashioned adventure . . . as absorbing as Ibbotson’s prize-winning Journey to the River Sea’

Julia Eccleshare, Guardian

‘Eva Ibbotson is one of our most enjoyable writers for the young. She tells stories with humour, warmth and perfect clarity in a way that children follow completely . . . Ibbotson builds her story with cliffhanging chapter endings . . . on the way we fall, not only for the heroine and her friends but for the real city of Vienna and its Lipizzaner horses, big wheel and irresistible pastries. The book, too, is delicious’

Sunday Times Children’s Book of the Week

‘This is a great big fat engrossing read. It draws you in and won’t let you go until the last page is turned and the last sigh is sighed’

Books for Keeps

‘Eva Ibbotson is writing better than ever . . . The Star of Kazan . . . should pick up more prizes’

Independent

‘Fans of Eva’s last novel, Journey to the River Sea, will be glad to know she’s back and on top form . . . An amazing adventure that will launch you into a Viennese whirl!’

Sunday Times (‘Funday Times’)

‘[The Star of Kazan] eschews magic . . . Ibbotson excels at describing not only the world of the senses but that of the heart . . . Ibbotson’s genius is for creating people (and animals) whom you instantly recognize and love’

The Times

‘The bookshops are crammed with children’s titles, but where is the quality in all that quantity? Amid the flurries of new titles, what do you choose? This summer the problem is solved. Ibbotson has written a new novel, The Star of Kazan’

Dina Rabinovitch, Guardian

‘A fabulously satisfying read’

Sunday Telegraph

‘This is a solidly traditional piece of story-telling . . . There is more to the book than a good story, expertly told’

Times Educational Supplement

‘This is a beautiful, simply written and enchanting story that will keep you in suspense until the very end. An excellent read’

Publishing News

‘The Star of Kazan weighs in at an impressive 380 pages, and that is important because when you are presented with story-telling of this calibre, you simply never want it to end’

Lindsey Fraser, Bookseller

EVA

IBBOTSON

MACMILLAN CHILDREN’S BOOKS

First published 2004 by Macmillan Children’s Books

This edition published 2008 by Macmillan Children’s Books

This electronic edition published 2008 by Macmillan Children’s Books

a division of Macmillan Publishers Limited

20 New Wharf Rd, London N1 9RR

Basingstoke and Oxford

Associated companies throughout the world

www.panmacmillan.com

ISBN 978-0-330-47741-3 in Adobe Reader format

ISBN 978-0-330-47740-6 in Adobe Digital Editions format

ISBN 978-0-330-47742-0 in Mobipocket format

Copyright © Eva Ibbotson 2004

The right of Eva Ibbotson to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by her in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.