A Song for Summer - Eva Ibbotson

Advantages: very funny, timeless classic
Disadvantages: when the story ends

...The Great Ghost Rescue by Eva Ibbotson was one of my favourite books as a child and I have just been reminded of it by someone in my life and I thought I would just have write a review. The Great Ghost Rescue centres around the main character of Humphrey the Horrible (who is a ghost) and his family. They are all ghosts of one description or another. His mother is a ghost hag, his father is a scottishman with a sword sticking out of his chest, his brother is a screaming skull and his sister is a girl who is constantly chasing a bowl that she can never catch to wash the bloodstains out of her clothes. The family are living within an old castle happily until one day Aunt Hortensia of the family comes and brings them some terrible news that many ghosts around are being forced... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful

Advantages: Beautifully written with a realistic historical setting
Disadvantages: Heroine is frustrating at times and plot is sometimes unrealistic

...The Morning Gift is a beautifully written and sentimental book that any teenage girl would enjoy reading. Eva Ibbotson does not always take the reading ability of her audience into account, however, and this book is a classic example of this. It uses uses very difficult language and some very old-fashioned words which might put some teenage readers off. The plot is also overly saccharine and the heroine was, I found, difficult to like at times and her actions were often frustratingly difficult to comprehend. I often found myself saying 'why on earth did she do that??' at various points throughout the book! If you are looking for a sweet love story set within a fascinatingly realistic historical context, however, this book shouldn't fail to please.... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average somewhat helpful

Advantages: Funny, emotional, extremely descriptive, moving
Disadvantages: NONE!

...If you have read any of Isabel's books before, you will already be familiar with the colour, imagination and raw emotion she breathes into each of her characters! It is impossible to read Eva Luna with an English accent - even if you've not been, you acquire a Latin-American accent as you eagerly leaf through the book's pages! This is a story about struggle, love, life, laughter with a twist of hilarity and a pang of humility. This is the story of Eva Luna, who is born into the working classes. But far from being poor, she is rich in imagination and learns to get by and win people's affections by telling them stories (you have to understand that being able to tell stories that are interesting and magical is a very rare commodity indeed in Eva's world). As a survivor, Eva will need this later on in life (and in the book) when... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average somewhat helpful