We finally finished the very popular Secret of Platform 13 by Eva Ibbotson. Students were happily surprised at the ending (the details of which we can’t disclose here as we don’t want to ruin the surprise for anyone who hasn’t read this book yet).  But we can share that there were cheers, big smiles and celebrating in our room as we read aloud  the last two chapters 🙂 We had lots of laughter and some dramatic moments along the way but were very pleased to get a happy ending!

Eva Ibbotson wrote many books in her career. Sadly, she just passed away in October 2010 at the age of 85.

I think many students will be searching for new titles of hers to read on their own.  The two I want to read next:

Award winning, Journey to the River Sea is said to be a dramatic adventure about a lonely orphan named Maia who sails into the jungle to live with relatives she has never met. Living in the Amazon seems to have affected them in some very odd ways. . . . And why was it that they wanted Maia to live with them in the first place?

In The Star of Kazan, we meet Annika who is abandoned at birth and brought up in the house of three eccentric professors and their two servants. Then one day a woman arrives claiming that Annika is her long lost daughter and she is whisked away to live in a mansion in Germany. But soon Annika becomes suspicious about this new life . . .