Customer Reviews
Superb Adventure Story - By: Well Read, 20 Jun 2008 
Based on customer's positive reviews, I bought Journey to the Riversea for a 12 year old girl. Making the unusual decision to read the book first, has turned out to be a compelling, riveting read. I thoroughly enjoyed & agonised, wondering what was going to happen next. I'm now an Eva Ibbotson fan. This superbly written adventure story, with its unexpected twists & turns, happily kept me awake for most a night. An avid reader since childhood, I loved this story & the characters, the exception being the ghastly Carter twins & their parents. I'm not only satisfied the 12 year old will be as thrilled as I am with the book, I now have The Dragonfly Pool. I see no reason why at my grandmother age, I should miss out on the best of children's literature. Especiallly those with a good moral story for young people.
An absorbing and charming book, with a wonderfully positive message - By: Mr. T. Day, 09 Apr 2008 We bought this for our 8 year old daughter, to expand her literary horizons beyond the typical Daisy Meadows/Enid Blyton fare that girls & boys of her age get so easily hooked on. It was recommended by a friend. I read it on a flight from Bombay to London & found it so absorbing that I barely noticed the time (or the plane) fly. It's a charming & inspiring read, transporting the young (and mature) reader to another time & place (thankfully free of computers, mobile phones & other scourges of the modern age). And beyond being a damn good read - with fine prose & a clever plot - it carries a wonderfully positive message for young readers about how to live their lives: to open their minds to new experience, to enjoy the adventure & discovery that is living, to trust people (within reason)and to treat them with respect & kindness, to behave with humility & dignity themselves. Youngsters need throw away their mobiles & their ipods, turn off their Play Stations & their TVs & read more books like this. If only.
The sort of book that childhood was made for - By: P. M. Fernandez, 08 Oct 2007 
This was recommended to me by a friend as being suitable for a bright 10-13 year old child. Naturallly, I read it as well, since I am old enough & with broad enough tastes not to be bothered about what people think about me reading a children's book.
It is another orphan's adventure. Here, the intelligent, life-loving Maia finds herself taken from London to be "cared" for by distant relatives in Manaus, Brazil, who are actuallly only interested in the money she has been left, & who do their best to make her life miserable. There are two other orphans, as well - Clovis & Finn. All three have to act beyond their years to find themselves the place in life that they are looking for.
The setting & the culture of Amazonia, & the extraordinary place that was Manaus at the turn of the century (a golden opera house a thousand miles up the Amazon river!) is captured beautifully, & Ibbotson sharply observes the cabin fever & eventual disintegration of Maia's new "family", who loathe their location, & treat it & the people around them with immense disrespect. The twist in the tail was a little too obvious for a mature reader, which is why I only gave the book four stars. However, this is an excellent book for a readerly child to lose himself or (more likely) herself in for a few days.
sle-reader - By: slea-reader, 03 Jul 2007 this is a fabulous read, i have read more than once, a good read for you if you are about to embark on a great adventure like emigrating or going on a holiday of discovery, it will remind you why you wanted to go in ways you can't imagine, & if you don't reallly want to go but have no choice maybe it will entice you. i am thirty someting & my son is 12 & he loved it too, but wouldn't take it to school cos of the cover!!!!!!!!!
incredible - - By: Beverley Tankel, 10 Dec 2006 I do not usuallly read, but for some reason decided to read this book. I gripped me quickly, & was easy to read. The magic of Mia was enchanting, I could not put it down. I have now read it many, many times, but the magic of the new places still remains sacred... a must read x
