I read today that writer Eva Ibbotson died last week. She was one of my "discoveries" when I began reading childrens/YA books again as an adult. Ibbotson made her name with fantasy aimed at slightly younger readers like Which Witch? and Island of the Aunts, but I really liked some of her later stuff, particularly Star of Kazan, which is set in pre-war Vienna.A couple of things I didn't know about Ibbotson which I found out in the obit. She was born in 1925, which made her 85 when she died. (I never picture my favorite writers as old, somehow.) She published her first children's book at 50. (All right!) She was born in Vienna into a Jewish family which fled to England in 1933. She got a degree in physiology and studied at Cambridge. She married an entomologist. (I seem to recall butterflies playing a role in Journey to the River Sea, which is about the Amazon.)
I'm sorry we'll never see any future books from Ibbotson (unless she left some in manuscript.) And if you haven't read her, you have a delight in front of you.
2 comments:
I'd like to read that book. Great review. She must have had an interesting life. And, yes, it is encouraging to read that she was 50 when her first PB was published.
I'd like to read that book. Great review. She must have had an interesting life. And, yes, it is encouraging to read that she was 50 when her first PB was published.
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