An English novelist known primarily for her children’s fiction, Ibbotson wrote this adventure story as a tribute to her late husband, who was a naturalist. It was identified as runner-up for the Guardian Children's Fiction Prize [1] and it made the shortlist for the Carnegie Medal; [2] the Whitbread Award, Children's Book; and the Blue Peter Book Award.

There were serious issues with the representation in this novel; racism, exoticism, and romanticism. And, just when you start to find your feet, Ibbotson sweeps the rug out from under you as her complex plot thickens. I think that it is important to critique these classics and recognise potential harmful elements/content that has not "aged well".I was also certain that the author had little knowledge/experience of the cultures she was harmfully and incorrectly depicting.

They all live with the Xanti for a time, until the police are alerted that they are missing and come to rescue them. It felt, as I said, as if it had been a book I'd read in my childhood but was even more wonderful reading it at my ( well into my fifties! I've gone back to this book every year right into adulthood and it never fails to thrill me utterly.The cousins are truly bad guys, with no redeeming qualities, but they're funny - the mother who attacks all insects with imported bug sprays, the twins who don't like each other, or anyone else, but are inseparable, the father who collects glass eyes of famous people. However, Maia, who Miss Minton eventually plans to take with her, does not know this and believes that she has been abandoned. It isn't until Maia's been in Brazil for a while that the story begins to come out of its predictable beginnings. At first, this looks like a fairly predictable orphaned-English-girl-gets-shipped-off-to-live-with-distant-relatives story. promises that all is not over for Maia and her companions, and that the rest of their lives beckons.

He uses his medicinal knowledge of plants to heal her leg wound and takes her away on his boat to go on the journey she had wished for before he left. Which Witch was runner-up for the Carnegie Medal and The Secret of Platform 13 was shortlisted for the Smarties Prize.Bright, passionate, adventurous, determined, and resourceful, Maia has great ambition and a talent for music. Their racism towards the Natives is also their downfall, as they are mocked by the tribes, refuse to change out of British attire and therefore overheat, and are easily deceived by Finn's charade towards the end of the novel due to their irrational prejudices.

Maia is an orphan who has been taught in an all girl’s boarding school in England for most of her life.Suitable for children working towards/at the expected standard in Y5/6, the questions are closely linked to the National Curriculum and therefore adequately develop their comprehension skills.