A Song for Summer
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List Price:
$8.99
Austria Hotels Travel Price: $8.99
Subject To Change Without Notice
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Manufacturer: Puffin
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Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 823.914
EAN: 9780142408667
ISBN: 0142408662
Label: Puffin
Manufacturer: Puffin
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 416
Publication Date: 2007-05-10
Publisher: Puffin
Reading Level: Young Adult
Studio: Puffin
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Editorial Reviews:
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Eighteen-year-old ellen never expected the Hallendorf school to be, well, quite so unusual. After all, her life back in england with her suffragette mother and liberated aunts certainly couldn’t be called normal. but buried deep in the beautiful Austrian countryside, ellen discovers an eccentric world occupied by wild children and even wilder teachers, experimental dancers and a tortoise on wheels. And then there is the particurally intriguing, enigmatic, and very handsome Marek, part-time gardener and fencing teacher. ellen is instantly attracted to the mysterious gardener, but Hitler’s reich is already threatening their peaceful world. only when she discovers Marek’s true identity and his dangerous mission does ellen realize the depth of her feelings for him—and the danger their newfound love faces in the shadow of war.
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Spotlight customer reviews:
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Customer Rating: 
Summary: Angieville: A SONG FOR SUMMER
Comment: Set in Austria and London just before and during World War II, A SONG FOR SUMMER follows a young woman named Ellen Carr who takes a job as a housekeeper at an unusual private school in the Austrian Alps. I knew this book and I would get on when Ellen first arrived at Schloss Hallendorf to find a tortoise on wheels speeding across the lawn.
"It's Achilles," said Sophie. "His back legs were paralyzed and he was dragging himself along. We thought we'd have to have him destroyed and then Marek came and made him those wheels."
Soon after the well-equipped tortoise, Ellen encounters Professor Chomsky who teaches metalwork and swims naked in the lake at all hours, Professor Ritter who teaches drama and encourages the children to be kitchen utensils and to give birth to themselves, and a cabbage-person from an English mining village masquerading as a Russian ballerina. These delightful, at time hilarious, side characters bring a wonderful flavor and variety to the novel as, one by one, they are drawn into the bright circle of Ellen's influence. There is humor, danger, romance, and a beautiful longing for the world as it was and as it should be among the pages of this book. Ibbotson's light, lyrical writing flowed through each chapter, like the glissandi and grace notes of the music that is so central to its theme. And at is core is Ellen, a girl who is both strong and domestically inclined. The daughter and niece of dyed in the wool suffragettes, she is independent and smart and firmly chooses baking over marching. And, as so many of the characters do, reading this book means falling in love with her.
This was my first Eva Ibbotson book and I can't tell you how much I enjoyed it. I have to say, finding a fabulous debut author is a delightful experience. But is there anything that compares with the tingle of discovering a wonderful established author, who already has six or seven books out there ready and waiting and in paperback? Nope, nothing comes to mind.
Customer Rating:
Summary: The Compulsive Reader's Reviews
Comment: As the daughter and niece of three of Britain's most powerful and influential women in the late 1930's, Ellen's future and options are limitless. But instead of attending Oxford, she shocks her mother and aunts by enrolling into a cooking and housekeeping academy, and then accepts a position as a school matron at Hallendorf School, in Austria. Hallendorf is far different than any boarding school that Ellen's ever known. The teachers and students are free spirited, lively, and dramatic. But most mysterious is the gardener, Marek. Marek is plagued by years of guilt, and Hallendorf school is just a cover for a secret mission that he is driven to accomplish...one that he might not be able to complete without Ellen's help.
Ibbotson's spirited voice rings true in this enrapturing novel with a varied and colorful cast of characters and a complex and multilayered plotline. Though the ever changing points of view and lack of extensive elaboration on many subjects may disorient the reader slightly, A Song for Summer exudes a relaxed and comfortable air that makes it simple for the reader to step into the time period and setting and experience every wonderfully depicted detail with Ibbotson's clever use of imagery. Her smooth delivery builds up suspense on every page, making each sentence of this realistic and frank novel all that more enjoyable, culminating in a tasteful and artfully crafted masterpiece.
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Summary: Share your opinion
Comment: Evoking idyllic childhoods with a glamour unsurpassed, the magic of Ibbotson's vison is such that I reapprise my own child-rearing patterns.
That children treated with true empathy - neither indulged nor coddled yet given every opportunity to flourish will become wonderful adults is an aspiration I hold dear.
In reflecting upon what sort of childhood I want to provide for my children and what I am doing to give it, I have become aware of a great selfishness heretofore unnoticed.
Positive attention & interactive pursuits are what children crave most. Mulling over the story I realise that my most revered & beloved authors all provide the same admirable characteristics for their hero's & heroines.
Thus there is a strong similarity between seemingly disparate authors - Ibbotson, Loretta Chase Lord Perfect (Berkley Sensation), Patricia VeryanMandarin of Mayfair (Georgian Romance), Patricia C. Wrede Mairelon the Magician (The Magician), Diana Wyne Jones Charmed Life, Cameron DokeyThe Storyteller's Daughter.
Their writing rings so true, dialogue makes you love characters even more.
Therefore their writing inspires & improves.
In a bohemian landscape of pre-Nazi Chechzlovakia, Ellen is engaged as a matron/housekeeper.
As she improves the lives of all around her by means of sensible intelligence and pragmatic kindness, there is a slow symphonic love story gathering momentum in the gentle movements of the story.
Ibbotsons erudite reality provides wonderful inspiration for all.
ALthough this novel is by no means beyond young readers, adults who dismiss this book, & Ibbotson in particular,j are missing a wonderfully enriching & rewarding experience.
Kot 2008
Customer Rating:
Summary: A curl-up-by-the-fire-with-a-pot-of-tea treat
Comment: The first Eva Ibbotson books I ever read were her ghost stories such as Dial-A-Ghost and The Great Ghost Rescue. Her humor and sly writing caused me to shout with laughter. Journey to the River Sea and The Star of Kazan took me back to my childhood reading of Noel Streatfield and Frances Hodgson Burnett.
I was interested to see her adult fiction showing up in the YA sections of the bookstores. This is a perfect "vacation" book. The story of Ellen and her gift for "life making" was utterly and deliciously satisfying.
As the daughter and niece of notorious suffragettes, Ellen could have had a brilliant future as a political leader, an eminent scholar or scientist. But she found true happiness cooking with grandfather's housekeeper and "doing things with her hands." Instead of finishing college she graduated from a school of cooking and household management and found a job as a housekeeper and house mother at a boarding school in Austria.
Eccentric teachers, needy children and a handy-man who is actually a world famous composer are living, working and learning together at an "innovative school" housed in the dilapidated Schloss Hallendorf. Ellen's healing presence improves all their lives even as the threat of Nazism and WWII looms. Ibbotson fills the story with rich supporting characters who each deserve a book of their own and takes the storyline in many directions before bringing all the threads back together again at the end.
There is a decorous romance along with good food, gardens and music that make the book a curl-up-by-the-fire-with-a-pot-of-tea treat. I read a passage like the following and I'm ready to book a trip to England.
"If only it had rained, she thought afterward...but all that weekend the Lake District preened itself, the air as soft as wine, a silken sheen lay on the waters of Crowthorpe Tarn, and when she climbed the hill where the hikers had perished she saw a view to make her catch her breath. In Kendrick's woods the bluebells lay, like a lake; there were kingfishers in the stream..."
Ibbotson's low key humor punctuates the storyline.
"And then, because they were both Englishwomen and their hearts were somewhat broken, they turned back into the room and put on the kettle and made themselves a cup of tea."
I can't make a trip to England or Austria but now that I've finished the book, I feel like I have already been there.
Customer Rating:
Summary: There Are Masters of Literature-And Then There Is Eva Ibbotson
Comment: Finally! The highly acclaimed author Eva Ibbotson, (whose books were reviewed decades ago to justifiable superlatives of every sort known to readers everywhere have returned to print). No one writes like Ms. Ibbotson or perhaps ever will. "A Song For Summer, A Novel" will be among the best books you have ever had the honor (and I sincerely mean this...*honor*) to read and own. I do not know of any other author who creates such profoundly deep and complicated characters amid a sentence or two (when reader first meets the heroes and villains) creating the lightest of anecdotes that utterly defines them for one of the best stories you have ever read in your life. Also, in this masterpiece, I would defy anyone to match a wow-of-an-ending that will live as long as you do. In troubled times like ours, we all need a novel like "A Song For Summer" (certainly grand for all ages) not just because it is penned by this unique master of literature; or a fantastically appropriate summer book - but because the novel is so utterly gorgeous from its opening line, to the last sigh - conveying that Ms. Ibbotson brilliantly understands how to utilize art itself to keep us sane when seemingly one's world has gone beyond awry to the virtual reality of insane. I can only thank Amazon.com for bringing back books like this one and making it available at a giveaway price for the treasure it is, and always has been...beyond priceless.
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