Ratings

Content Ratings based on a 0-5 scale where
0 = no objectionable content and
5 = an excessive or disturbing level of content

Guide to Rating System

LANGUAGE

VIOLENCE

SEXUAL CONTENT

ADULT THEMES

Ratings Explanation

Violence: Hermann attaches fireworks to the dog’s tail. The dog loses a leg and partial eyesight. Stefan pushes a harp down the stairs at Grossenfluss, a boarding school, and critically injures the cruel headmistress. A young boy is saved from near trampling by a horse.

Sexual Content: Frau von Tannenberg falsely claims to have rapidly met and married Annika’s father, who deserts his young pregnant wife only weeks after their marriage. Frau von Tannenberg often travels with her brother-in-law, Oswald, much to her sister’s disdain.

Adult Themes: The Eggharts, a wealthy Vienna family, resist caring for their elderly aunt. The aunt, a former Parisian Chorus Girl was nicknamed “La Rondine”. The Eggharts begrudgingly comply and the great-aunt is given an ascetic space in which to live her last months. Frau von Tannenberg deceives Annika, an orphan, as she claims to be her long-lost mother. Unbeknownst to Annika, Frau von Tannenberg is a con artist who uses unscrupulous methods to steal Annika’s inheritance. Annika is completely unaware of her inheritance from “La Rondine”. Frau von Tannenberg sells a few jewels, rapidly spends the money, and hides the remaining jewels in a vault in Zurich. Frau von Tannenberg then sends Annika to Grossenfluss, an inhumane boarding school for unwanted girls of the aristocracy. Girl #126 commits suicide at Grossenfluss, and the police are not allowed to investigate the girl’s death properly.

Synopsis

Ellie and Sigrid, a housemaid and a cook, discover an abandoned baby girl in a village church while hiking in the Austrian Alps.  They raise Annika in the home of three eccentric professors in Vienna, where they are employed.  Annika is loved. However, she yearns for her mother.  Annika has an opportunity to make money reading to her wealthy neighbor’s great aunt.  She befriends “La Rondine” and soon it is not a job at all, but a pleasure to visit with the older woman.  When “La Rondine” dies, she bequeaths her possessions to Annika.  Annika is completely unaware of the inheritance.  Frau von Tannenberg arrives to claim Annika as her daughter.  Annika leaves Vienna and returns with her mother to Germany, to the ancestral home, which is a castle that has fallen into great disrepair.  Annika is not permitted to attend school or work due to her new aristocratic status.  She grows increasingly homesick.  Annika befriends Zed, the stable boy.  Hermann, her step-brother, is showered with attention and gifts.   Frau von Tannenberg steals her inheritance and lavishes the riches upon her son, Hermann.   Annika is then sent to Grossenfluss, a boarding school.  The Professors, Stefan, and Ellie rescue Annika and bring her back to Vienna.  Pauline and The Professors unravel the mystery surrounding Annika’s so-called “mother” and the stolen inheritance.

At 403 pages, this is a very quick read. Although, I am convinced the story could have been pared down.  I enjoyed the interesting character names and setting of the early 1900’s in Austria-Hungary and The German Empire. Ibbotson’s descriptions of Viennese cuisine were divine. Strudel anyone? This book is extremely mild in all categories. I recommend this book to young readers Grades 4-8.

©2009 The Literate Mother