The Star of Kazan is a novel written by Eva Ibbotson

Eva Ibbotson

Eva Ibbotson was an Austrian-born British novelist, known for her award-winning children's books as well as her novels for adults - several of which have been successfully reissued for the young adult readership in recent years.-Personal life:Eva Ibbotson was born Maria Charlotte Michelle Wiesner...

. It is about a child called Annika who was left as a baby just days old in a church. A cook and a housemaid took her home to the some peculiar professors who lived in Vienna.

It won the Nestlé Children's Book Prize

Nestlé Smarties Book Prize

The Nestlé Children's Book Prize, also known as the Nestlé Smarties Book Prize, was an annual award given to children's books written in the previous year by a UK citizen or resident. The prize was administered by Booktrust, an independent charity which promotes books and reading, and sponsored by...

 Silver Award and was shortlisted for the Carnegie Medal

Carnegie Medal

The Carnegie Medal is a literary award established in 1936 in honour of Scottish philanthropist Andrew Carnegie and given annually to an outstanding book for children and young adults. It is awarded by the Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals...

.

Plot summary

Two servants, Ellie and Sigrid were taking a walk when they discovered a baby abandoned in a church. A note came with the infant saying she was to be taken to a nunnery in Vienna , when Ellie and Sigrid find that they are in quarintine for typhoid ,they decided to take the baby and raise her as their own. They name her Annika after Ellie's Mother. Annika grows up as a servant in the house where Ellie and Sigrid work. So for Annika, life in Vienna was perfect. She had friends, Pauline and Stefan, and she loved her adopted family- (the three Professors, Ellie and Sigrid) very much. As she grows she finds that she has a talent for cooking , there for cooking The Christmas Eve Carp all on her own, coincidentally Ellie also shows talent for cooking. Annika was then asked by Loremarie Egghart (her enemy) to read to her great-aunt. Annika did so and the two became friends, telling each other about their lives. Loremarie's great aunt was a famous theatre personality and she had the stage name La Rondine. They were so close that the great-aunt left Annika her jewels when she died, unaware that they were real , she died thinking that the jewels were pastings of the real ones which she thought she sold. It turns out the person who sold them was in love witb La Rondine and paid what the jewels were worth out of his pocket.

Annika was happy, but sometimes wondered about the missing piece of the puzzle; the mystery of her real mother, and why she was abandoned. When a beautiful, rich Lady announces she is Annika’s long lost mother, Annika is delighted to meet her true family. She is taken back with her to Spittal in Germany, the family's estate,and meets her brother Hermann, her Uncle Oswald and her cousin Gudrun, but she doesn’t enjoy it. The mansion is derelict and gloomy; the walls are crumbling and the paint peeling. She meets a friendly Romany/gypsy boy called Zed who works on the farm and cares for Hermann's horse Rocco. Annika's Mother asked her to sign some important documents without really explaining them, then went to Zurich.( They turn out to be Annika signing over La Rondines Jewels , including her famous Star of Kazan, Annika remains unaware of what she has done ) When she came back she said a relative had died and left them lots of money,( but in true fact she has sold all of Annika's jewels) so Hermann could go to the army school that he wanted and Annika could have galoshes, which she buys a size too small, She was then sent away to a very harsh boarding school called Grossenfluss,for training young ladies, but the Professors, Ellie and Stefan manage to rescue her after discovering that a pupil died there ( she passed away by committing suicide but the police were not allowed to investigate and were told that it was an "accident"). She then discovers the true nature of her Mother and in the end discovers that her “mother” is a liar and a fraud. When Annika finds a picture of La Rondine and her love that was put at the bottom of the trunk containing the jewels there for revealing that the trunk as been opened. When she asks her mother she blames the theft of Zed. Zed flees to Vienna with Rocco , to tell the professors about his suspictions about Annika's mother. She manages to escape back home to Vienna, to those she loves. Later Pauline finds that Annika's mother didn't come to collect her , it was someone else. She runs to tell Annika as she is departing back to Spittal with her "mother" Annika jumps in to the river to escape from the fraud and she then wakes up back in her attic bedroom in the Professors house.

Characters

Some of the main characters are:
Annika, Ellie, Sigrid, Hector the dog, Professor Julius, Professor Emil, Professor Gertrude, Zed, Stefan, Pauline, Gudrun, Loremarie, Hermann, Rocco, and Edeltraut von Tanenberg.

Zedekiah (Zed)

Zed is a friendly gypsy boy who works for Edeltraut von Tannenberg for most of the book. He is the son of a horse dealer and descended from gypsies. His mother is dead and his father died trying to stop a fight when Zed was very little. Edeltraut von Tannenberg's father and the master at the time had ordered a horse for Zed's father before the father’s death so when the horse was delivered Zed came with it. The Master gave Zed a job and sent him to school. The horse, Rocco, was bought for the master's grandson, Hermann, but always preferred Zed and the Master decided to get his grandson another horse and give Rocco to Zed but the Master had a stroke before he could tell anyone. In the end Zed runs away, apparently stealing Rocco. Zed stops in Vienna to help his friend, Annika, and while there it is discovered that Rocco is really Zed's. In the end Zed and Rocco join the imperial riding school and train up to be in the show with Rocco as the emperor's horse and the only non-white horse allowed in the show. Nothing is officially said but Zed and Annika are hinted as being more than just friends as he gets angry when she suggests that he might marry someone else and he looks at her 'in a way that made her absurdly happy'. Also, when she suggests that they will never see each other again he denies it and 'puts his hand over hers for a moment as it rested on the parapet.'

Stefan

Stefan Bodek is the son of a poor washerwoman. His father is a groundsman in the Prater. He is the third of six brothers (and as mentioned in the book, the strongest). He was the one who dropped Professor Gertrude's concert grand harp and brought about the downfall of Grossenfluss. He did it on purpose because he never drops anything by accident. He wants to be an engineer but fears that he can't afford to study. At the end Annika pays for him to study with the money she received from the jewels.

Ellie

Ellie has worked for the Professors as their cook since she was 14 years old. She is a very good chef and so, it seems, were her mother and grandmother, from whom she had inherited a recipe book. Ellie often goes on walks in the countryside with Sigrid on their days off from work. On one such occasion, she happened to be wearing new boots and went into a local church to rest her sore feet. This was the moment when Annika was found and subsequently named after Ellie's mother. Even though Annika's official guardians are the Professors, Ellie serves as her maternal figure.And she "adopts" Annika as a baby.

Sigrid

Sigrid works for the Professors as a housemaid and is said to have very reliable hands as she never usually drops anything. She works well, but can be a little 'snappy' at times. Not much is known about Sigrid's family but it is mentioned that she had an uncle who ate an enormous amount of potatoes once and also hid behind a statue on his wedding night. Reasons for him doing these things are unknown. Sigrid is very good friends with Ellie and is a hardworking role model for Annika.

Pauline

Pauline is Annika and Stefan's friend who lives with her grandfather and helps him look after his bookshop.She is described as being a thin girl with black eyes and frizzy black hair. She loves reading books, but does not approve of aristocracy as is seen when Annika becomes a "von". She keeps a book with newspaper clippings about heroic people. She suffers from agoraphobia (the fear of new or public places), yet she is the one who discovers that Edeltraut is not Annika's mother.

The Professors

The professors are all siblings and have lived in the same house for all of their lives. None of them are married and are unlikely to be any time soon.

Professor Gertrude is the youngest and the only woman of the siblings. She plays the harp and is described as always smelling of lavender water. She suffers from cold feet and needs a hot water bottle to sleep. She may have poor sight, as it is said that the horses all look the same to her when she chooses the carriages to take her to harp recitals. Because of this, Annika's keen eyes pick for her. Also, she is very anxious sometimes, doesn't smile much and cares very much for the harp and always has bits of food on her skirt.

Professor Emil is the middle child. He has a "sensitive stomach" and cannot cope with spicy foods. He is an art expert and is able to tell who painted a picture by looking at the feet of its main subjects.

Professor Julius, who specialises in geology, is the eldest. He was once engaged but his bride died before they could be wed. He has a picture of her in his room and gets Annika to pick out and arrange flowers in front of the picture every morning.

Edeltraut von Tannenberg

Frau von Tannenberg is Annika's 'mother'. She is later found out to be a fraudster, trying to cheat Annika out of a trunk of priceless jewels.
Edeltraut has one sister, whose husband helps Edeltraut steal the jewels. Edeltraut's own husband gambled away all their money and fled to America, leaving Edeltraut to take care of their son, Hermann, alone. She is taking care of the family estate, called Spittal, until Hermann comes of age.

Hermann

Hermann is Edeltraut's son, and the heir to the family estate of Spittal. He constantly dreams of being in the army and, even when the family can't afford to send him to St. Xaviers, he still follows the timetable. When he does get to the school, he fails the initiation tests. He is called a coward and returns home to his mother, with plans of selling the family house and moving to Paris to study art, so he can become a painter. He cannot ride a horse properly. His cousin Gudrun is extremley fond of him but he

Loremarie

Loremarie is a snobby little girl whose father is very rich. She never really cared for her great aunt, formerly La Rondine, because she was old. Loremarie and her parents had always accused Annika of stealing the great box of jewels and old clothes and they always said,"It was OUR great aunt, so it's OUR trunk." Others had already strictly said the old woman had given it to Annika. Eventually, when the professors and Stefan and Pauline save Annika from being shipped off with her so called 'mother', it's Loremarie's father's yellow motorcar that gets them there.

Hector

Hector is a water spaniel who was bought for Hermann by his grandfather. Zed told Annika Hermann wanted to train Hector to be an army dog and not be scared of guns of explosions, so Hermann tied firecrackers onto Hectors leg and tail, Hectors tail went to fire and it spread down his leg and a spark went into his eye. Zed and Bertha had take Hector in even when Edeltraut said he should be put down. Hector was never returned to Hermann. Hector was blinded in one eye and lost one of his legs and most of his tail because of this. Edeltraut von Tannenberg wanted Hector put down but Zed saved him. Hector is described by Zed as being able to swim like a fish even with only three legs. Hector likes to collect items from the lake including his favourite sock suspender. When he picks up a leather with a photo of La Rondine inside, the truth begins to be revealed.

Gudrun

Gudrun is a rather pathetic looking girl who is the daughter of Edeltraut von Tannenberg's sister and cousin to Hermann, who she worships as a hero. Gudrun never seems to have enough new clothes and is described by her mother as having a weak chest. Annika was very genourous to her and gave her a new scarf. She has little independence and always wants whatever Hermann desires. Her most rebellious scene is when she misses Hermann and is jealous of Annika, because they have been sent to school and she hasn't, when she ignores her mother and tells Ellie and the Professors that Annika has been sent to a boarding school called Grossenfluss Gudrun is not very much evil as her mother but she seems desperatly longing for the clothes as Annika describes quite hugrly

Rocco

Rocco is a gentle bay coloured horse belonging to Zed. Although the Master bought him originally for Hermann, he changed his mind and left Rocco to Zed after having a stroke. In the end, Zed gets to go to the Spanish riding school and becomes a rider with Rocco as his horse. Rocco does tricks alongside all the other white horses because he is the new emperor's horse, which is traditionally a bay horse.