I picked up The Star of Kazan at the library on spec. It looked interesting, and I’d heard of Ms. Ibbotson, but I’d never read any of her books. (If you want more about Eva Ibbotson, Austrian-born, British writer of both children’s and adult books, here’s a delightful Guardian interview with her. She starts out cranky and ends up reflective.)

A foundling, Austrian professors, Viennese cooking, a bookshop, the Lippizaner stallions, a castle, a mysterious trunk full of costumes and fake jewels. These are some of the elements that make up this adventure story set in early twentieth century Vienna and Germany. It’s not really a fantasy, but it feels a little fairy-tale-ish.

Annika, the foundling who is the story’s heroine, loves her life in Vienna as the adopted daughter of servants, Ellie and Sigrid, and the adopted “niece” of the three professors for whom Ellie and Sigrid work. However, as a found child, Annika does imagine what it would be like to have her birth mother sweep into the house and claim her as a beloved, long lost daughter.

Then, one day it happens! And Annika’s mother and her new-found family are both more and less exciting and wonderful than her imagination could have dreamed.

The story sort of reminded me of Frances Hodgson Burnett’s The Little Princess, one of my favorite tales when I was a girl. Annika, like Sara Crewe, is either a princess or a penniless orphan or something in-between. And Annika and Sara, as their fortunes rise and fall, are throughout both books rather Pollyanna-like, almost always humble and servant-like and joyful.

I think I would have had a great big noisy fit somewhere in there. Which shows that when it comes to living up to my fictional ideals, I don’t.