Rosa by Starlight by Hilary McKay

Such is the power of a story like Rosa by Starlight I had to keep putting this book down to take a break because I was so worried about young Rosa. Her despicable aunt and uncle most certainly mean to harm her. Yes I do mean murder her!

When Rosa was four her parents were killed in an accident. The kindly neighbors tried to look after her but they were elderly and she was so young. There was great relief when an aunt and uncle arrived. Now Rosa would be cared for. But who are these people? The aunt locks Rosa in her room each night. They empty the house of all clutter and memories. Rosa loved the apple tree in her garden. They chop it down. Rosa loves to read an old book of fairy tales left by her parents. Her aunt throws it away. I can hear you gasping. Luckily Rosa is a brave and resourceful girl. She learns how to climb out of her bedroom and takes solace in the quiet evenings and star filled sky. She is also able to retrieve her precious book each time it is taken. Rosa does have one friend - the cat from next door named Balthazaar.

The aunt and uncle sell fake grass (although no one is allowed to use that term). They have a plan to grow rich by selling their product all over the world and so that is why Rosa finds herself in Venice. Her aunt and uncle deposit her in an old rundown hotel - they stay somewhere else. No one speaks English but the owners of the hotel are very kind. Rosa is lonely in Venice but she does find some cats for company. Then comes the scene where she stumbles upon her Aunt and Uncle on the Rialto Bridge. 

"I believe there is a very strong current under the centre of the bridge. If we both take one arm, do you think we could manage?' ... Their voices were so calm, do detached, that Rosa couldn't believe what she was hearing. Was it a dream? Was it a joke? Why was her uncle peering earnestly over the parapet? ... 'All being well, our troubles will simply vanish, so let us make haste, my sweet."

Have you worked this out?  They plan to throw Rosa off the bridge. Luckily magic takes over ... 

Orphans in stories like this usually have to suffer some hardship - think of The Willoughbys; the children in A Series of Unfortunate Events; and The Unadoptables. But unlike these examples, where I knew the orphan or orphans would be okay - the dangers she faces and potential murder of young Rosa felt so very real - I was living in this story set in Venice with all the twisting alleys and the threat of falling into the dangerous waters of the canal. 

Bookseller blurb: Rosa lives in a world where she discovers there is magic. It arrives with Balthazar, a large black cat, just when she needs it most. Even so, it takes all her courage to stay hopeful and adventurous when her dreadful aunt and uncle move into her life. And when she finds herself abandoned in the ancient city of Venice, can magic help her then? Perhaps it can. The stars are watching, and there are lots of cats in Venice.

Reading a review of Rosa by Starlight from Just Imagine I learned a new word: chiaroscuro effect. It means the strong contrast between light and dark. Another reviewer used the words "a charming Ghibli-esque tale of a girl..."

Whilst Rosa’s story is a heart-wrenching exploration of loneliness, told through the window of magical realism, it is also a story imbued with a sense of awe and a feeling of hope.  The Venetian setting of shadows and light adds to the magic of the story and gives the reader a sense of being ‘outside of reality’ as they explore the Venice Rosa experiences from its hotels and piazzas to its bridges and waterways … and her unique bond with its feline friends. Book Craic

There are some golden moments, with Rosa desperately trying to get admitted into an orphanage or else irritating every person on her plane journey by asking the stewards to repeat their demonstration as she had not understood it first time round. The atmosphere of Venice at its most beguiling – and sometimes dangerous – is also well caught, backed up by Keith Robinson’s beautiful line drawings. Books for Keeps

Born in Boston, Lincolnshire, Hilary McKay grew up in a household of readers and read voraciously from an early age. After studying Botany and Zoology at St Andrews University, she went on to work as a biochemist, but always wanted to write. Hilary's novels have won numerous awards including the Guardian Children's Fiction Prize, the Smarties Award and the Whitbread Children's Book Award. She lives in a small village in Derbyshire with her family. She is the author of over forty books. I previously talked about The Skylarks War and I now discover there is a sequel - The Swallows Flight (Kirkus Star review). Some years ago I also read Straw into Gold. 

Companion books to read after Rosa by Starlight:

The Hotel Balzaar

Eloise and the Bucket of Stars

The Secret Starling

Journey to the River Sea

The Glassmaker's Daughter by Dianne Hofmeyr illustrated by Jane Ray

Happiness is inside all of us. 
You only have to discover it.

Daniela's father is desperate to see his daughter smile. He offers a huge reward of a magnificent glass palace.

"So his glass-blowers set to work. They blew and pulled and pinched the molten glass into silver-spun walls with pineapple-topped turrets and winged-dragon doors."

Gift givers and performers arrive from all over the land. There are elaborate masks, magic performers, lions, opera singers, tart bakers and even sausage stringers.  Nothing works. Daniela is a melancholy girl - gloomy, glum and bored. Then Angelo arrives. He has made a special piece of glass. It is a mirror. Looking at her own face she begins to laugh and as she laughs the glass palace shatters. Jane Ray has made the most spectacular page filled with smithereens of glass.

This is a scrumptious book. It has richly detailed illustrations and uses wonderful words such as shimmering, gloomier, quivered and splintered.  The setting of Venice adds to the delight.

Here is the Kirkus review. I need to seek out more picture books by Dianne Hofmeyr.

I would link this book with The Quiltmakers Gift by Jeff Brumbeau, The Greatest Treasure of Charlemagne the King by Nadia Wheatley, The Minstrel and the Dragon Pup by Rosemary Sutcliff and The Most wonderful thing in the world by Vivian French.  This might be a book you could link with the CBCA 2018 theme "Find your Treasure".

The girl of glass by Holly Webb

The Girl of Glass is such a difficult book to categorize.  It is a story about the use of magic. Mariana's father is able to add magic to the glass pieces he makes.  This is also a story about family relationships and deep grief.  Some reviews I have seen say age 9+ but I think this book would suit a more mature senior primary student who is ready to cope with the final scenes which I won't spoil here.  It is also a story about loyalty, gifts and talents and family expectations.

Mariana lives with her father, step mother and little sister  Eliza. Sadly Eliza is gravely ill and no remedy, and they have tried so many, seems able to cure her.  Mariana loves her tiny fragile sister but one day she dies :

"Eliza smiled again, and then the awareness faded out of her eyes, leaving them lifeless, emptier than the shards of blue glass in the spoils bin downstairs.  Marina's father leaned over, and held the bubble of molten glass to Eliza's mouth, in time to catch her last faint sighing breath."

This breath is then used to give life to a glass doll made to look exactly like Eliza.  This doll, however, is not Eliza and so she is rejected by Mariana's mother.  There are several violent scenes where Bianca, in her grief, lashes out at this strange glass creature.  Mariana, however, loves her glass sister.  She is not really a copy of Eliza.  She is a creature with her own needs and opinions. Their father finally realizes he has been cruel when he made this creature and so he sells the glass doll to a wealthy neighbour.  Now it is up to Mariana to rescue her new sister.

I did enjoy The girl of glass but I also found it oddly disturbing.  It seemed difficult to imagine how this book might end.  Being made of glass means Eliza is surely destined to break.  Again I don't want to spoil the ending.  I do find books about dolls are often quite disturbing.  I am thinking of books like Doll Bones, The Doll (After Dark series) and Coraline.  The Girl of Glass reminded me of Tilt which is a book I read quite recently.  Mariana has huge artistic abilities but her father will not accept this.  In his view only boys can work with glass.  This issue of sex-role stereotypes was also a theme of Tilt but with a more positive outcome for Netta.

This book is one of four set in Magical Venice and I am now keen to read the other titles : The maskmaker's Daughter, The water horse and The mermaids sister.