When a boy in her class, Orlu, rescues her from a beating, Sunny is drawn in to a magical world she's never known existed.
She can't play soccer with the boys because, as she says, "being albino made the sun my enemy," and she has only enemies at school. Who can't love a story about a Nigerian-American 12-year-old with albinism who discovers latent magical abilities and saves the world? Sunny lives in Nigeria after spending the first nine years of her life in New York. Along with this beguiling atmosphere and expertly developed plot, readers will long remember the admirable Annika and cheer her eventual, well-deserved, triumph. Creating suspense by letting readers into the scheme long before Annika and her friends, Ibbotson also paints a vivid picture of pre-WWI Vienna, from its delectable pastries to the famed show horses of the Spanish Riding School. Blinded by adoration, Annika barely notices how badly in need of repairs is her fortress-like new home, or how poorly she fits in with her spoiled and predatory new “family.” Readers will, though, as piece by piece, the author reveals an elaborate, clever fraud involving faked documents, smoothly plausible lies, and a hoard of supposedly imitation jewelry that Annika has inherited from an elderly neighbor. Raised by servants to be “a person who was interested in doing things, not having them,” 11-or-so-year-old foundling Annika sees a dream come true when lovely, regal Edeltraut von Tannenberg appears at the door one day, joyously announcing that she’s her real mother. Urn:oclc:872711411 Scandate 20101025180324 Scanner, master of the “poor orphan makes good” tale, offers another eminently satisfying example, this one wrapped in a valentine to Vienna, the author’s natal city.
OL15436610W Page-progression lr Page_number_confidence 78.32 Pages 424 Ppi 400 Related-external-id urn:isbn:174303766X Access-restricted-item true Addeddate 17:29:52 Boxid IA128516 Boxid_2 CH120121108-BL1 Camera Canon 5D City New York Donor
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