Stravaganza: City Of Stars (Turtleback School & Library Binding Edition) (Stravaganza (Prebound)) [Library Binding]

Mary Hoffman (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 1, 2005 | Series: Stravaganza (Prebound)

FOR USE IN SCHOOLS AND LIBRARIES ONLY. Georgia is an ordinary girl, living in London with her mother, stepfather, and bully of a stepbrother. But her life takes a sudden change when she buys a tiny figurine of a winged horse, and suddenly finds herself swept up into the world of the Stravagan

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

Grade 7 Up-This second volume of the trilogy continues the story begun in City of Masks (Bloomsbury, 2002). Georgia, a 15-year-old with a hateful older stepbrother, finds herself transported to 16th-century Talia (Italy), when she goes to sleep holding a little winged horse figure she bought in an antique shop. She awakes in a barn where a coveted, rare winged horse has just been born. She quickly finds herself involved in the intrigues and conflicts between rival families and the preparation for the Stellata, the annual horse race among the competitive elite families. The di Chimici family is seeking to extend its power and control and sees the race as another step in reaching that goal. At the same time, its patriarch is devastated by an accident that left his youngest son, Falco, crippled. When Falco, dismayed at his now limited future, meets Georgia and learns that she can travel across time and place, he resolves to stravagate permanently to her time, where modern medicine may be able to give him a normal life. Georgia eventually helps him to get to England, but his transition to life there seems somewhat contrived and too neatly resolved. The book climaxes with the horse race and Falco's death in his own time when he becomes a modern-day boy. The concept of stravagation is appealing and is used well to create an adventure tale that takes readers back into the 16th century with all its drama. Fans of the first book will find the sequel equally appealing.
Jane G. Connor, South Carolina State Library, Columbia
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Booklist

Gr. 6-10. Cruelly teased and tormented by her older stepbrother, Georgia feels trapped in an impossible family situation, with horseback riding as her only escape. After she buys a small statue of a winged horse, she discovers that it is a talisman with the power to transport her through space and time from modern London to Talia, a sixteenth-century, alternative Italy. Georgia first appears to Cesare, son of a horse master in Remora (Sienna), where he has recently witnessed the miraculous birth of a flying horse, a good omen. Still, there's trouble ahead for Cesare in Remora and for Georgia in both worlds, now that she has become one of the Stravaganti, time travelers between London and Talia. Readers of the Stravanganza: City of Masks (2002) will be pleased that several of the main characters reappear, which develops their stories a bit further while introducing a vivid new setting and an involving narrative focused on Georgia. The lovingly created, richly detailed locales are one of the distinctive pleasures of the series, along with the subtle portrayals of both major and minor characters. In other novels, shifts in point of view and setting often confuse the reader and impede the narrative, but here they propel the story, carrying readers along for an adventurous ride. This leaves readers with the hope of more to come. Carolyn Phelan
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 12 and up
  
• Library Binding: 457 pages
• Publisher: Turtleback (April 1, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1417744758
• ISBN-13: 978-1417744756
• Product Dimensions: 7.6 x 5 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (17 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,271,137 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A sequel that does not disappoint, September 30, 2003

By 

Gwen (Washington) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Stravaganza City of Stars (Hardcover)

I loved this book. I really liked the first book in this series, Stravaganza, City of Masks, and was looking forward to this one. A little anxiously, though, as sometimes sequels don't live up to expectations. I was delighted to find I liked this second story even better. I loved the way the characters from the first story were interwoven into this one. Unfortunately I raced through this book in one (long) evening and will now have a very long wait for book three.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Next Harry Potter Series, March 28, 2006

A Kid's Review

This review is from: Stravaganza City of Stars (Hardcover)

This is my favorite book of all time. I want to go to Talia soooo badly!!! I find myself wishing this was not a fantasy book. The way it is written, the characters, plot, and setting seem so real and fantastic and intriguing. If you were to read one book in your entire life, I hope this would be it- you need to read it.

10 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars better than first but still flawed, February 4, 2004

By 

B. Capossere (Rochester, NY USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Stravaganza City of Stars (Hardcover)

Middle books in trilogies often suffer the problem of being just a "bridge" work that adds very little to overall plot or characterization within the main storyline. Hoffman manages to avoid this pitfall nicely but making wholesale changes in focus for her sequel to City of Masks. The story still involves travel between our world and Talia, an alternate 16th century Italy, though the specific setting is no longer Belezza (Florence) but Remora, a parallel Sienna about to run it most famous and important horse race. And while Mask characters reappear, the major focus is on several brand new characters: Georgia, a young girl from our world unhappy with her step-brother and overall social situation; Cesare, a young Remoran jockey, and several new di Chimici's, whom fans will recall are the villains of the series, though this novel shows that not all family members have the same goals.
City of Stars displays the same descriptive strengths as Masks, with Remora visualized in vivid, detailed splendor, though at times while the many twists and turns of the factions in Remora are explained the reader may wish for slightly less detail or complexity.
The plot of Stars, while centered on a lot of political intrigue as in Masks, is more concrete and focused and with the addition of a few characters whose allegiances remain unknown, overall more interesting and compelling, though the book suffers from the same abstractness with regard to the Stravaganti themselves. The plot is also hurt a bit by the book's length, which is overlong by about a 100 pages I'd say--detracting from the suspense and creating a few scenes that bog the reader down while seeming superfluous.
Characters remain a bit thin. As in Masks, females do well, with Georgia a relatively strong character, especially in comparison to Cesare who is not particularly well-developed. Georgia's stepbrother, unfortunately, is a bit cartoonish and her parents may as well not be there (a step back from Masks where Lucien's mother added a great deal of emotional depth). Lucien, Arianna, Rodolfo, and the Duchessa reappear, but not to any real deepening of character, though the concept of the attraction between Arianna and Lucien is highlighted and made more complex by the addition of several near-age characters to themselves (including one who proposes to Arianna). Gaetano, one of the new di Chimici's, is solid, but it would have improved things to get a sense of just why he doesn't necessarily go along with his family's machinations, a sense of development to the point we see him at. The same is true of his brother Falco, who has suffered a crippling accident and hopes to convince Lucien and Georgia to take him into our world where he could be cured. His desire and will to do so is probably the book's strongest plot line and is well-handled throughout, especially the effect of his actions on his family, adding some strong emotional impact into the mix at the end.
Overall, though Stars is a flawed book, it seems an improvement on Masks and would bode well for continued improvement in plot and character for book three.