Stravaganza

October 1, 2003
Characters travel through space and time, encounter mysterious creatures and more in an assortment of new installments. Of the first book, Stravaganza: City of Masks, PW said, "The Renaissance backdrop set an elegant mood for the time-travel toggling." This time a miniature model of a winged horse (another talisman of the Stravaganti, a brotherhood of scientists who use talismans to travel between time periods) sends 15-year-old equestrian Georgia to a 16th-century version of Tuscany in Stravaganza: City of Stars by Mary Hoffman. There Georgia gets caught up in the intrigue surrounding the birth of a real winged horse.

January 1, 2004
Gr 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 2003 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

March 28, 2005
A miniature model of a winged horse (another talisman of the Stravaganti, a brotherhood of scientists who use talismans to travel between time periods) sends 15-year-old equestrian Georgia to a 16th-century version of Tuscany. Ages 10-up.

September 30, 2002
From the British author of the Amazing Grace books comes a novel, the first in a trilogy, about a teen stricken with brain cancer who travels between two worlds. In modern-day London, Lucien Mulholland undergoes chemotherapy treatments, but when he falls asleep clutching a mysterious book his father has given him, he is transported, or "stravagated," to an enchanting 16th-century Venice-like city called Bellezza, in the country Talia. Lucien can return only if he can get hold of the book again. In this colorful other world, rich with court intrigues and magic, he feels vibrantly alive, as opposed to his pain-ridden days back in England; his hair has grown back and he eats with relish. Bellezza is also where, as "Luciano," he meets lovely 15-year-old Arianna and Rodolfo, who created the book that acts as Lucien's "stravagation" talisman. Rodolfo explains that a stravagante is "a wanderer between worlds," and also the history of this magical travel. Now the secret brotherhood dedicated to keeping the two worlds separate is being challenged by a faction with evil intent. Soon "Luciano" is caught up in their power struggle and learns there is a cost when one cannot stravagate properly. The Renaissance backdrop sets an elegant mood for the time-travel toggling. This complex, at times slow-moving and somber story line may disturb some middle-graders (Lucien dies in his English life but lives on in Bellezza) but the novel will likely intrigue more sophisticated readers, especially with its undercurrents of sexual tension. Ages 10-up.

October 4, 2004
Dying of brain cancer in modern London, a teenager is transported to an Italianate world in his dreams—and to a city that mirrors Renaissance Venice. PW
said, "The novel will likely intrigue more sophisticated readers." Ages 10-up.