...
Show More
Was somewhat interested in the research parts.
Ease Reading-Find Your Next Favorite Book
Mr Copplestone & The Smiths #1
Maria Escapes
...
Show More
Running away from her stuffy boarding school, free-spirited Maria flees to her uncle, a college warden at Oxford, and begins a new life of intrigue, mystery, and excitement. By the author of Italian Spring.
258 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1,1957
This edition
- Format
-
258 pages, Hardcover
- Published
-
June 1, 1992 by Simon \u0026 Schuster
- ISBN
-
9780671770747
- ASIN
-
0671770748
- Language
-
English
About the author
...
Show More
Gillian Elise Avery was a British children's novelist, and a historian of childhood education and children's literature. She won the Guardian Children's Fiction Prize in 1972 for A Likely Lad. It was adapted for television in 1990.
Readers also enjoyed
Community Reviews
Rating(4.2 / 5.0, 22 votes)
5 stars
8(36%)
4 stars
10(45%)
3 stars
4(18%)
2 stars
0(0%)
1 stars
0(0%)
22 reviews All reviews
...
Show More
Favourite book when i was younger. Still good, although wonder why i liked it so much when read now (mostly cause I'm use to reading harder books and this one is clearly written for 10 to 12 age range). Love all the trouble maria gets in and the mystery she solves.
...
Show More
Very enjoyable tale of young orphaned Maria, who runs away from her boarding school and makes her way to her uncle who is the Warden of the fictitious Canterbury College in Oxford. He decides to let her stay and she takes up lessons with the three Smith boys next door. She wants to impress her uncle so after a trip to the nearby Jerusalem House and seeing a 16th century drawing of an unknown boy , she embarks on research into who the subject was. Written in the 1950s and set in the 1870s, Avery is a new author to me, which was surprising as she was of ‘my’ era when I was devouring any book I could get my hands on.
...
Show More
Brief slice of life of Victorian England middle class through the eyes of an atypical 10 year old girl.
...
Show More
I've loved this book since I was in school( a long time ago !)
It has adventure, humour, sadness and mystery all in one .
It always makes me happy returning to the story of Maria, Thomas ,Joshua and James.
I've still got the copy I bought when I was 12, highly recommend this children's story.
It has adventure, humour, sadness and mystery all in one .
It always makes me happy returning to the story of Maria, Thomas ,Joshua and James.
I've still got the copy I bought when I was 12, highly recommend this children's story.
...
Show More
A favourite author back in the day. I was never away from Stretford Library. Read as many of hers as I could get hold of. All these years and I still have fond memories of Mr Copplestone!
...
Show More
Maria Escapes [aka The Warden's Niece] is a children's novel written by Gillian Avery (1957) and illustrated by Scott Snow (1992). In 1875 England, self-doubting orphan Maria runs away from boarding school and throws herself on the mercy of her elderly uncle and guardian, a college warden at Oxford. She blurts out that she wishes she could be a professor, so he arranges for Maria to join the tutoring lessons of his neighbors' three sons. That's the first 25 pages or so.
The rest of the book is the amusing interactions of the four kids and their unconventional tutor Mr. Copplestone. Maria is caught between the three boisterous brothers and the warden's severe housekeeper, but she rises to the occasion and manages pretty well. Maria also becomes interested in unraveling a mystery from the 1600s, for which she figures out how to navigate the Bodleian Library despite its being off-limits to women and children. As in the classic children's novel From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler, investigating the historical mystery helps move the plot along.
Maria Escapes is one of many books that I found out about thanks to 1001 Children's Books You Must Read Before You Grow Up.
The rest of the book is the amusing interactions of the four kids and their unconventional tutor Mr. Copplestone. Maria is caught between the three boisterous brothers and the warden's severe housekeeper, but she rises to the occasion and manages pretty well. Maria also becomes interested in unraveling a mystery from the 1600s, for which she figures out how to navigate the Bodleian Library despite its being off-limits to women and children. As in the classic children's novel From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler, investigating the historical mystery helps move the plot along.
Maria Escapes is one of many books that I found out about thanks to 1001 Children's Books You Must Read Before You Grow Up.
...
Show More
Just my kind of book. Comforting and full of olde world charm!
Leave a Review