A review by gcgould94
A Song for Summer by Eva Ibbotson

4.0

I thought this book was.....interesting. I can honestly say that they did a good job of mixing actual events around pre-WWII with some fictional characters. I also thought that the romance element in this story was also very nicely put in. It is about an eighteen year old girl named Ellen, who travels to the Hallendorf school in Austria to assume a post as the matron to the children. She soon realizes that she has gone to a school that is not what it seems. The school specializes in drama and performing arts, but, among other things, it also contains, wild hordes of children, a biology professor who swims naked in the lake three times a day, a tortoise with its two back legs missing, and a handsome fencing teacher and gardener, named Marek, who Ellen is instantly attracted too.
Marek, however, has a dangerous mission to complete. His Jewish friend, who is a composer, has been taken away to a concentration camp. It is up to Marek to rescue him. But there are more secrets than Ellen could possibly imagine. Only when she finds them out, does she realize the danger there new love will face, and she will have to make an important decision regardiung the future of her and her love.