conversations.from: human
conversations.value: What could be a title for a book about [R]eaders, Annika, Kirkus with the genre: Teen & Young Adult, Literature & Fiction?
conversations.from: assistant
conversations.value: A title for this book could be 'The Star of Kazan'
conversations.from: human
conversations.value: a plot for a book about [R]eaders, Annika, Kirkus
conversations.from: assistant
conversations.value: The Star of Kazan: It was set in 1908, the story opens with two Viennese servants, Ellie and Sigrid, who on their day off, discover a baby girl left behind in a church of the alpine village of Pettelsdorf.\nWith the infant (the baby) is a note asking her to be taken to a nunnery in Vienna.\nWhen Ellie and Sigrid find that the nunnery is in quarantine for typhus, they decide to take the baby home and raise her as their own.\nThey name her Annika after Ellie's mother.\nWhen the three house master professors decide not to give away her after the typhus quarantine is over, Annika grows up as a servant in the house where Ellie and Sigrid work.\nFor Annika, life in Vienna is perfect.\nShe has friends, Pauline and Stefan, and she loves her adopted family (Ellie and Sigrid, and the three professors who they all work for) very much.\nAnnika is asked by Loremarie Egghart, a snobby rich girl whom Annika despises, to read to her great-aunt.\nAnnika does so and the two (Annika and Loremarie's great aunt) become friends, telling each other about their lives.\nLoremarie's great aunt was a famous theatre personality who went by the stage name La Rondine.\nThey become so close that the great-aunt leaves Annika her jewels when she dies, having been told that the jewels are pastings of the real ones which she had sold through a jeweller.\nAnnika is delighted but sometimes wonders about the missing piece of the puzzle: the mystery of her real mother and why she was abandoned.\nWhen the beautiful, rich Frau von Tannenburg comes to the professors household and announces she is Annika's long lost mother, Annika is delighted.\nHer mother takes her to Spittal, the family's estate in Germany, and she meets her brother Hermann, her uncle Oswald, and her cousin Gudrun, but she doesn't enjoy it.\nThe mansion is derelict and gloomy, the walls are crumbling, and the paint peeling.\nShe meets a friendly Romany/gypsy boy called Zed who works on the farm and cares for Hermann's horse Rocco.\nAlthough her friends back in Vienna are pleased for Annika they can't help but feel uneasy about the whole thing - especially Ellie.\nAnnika has actually signed over La Rondine's jewels, including her famous Star of Kazan, but is unaware of what she has done.\nWhen her mother comes back, she says a relative died and left them lots of money, but in fact she sold some of Annika's jewels so Hermann can go to the army school that he wants to attend, and Annika can have galoshes, which her mother buys a size too small.\nOne day while Annika is walking with Zed she discovers some remnants of La Rondine's trunk in the lake.\nYet there is no sign of the jewels.\nUpon asking Frau Edeltraut of the trunk's mysterious appearance her mother retorts that Zed must have stolen it.\nWith the fear of arrest Zed flees Spittal with Rocco and arrives in Vienna to tell the professors his suspicions about Annika's mother.\nAnnika is then sent away to a very harsh boarding school for young ladies called Grossenfluss, but the professors and Ellie and Stefan manage to rescue her after discovering that a pupil died there.\n(The pupil died by committing suicide but the police were not allowed to investigate and were told that it was an accident) Annika manages to escape back home to Vienna, to those she loves.\nFrau von Tannenburg however hears of the incident at Grossenfluss and visits Vienna to collect Annika.\nPauline upset from the proceedings decides to spend her time on her hobby of collecting news articles of heroic deeds but spots a piece stating that the lawyer who signed Frau Edeltraut's birth certificate for Annika was imprisoned.\nThis spurs Pauline to visit the midwife in Pettelsdorf, only to discover that the women had a stroke twenty years beforehand and can only sign her name.\nWith this knowledge Pauline returns to Vienna and informs the rest of the forgery of the birth certificate.\nUnfortunately at this moment Annika is already on the boat with her mother with it due to set off on its voyage.\nFortunately Herr Egghart has arrived on his motor car and they speed of to the river Danube.\nThey manage to alert Annika and inform her that Edeltraut is not her mother.\nAnnika instantly acknowledges this and jumps into the river.\nWith Edeltraut discredited, Annika splits the wealth of the jewel sales with the Eggharts and proceeds to live a content life with her friends, Zed and the professors and Sigrid and Ellie, who she now recognises as her mother.
conversations.from: human
conversations.value: Add another sentence about \nAnnika's, Zurich, explaining.
conversations.from: assistant
conversations.value: The Star of Kazan: It was set in 1908, the story opens with two Viennese servants, Ellie and Sigrid, who on their day off, discover a baby girl left behind in a church of the alpine village of Pettelsdorf. \nWith the infant (the baby) is a note asking her to be taken to a nunnery in Vienna. \nWhen Ellie and Sigrid find that the nunnery is in quarantine for typhus, they decide to take the baby home and raise her as their own. \nThey name her Annika after Ellie's mother. \nWhen the three house master professors decide not to give away her after the typhus quarantine is over, Annika grows up as a servant in the house where Ellie and Sigrid work. \nFor Annika, life in Vienna is perfect. \nShe has friends, Pauline and Stefan, and she loves her adopted family (Ellie and Sigrid, and the three professors who they all work for) very much. \nAnnika is asked by Loremarie Egghart, a snobby rich girl whom Annika despises, to read to her great-aunt. \nAnnika does so and the two (Annika and Loremarie's great aunt) become friends, telling each other about their lives. \nLoremarie's great aunt was a famous theatre personality who went by the stage name La Rondine. \nThey become so close that the great-aunt leaves Annika her jewels when she dies, having been told that the jewels are pastings of the real ones which she had sold through a jeweller. \nAnnika is delighted but sometimes wonders about the missing piece of the puzzle: the mystery of her real mother and why she was abandoned. \nWhen the beautiful, rich Frau von Tannenburg comes to the professors household and announces she is Annika's long lost mother, Annika is delighted. \nHer mother takes her to Spittal, the family's estate in Germany, and she meets her brother Hermann, her uncle Oswald, and her cousin Gudrun, but she doesn't enjoy it. \nThe mansion is derelict and gloomy, the walls are crumbling, and the paint peeling. \nShe meets a friendly Romany/gypsy boy called Zed who works on the farm and cares for Hermann's horse Rocco. \nAlthough her friends back in Vienna are pleased for Annika they can't help but feel uneasy about the whole thing - especially Ellie. \nAnnika's mother asks her to sign some important documents without really explaining them, and then goes to Zurich. \nAnnika has actually signed over La Rondine's jewels, including her famous Star of Kazan, but is unaware of what she has done. \nWhen her mother comes back, she says a relative died and left them lots of money, but in fact she sold some of Annika's jewels so Hermann can go to the army school that he wants to attend, and Annika can have galoshes, which her mother buys a size too small. \nOne day while Annika is walking with Zed she discovers some remnants of La Rondine's trunk in the lake. \nYet there is no sign of the jewels. \nUpon asking Frau Edeltraut of the trunk's mysterious appearance her mother retorts that Zed must have stolen it. \nWith the fear of arrest Zed flees Spittal with Rocco and arrives in Vienna to tell the professors his suspicions about Annika's mother. \nAnnika is then sent away to a very harsh boarding school for young ladies called Grossenfluss, but the professors and Ellie and Stefan manage to rescue her after discovering that a pupil died there. \n(The pupil died by committing suicide but the police were not allowed to investigate and were told that it was an accident) Annika manages to escape back home to Vienna, to those she loves. \nFrau von Tannenburg however hears of the incident at Grossenfluss and visits Vienna to collect Annika. \nPauline upset from the proceedings decides to spend her time on her hobby of collecting news articles of heroic deeds but spots a piece stating that the lawyer who signed Frau Edeltraut's birth certificate for Annika was imprisoned. \nThis spurs Pauline to visit the midwife in Pettelsdorf, only to discover that the women had a stroke twenty years beforehand and can only sign her name. \nWith this knowledge Pauline returns to Vienna and informs the rest of the forgery of the birth certificate. \nUnfortunately at this moment Annika is already on the boat with her mother with it due to set off on its voyage. \nFortunately Herr Egghart has arrived on his motor car and they speed of to the river Danube. \nThey manage to alert Annika and inform her that Edeltraut is not her mother. \nAnnika instantly acknowledges this and jumps into the river. \nWith Edeltraut discredited, Annika splits the wealth of the jewel sales with the Eggharts and proceeds to live a content life with her friends, Zed and the professors and Sigrid and Ellie, who she now recognises as her mother.
conversations.from: human
conversations.value: the first paragraph for this book
conversations.from: assistant
conversations.value: The Star of Kazan
  Then Sigrid brought down the decorations from the attic. They had been made over the years from scraps of silk, ribbons, fir cones painted silver and gold – but each year they made new things, and each year the sweets had to be wrapped in silver paper and hung on the lower branches so that the younger Bodeks could reach them when the time came.
conversations.from: human
conversations.value: five more paragraphs
conversations.from: assistant
conversations.value: All the same, he had turned off into the town and ridden Rocco into the stable yard of the Majestic and now, as he left the spa behind, he was glad because he knew the truth.
  He leaned forward in the saddle and urged Rocco on and the horse broke into a canter on the grassy verge. There was a thin moon in the sky and the air was still. He was free – free of the von Tannenbergs with their snobbish grandeur, free of the endless jobs on the farm... free to join his mother's people on the great Hungarian plain with its poplar trees and its wind-powered wells and its herds of wide-horned cattle.
  There was nothing he could do for her. Annika worshipped her mother. Even if he could bring himself to tell her the truth she would never believe him.
  So why did he keep remembering silly and unimportant things? Annika the first day he had met her, asking if there was more mangel-wurzel... Annika running her fingers through Rocco's mane... and barrowing feed for the sheep in the rain, her pigtails turning to sodden ropes of moisture... He could see her trotting down the lane to the farm, pulling down a branch of witch hazel and sniffing it... and her streaming eyes as she chopped onions for soup.
  He pushed the memories away. She was a gallant girl and he liked her, but that had nothing to do with it. He was bound for his mother's people and a new life if he escaped, and it would not be easy. Zed knew enough about the gypsies to realize that the dream of freedom and companionship had its dark side. There were thieves among them as well as people with big hearts; and women who let their children go filthy, with lice and matted hair. Old Izidor was honourable and so were his immediate kinsman, but others were not.
conversations.from: human
conversations.value: the last five paragraphs
conversations.from: assistant
conversations.value: The arcaded palace of a prince, now the royal stables, was lit by pools of light from the gas lamps on the walls. From the chapel further down the road came the sound of the Vienna choirboys singing vespers.
  A lone dark horse was walking down the well-worn path towards the great double door, which opened now from the inside. The boy leading the horse walked steadily on, but just before he reached the door he turned and waved.
  The people clustered on the pavement waved back. They waved back hard. A row of little boys, silent for once because the occasion was so important. A girl with frizzy hair who was frowning because it had all become rather solemn and after all a horse is just a horse. A lady to whose long black skirt there clung the fragments of a buttered roll.
  Annika had been pushed forward to the place of honour, closest by the gate. Her eyes followed every step that Zed took, but in some other part of her mind she was waking up on that first morning in Spittal when an unknown boy had ridden past her window, and she had known that both the boy and his horse would become part of her life.
  Inside the stables a horse whinnied his welcome and Rocco replied. Then Zed led him forward over the threshold – and the great door closed on them both.