Journey to the River Sea
Eva Ibbotson
In 1910, orphan Maia leaves her London boarding school to live with distant relatives on the Amazon in Brazil. She dreams of jungles, rivers and adventure, but the Carter family would rather shut the rainforest out. Then Maia meets a mysterious boy living alone by the river.
- Length
- About 75,000 words
- To read it
- About 50 days
- Stage
- Key Stage 2
Reading time at 1,500 words a day, the pace we start from until we know your child’s own.
Where it is taught
Why Journey to the River Sea is on the list
- Year 5, Stretch. A step up in length or difficulty, for a confident reader.
Reading it here
What your child does with it
- 1
Choose it and set a finish date
You get a suggested target from the length of the book and your child's reading pace.
- 2
Check in along the way
A longer book has short check-ins every week or two, so it keeps moving and nothing is forgotten.
- 3
Answer two questions
When they finish: a review of the book, and a deeper question about how it works.
- 4
Get it marked, and redraft
Every answer is marked against the rubric for their year, with a reason for every score.