LoveReading4Kids Says
Rich in atmosphere and stuffed full of fascinating and unusual characters, Ivy is the story of survival. Little Ivy’s childhood has been far from straightforward.
Abandoned and neglected, she’s spent years of her life luring wealthy little children aware from their nannies so they can be robbed of their fine clothes. Drugged with laudanum, she hardly knows what she’s been doing. But her life takes a turn for the better when her glorious halo of red hair causes her to be spotted as a model for a Pre-Raphaelite artist. Can she forget her past? And what are the new dangers that plague Ivy?
If you enjoyed this do try her next novel Hazel.
LoveReading4Kids
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Ivy Synopsis
The only beautiful thing in Ivy's drab life is her glorious red hair. At a young age, her locks made her the target of Carroty Kate, a 'skinner'. She recruited Ivy to help her coax wealthy children away from their nannies so that she could strip them of their clothes - clothes worth a fortune in the markets of Petticoat Lane. It is years before Ivy escapes and finds her way back to her in-laws. Once there, she finds respite in laudanum. But before she can settleinto a stupor and forget the terrible things she has done, Ivy is spotted by a wealthy pre-Raphaelite painter. Oscar Fosdick needs a muse (until now he has had to use his domineering mother as a model, something not conducive to producing his best work, he finds). To him, Ivy is perfect, a stunner. Realising quickly that this painter has more money than sense, Ivy's in-laws order her to sit for him, and to do anything else he demands. But not everyone is happy. Oscar's mother is determined to get rid of Ivy.
About This Edition
| ISBN: |
9780192757661 |
| Publication date: |
15th September 2011 |
| Author: |
Julie Hearn |
| Publisher: |
OUP Oxford |
| Format: |
Ebook (Epub) |
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About Julie Hearn
Julie Hearn was our Guest Editor in August 2011. Click here to see the books she selected.
Julie Hearn used to be a tabloid journalist but much prefers writing novels because she is less likely to be sued nowadays for making things up. After her daughter, Tilly, was born she began a degree in Education but switched to English after suffering a panic attack while attempting to teach maths to year six. She went on to complete a Masters Degree in Women's Studies at Oxford University, where an idea for her thesis became the inspiration for her first novel, Follow Me Down. Julie lives in Oxfordshire where she writes full time (most mornings anyway) in a pink and green office in her garden.
Julie Hearn Q&A:
Have you always wanted to be a writer?
Ever since I can remember. When I was five I wrote stories about elves and rabbits on scraps of paper and sewed them up the middle to make little books. I wrote diaries too - pages and pages every day - and if nothing exciting had happened I made stuff up. My teenage diaries are shocking, but a pack of lies from start to finish.
I still wanted to write when I left school so I became a journalist. And that was great fun, for a long time, although when it came to making things up, there was only so far I could go!
Why did you decide to write children's books rather than books for adults?
I suppose I'd had enough of writing for adults - first as a journalist, then as a student of English and women's studies. I wanted to give my imagination free rein in a way that didn't have to be clever, or cynical, or have a great wodge of footnotes at the bottom of every page to explain things!
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