About the Book and Author
This is historical story by Eva Frantz is set in Finland but inspired by the author’s visit to Hampton Court Palace in London. It has been translated into English from its original Finnish by Anna Prime and is published by Pushkin Press.
Poor twelve-year-old Stina is sent to the remote Raspberry Hill Sanatorium because she is ill. As Stina explores the long, echoey corridors of her eerie new home, she begins to suspect that the building is concealing a dark secret. She is determined to solve the mystery of Raspberry Hill-but as she edges closer to the truth, she finds herself in terrible danger…
Eva Frantz is a Finnish radio and TV presenter and author. She was already an award-winning writer of crime novels for grown-ups when she wrote The Mystery of Raspberry Hill, her first book for children, which won the prestigious Runeberg Junior Prize in Finland.
Book Review
At first I thought it was going to be a 'spooky house' kind-of-story but it isn't
This was a really different book from the usual books I read, but I enjoyed it. At first I thought it was going to be a ‘spooky house’ kind-of-story but it isn’t.
The main character is a girl who is very ill with consumption, she is sent away to a kind of hospital but she thinks she will die there.
It is a sad story although Stina, the main character, seems to stay hopeful even when she is facing death.
I found it interesting to learn about some of the treatments that were common then and that transplants were considered impossible and scary.
I felt the book was almost two stories, first was the day to day medical life of Stina, the second was the spooky mysterious things that were happening behind the scenes.
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Reviewer Profile
- Name: Ryan
- Age: 11 years
- Likes: Lego, Dragonball Z and reading
- Dislikes: Being woken up and losing on computer games!
- Favourite Book: Tom Gates: Dog Zombie Rules by Liz Pichon
- Favourite Song: The Final Countdown by Queen
- Favourite Film: Dragonball Z: Super Battle of the Gods
