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Synopsis

Stravaganza: City of Secrets by Mary Hoffman

Matt is dyslexic and extremely intelligent. When he is unexpectedly transported to the Scriptorium of Padavia (real-life Padua) University, he discovers he is a Stravagante who can travel through time using his talisman, a leather-bound book.

To find out more about Stravaganza, visit the series website by clicking here or visit author Mary Hoffman's own website by clicking here.

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Reviews

'City of Masks is a poignant, touching and exciting novel ... without doubt a masterwork of contemporary children's literature'
Edgardo Zaghini, Booktrust City of Stars:
'A fabulous story of power, intrigue and flying horses. This is story-telling at its best'
Bookseller Of City of Flowers:
'I was barely allowed to finish it before my god-daughter snatched it away with breathless anticipation. It's so real! she drooled'
Independent
'An absolute triumph. Writing like this makes a parallel situation appear in the mind as more real than reality itself'
School Librarian

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About The Author

Mary Hoffman has written around 90 books for children. Amazing Grace, commended for the Kate Greenaway medal, has sold over 1.5 million copies. Its sequel, Grace & Family, was among Junior Education 's Best Books of 1995 and shortlisted for the Sheffield Libraries Book Award 1996. Mary lives in Oxfordshire.

You can read her contributions to The History Girls blog by clicking here.

Mary Hoffman's Ten Things You Didn't Know About Me:

I had my appendix taken out by Enid Blyton's husband! (Fortunately he was a surgeon)

My first book was read in manuscript by Richard Adams, author of Watership Down and he suggested sending it to his publishers, Rex Collings, after a dozen others had turned it down. They took it.
 
I didn't change my surname when I got married.

Amazing Grace and Boundless Grace (which is what Grace and Family is called in the US) were both turned into musical plays and performed in Minneapolis in 1995 and 1998.

When I was a little girl, I wanted to be a garage mechanic.

I didn't learn to drive until I was over fifty.

My husband is half-Indian. His mother was a Parsee, born in Bangalore.

One of my great-grandfathers was German, another Irish.

I am learning Italian and would love to have a house in Italy.

I never wear or own anything blue.

Photo by Jess Barber (©Jess Barber)

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