In Place of Katia

by Mara Kay, Janina Domanska (Illustrator)

Carrie Quinton could hardly believe what was happening - she was leaving New York to live in Russia with the Nazarov family, in the court of Catherine the Great. Along with her new friend Nicky, she is faced with a mystery and helps play an important role in solving it.

Genres: Historical Fiction, Childrens

224 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1963

About the author

The author of a number of children's novels, many of them works of historical fiction set in Russia or Yugoslavia, Mara Kay was (according to the dust-jacket blurb of The Burning Candle) "of Russian extraction, was brought up in Yugoslavia, but has lived in America since 1950."

Reviews

[grosbeak · Rating 3 out of 5]

One-of-a-kind premise (girl from American colonies circa 1772 whose father is dying of consumption gets adopted by family of Russian landowners who just happen to be visiting NYC and goes back with them to their estate); typical kidlit plot of mild hijinks, secrets passages...and the threat posed by Pugachev's rebellion. I mean, obviously an emigre author writing for an American audience in the 1960s isn't going to be pro-revolution, but it also managed to be a lot more racist than the Charskaya novel from the 1890s I read last year.

[CLM · Rating 4 out of 5]

It took years to find this early work of Mara Kay's set in the 18th century in which Carrie Quinton of old New York finds herself unexpectedly traveling to Russia - to be a companion to a young Russian girl, Lisa, and also to substitute for Lisa's deceased cousin Katia, whose father cannot accept her death.

[Michael Fitzgerald]

Russia - ?