Bella Arabella

By Liza Fosburgh

Book Overview

Trying to avoid being sent off to boarding school, ten-year-old Arabella wishes she could become a cat, only for her wish to reveal itself as a nightmare after all.

Against her wishes, Arabella's stepdad is determined to send the ten-year-old off to boarding school. Thinking of every possible way to avoid this ill fate, Arabella wishes she could become a cat.

Though she thought becoming a cat would solve all her problems and get her out of going to boarding school, when her wishes come true, Arabella is in for a rude awakening. As she quickly discovers that her new life as a cat is fraught with unknown terrors, she begins to realize her former life was not so bad after all.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1442413514
• ISBN13: 9781442413511
• Release Date: February 2010
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers
• Length: 112 Pages
• Weight: 0.32 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.3" x 6.0" x 9.0"
• Age Range: 9 to 11 years
• Grade Range: Grades 4 to 6

Customer Reviews

A Beautiful Story, Sadly Out of Print

I was given this book as a birthday present from my grandmother when I was ten, and it's been a favorite since. Arabella is a ten year old only child, whose mother has married and remarried multiple times. None of Arabella's 'fathers' have been around for very long, but the most recent one, Tom, Seems to be the worst. Her mother actually loves him, and he's adventerous. He's bringing her mother into the adventure as well. They are rarely home, and nothing Arabella does gets them to stay for very long. One day she overhears them discussing the possibility of sending her to boarding school, and Arabella runs to her room, where her beloved cat, Miranda, begins talking to her. With that Arabella is cast into a marvelous fantasy question, What would happen if you were to turn into a cat? Arabella sees things through a feline perspective, roads, dogs, people, that is rarely portrayed as perfectly as this, and the solution at the end, though a bit perfect for books with older reading levels, is the only one possible in this children's classic for all ages.