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    Arabel's Raven
    Arabel's Raven
    Arabel's Raven
    Audiobook2 hours

    Arabel's Raven

    Written by Joan Aiken

    Narrated by Sneha Mathan

    4/5

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    About this audiobook

    Young Arabel's life is changed forever when her father, a taxi driver, brings home an injured bird he finds in the street. This wacky raven eats everything in sight, answers the telephone by squawking "Nevermore!" and causes chaos whenever he goes - but Arabel loves her feathered friend, whom she names Mortimer.

    Children (and adults) will find great pleasure in these high-spirited engaging stories because the text is rich with wonderfully descriptive phrases as well as uniquely hilarious and witty situations. Fans of the classic story will picture a hairy-beaked raven sqawking 'nevermore" every time they hear a phone ring, and the thought of this crazy bird will be a delightful reminder of this fabulous story!

    ©2009 Joan Delano Aiken; (P)2009 Listen & Live Audio, Inc.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherListen & Live Audio
    Release dateJan 1, 2003
    ISBN9781593164102
    Author

    Joan Aiken

    Joan Aiken was born in Rye, Sussex in 1924, daughter of the American poet Conrad Aiken, and started writing herself at the age of five. Since the 1960s she wrote full time and published over 100 books. Best known for her children’s books such as The Wolves of Willoughby Chase and Midnight is a Place, she also wrote extensively for adults and published many contemporary and historical novels, including sequels to novels by Jane Austen. In 1968 she won the Guardian Children’s book prize for Whispering Mountain, followed by an Edgar Allan Poe award for Night Fall in 1972, and was awarded an MBE for her services to children’s literature in 1999. Joan Aiken died in 2004.

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    Reviews for Arabel's Raven

    4/5

    67 ratings6 reviews

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    • 4/5
      This collection contains the first three stories: Arabel's Raven, The Bread Bin, and the Escaped Black Mamba. I have loved this series from childhood and the rereading did not disappoint.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 4/5
      I first discovered Joan Aiken's hilarious tales of the young girl Arabel and her pet raven, Mortimer, in the pages of Cricket Magazine. Thanks to the web I have been able to acquire hardcover copies of the books.Arabel's Raven is the first book, but you can easily read them in any order as they are really a bunch of short stories more than a cohesive narrative. This book includes the following three stories:Arabel's Raven;The Breadbin;The Escaped Black Mamba and Other Things

      1 person found this helpful

    • 5/5
      We love this book. Girl meets raven. Hilarity ensues. Narration is excellent!
    • 5/5
      I decided to give this one a try because I had recently read [A necklace of Raindrops] and like Aiken's style of storytelling, and this one is illustrated by [[Quentin Blake]], who is amazing, of course. I wasn't a bit disappointed in it. This is a quirky little book about a sweet little girl and her quirky pet raven, Mortimer, and the quirky happenings that surround them. I loved it.
    • 3/5
      Originally published in Britain under the title Tales of Arabel's Raven, this book includes three humorous stories that introduce young Arabel Jones and her raven companion, Mortimer.In Arabel's Raven, a taxi-driver named Ebenezer Jones rescues a raven that he sees run down by two thieves on a motorcycle, and brings him home. His daughter, Arabel, who knows as soon as she sees him that his name is Mortimer, falls in love, and trouble is not long to follow. In The Breadbin, Mrs. Jones learns that it is best to let Mortimer have his own way, even if he does want to sleep in the breadbin. And in The Escaped Black Mamba and Other Things, Mortimer's talent for destruction and Mrs. Jones' propensity to worry combine to create a zany series of misunderstandings, that the local police decide must have been a "mass hallucination."This wonderful series seems aimed at a slightly younger audience than that of Aiken's novels, and is illustrated by Quentin Blake, famous for his illustrations of Roald Dahl. Aiken manages to convey a satisfying sense of emotion in Mortimer, despite his inability to say anything other than "Nevermore," and the deadpan humor of these comedies of error is quiet but persistent. As a side note, it is worth mentioning that although these stories are available in the US and Britain in four collections, they have all also been published individually in Britain.
    • 4/5
      Cute, clever story that will make you chuckle. The characters are simple personalities that all add to the completeness of the story. Each is peculiar in his or her or raven's way that makes for a fun adventure with an unlikely and often misunderstood bird. Thank goodness for characters such as Arabel who remind us to accept that which annoys us in others and to learn to find scruffy characters as endearing friends. Enjoyable with a few endearing chuckles out loud.