Arabel's Raven [Paperback]

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 wherever he goes--but Arabel loves her new feathered friend, whom she names Mortimer.

This is the first volume of Arabel and Mortimer's adventures, brightened with hilarious illustrations by Quentin Blake. 

A legendary author and illustrator team up for a trio of funny tales about a girl and her pet raven.

No one but the author ofThe Wolves of Willoughby Chasecould create such a melange of inventions, sustain such a pace, and give such vigor to the telling. --The Horn Book

Arabel’s Raven

On a stormy night in March, not long ago, a respectable taxi driver named Ebenezer Jones found himself driving home, very late, through the somewhat wild and sinister district of London known as Rumbury Town. Mr. Jones had left Rumbury Tube Station behind him, and was passing the long, desolate piece of land called Rumbury Waste, when, in the street not far ahead, he observed a large, dark, upright object. It was rather smaller than a coal scuttle, but bigger than a quart cider bottle, and it was moving slowly from one side of the street to the other.

           Mr. Jones had approached to within about twenty yards of this object when a motorcycle with two riders shot by him, going at a reckless pace and cutting in very close. Mr. Jones braked sharply, looking in his rearview mirror. When he looked forward again he saw that the motorcycle must have struck the upright object in passing, for it was now lying on its side, just ahead of his front wheels.

           He brought his taxi to a halt.

           “Not but what I daresay I̵l£¼