Arabel and Mortimer: Books 4-6
by Joan Aiken
Arabel and Mortimer (Collections and Selections — Omnibus 4-6)
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Presents three previously published works about a pet raven named Mortimer, who talks, eats everything in sight, and causes all sorts of trouble.Tags
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Arabel Jones and her raven companion, Mortimer, return in this second collection of short stories, following the initial title, Arabel's Raven. In Mortimer's Tie, Mortimer's quest to find a diamond eventually wins the Jones family a free cruise. But will Mortimer's penchant for disaster ruin their vacation? In The Spiral Stair, Mortimer finds himself in a feud with two donut-stealing giraffes when he and Arabel visit a zoo. And in Mortimer and the Sword Excalibur, Mortimer is more interested in trying to drive the lawnmower than in seeing the famed sword, with the expected disastrous results.
The fun continues in this second collection of stories, illustrated by Quentin Blake, and perfect for the beginning chapter-book reader. As show more mentioned in my review of Arabel's Raven, these stories are also published individually in the UK. show less
The fun continues in this second collection of stories, illustrated by Quentin Blake, and perfect for the beginning chapter-book reader. As show more mentioned in my review of Arabel's Raven, these stories are also published individually in the UK. show less
Mortimer floats out to sea on a grand piano, tries to get even with three giraffes that have stolen his doughnuts at the zoo, and takes off with King Arthur's sword. Will Arabel ever be able to control her troublemaking pet raven?
Includes:
- Mortimer's Tie
- The Spiral Stair
- Mortimer and the Sword Excalibur
Includes:
- Mortimer's Tie
- The Spiral Stair
- Mortimer and the Sword Excalibur
Arabel and Mortimer's hilarious adventures continue on a cruise ship, at the zoo, and in the park! This collection contains the stories: Mortimer's Tie, The Spiral Stair, and Mortimer and the Sword Excalibur.
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Children's Humor
51 works; 6 members
Books I've Read More Than Once
602 works; 49 members
Read in 2003
81 works; 1 member
Author Information
215+ Works 19,784 Members
Joan Delano Aiken was born in Rye, Sussex, England, on September 4, 1924, the daughter of the Pulitzer Prize winner, writer Conrad Aiken. She was raised in a rural area and home schooled by her mother until the age 12. She then attended Wychwood School, a boarding school in Oxford. Her work first appeared in 1941 when the British Broadcasting show more Corporation, where she worked as a librarian, broadcast some of her short stories on their Children's Hour program. Aiken also worked at St. Thomas's Hospital, and in 1943 she moved to the reference department of the London office of the United Nations, where she collected information about resistance movements. She worked for the UN until 1949, all the while continuing to write stories. In 1953 a collection of short fiction called All You've Ever Wanted and Other Stories was published. While writing The Wolves of Willoughby Chase, begun in 1952, her husband became ill and died of lung cancer in 1955. After working for five years as a copy editor at Argosy Magazine, and at the J. Walter Thompson Advertising Firm, she returned and finished the book in 1963. The Wolves of Willoughby Chase won the Lewis Carroll Shelf Award and was made into a successful film in 1988. In 1969 The Whispering Mountain won the Guardian Children's Book Award, and in 1972, Night Fall won America's Edgar Allen Poe Award for juvenile mystery. Aiken is best known for her adult "fantasy" stories. She has received awards for children's fiction and for mystery fiction, and has also written ''sequels'' to Jane Austen books. She collaborated with her daughter to write many episodes of her Arabel and Mortimer the raven series for the BBC. In all, Aiken wrote 92 novels - including 27 for adults - as well as plays, poems and short stories, although she was best known as a writer of children's stories. Joan Aiken died in January of 2004 at the age of 79. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
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Awards
Series
Arabel and Mortimer (Collections and Selections — Omnibus 4-6)
Common Knowledge
- Canonical title
- Arabel and Mortimer: Books 4-6
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- Members
- 163
- Popularity
- 197,504
- Reviews
- 3
- Rating
- (4.25)
- Languages
- English, German
- Media
- Paper, Audiobook, Ebook
- ISBNs
- 19
- ASINs
- 2
