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Short-legged, funny-voiced Arabella feels like an old friend, and children will feel a kinship to her from the first line of the book: "Arabella Anastasia was not an ordinary girl." For one thing, she wants extraordinarily badly to be famous. As she ponders and ponders how she might achieve that goal, "ALL OF A SUDDEN SHE KNEW!" She decides to become a famous painter, so she tries to mak... More

Short-legged, funny-voiced Arabella feels like an old friend, and children will feel a kinship to her from the first line of the book: "Arabella Anastasia was not an ordinary girl." For one thing, she wants extraordinarily badly to be famous. As she ponders and ponders how she might achieve that goal, "ALL OF A SUDDEN SHE KNEW!" She decides to become a famous painter, so she tries to make her paintings "as beautiful as all the other paintings she had seen. But her colors always ran together and the lines were always crooked." Undaunted, she decides to become a famous actress. She tries to act like other famous actors, but she still can't help being late, forgetful, and, well, "indescribably Arabella." Finally, when her attempts to be a famous dancer fail, and she just about gives up on her dream, she is befriended by two little old people. At their request, she paints a picture for them ("the most unusual picture that the two little old people had ever seen"), acts out a play for them ("the most unusual performance that the two little old people had ever seen"), and does an unusual dance for them, too, which they of course adore. And, as luck would have it, "Now Arabella performs for the whole neighborhood, so you see she HAS become famous after all." Jane Gilbert's Indescribably Arabella, first written in 1947 but never published, is a truly timeless story of individuality and perseverance with a delightfully bizarre illustration style and design (with cursive writing for the text) that we hope will endure for generations. (Ages 4 to 8) --Karin Snelson

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