When my son was about 7 or 8, a series of these Arabella and the Raven stories ran in Cricket magazine. My son adored them.. the fun of them, the crazy imaginative part of them. I bought the books again so that I could read them to my grandson who loves the whacky and askew humor in the same way my son did. I highly recommend these books...all of them by this author. She's very very good.used to read these books as a child from the library its good to read them againGreat condition book and really enjoyed reading this with my daughter.Mortimer has made me laugh since I heard the stories on jackanory about forty years ago.My kids love the stories. But very expensive, (maybe this is the reason why?).All of this series are worth buying very funny and fantastic girl character not stereotyped at all.