Arabella: New Hardcover with Dust Jacket, First Edition, Signed by Wendy Orr

Arabella is a rare thing in picture books: it is a genuinely exciting story. The main character, a boy named Matthew, impulsively takes his grandfather’s sailboat out after a storm. But he doesn’t read the weather right. Away from the shore, the high winds and powerful waves threaten to capsize the sailboat or sweep him off the deck.

Arabella is rare in another way as well. Matthew is disabled. He uses a wheelchair to get around. But the story is not in any way about Matthew’s disability. Author Wendy Orr never mentions the wheelchair in the text, although it is clearly visible in Kim Gamble’s illustrations.

Arabella has long been out of print. This is a new first edition, in hardcover, printed in 1998. It has been signed by Wendy Orr, and has come from her personal collection.