Bella Up, Up, and Away

PreS-Gr 2—Bella, the adventure-seeking calico cat introduced in Bella Lost and Found, meets a new friend and embarks on a daring rescue on her quest for excitement at the seashore. Although her new feline companion, Claude, agrees to join her, he cautiously remains on shore while Bella chases fish in the surf. When she builds an elaborate sand castle and imagines herself as a courageous medieval knight, Claude declares that he would prefer to take a nap. He curls up on a life raft and is eventually swept out to sea. His cries for help arouse Bella from her daydreams, and taking inspiration from gulls flying overhead, she flies to her friend's aid, attached to a kite she finds in the sand. She loses her grip on the kite, however, and ends up adrift with Claude. An ominous-looking fin circling their raft fortunately belongs to a friendly dolphin, who tows them to shore, where the friends share a meal in Bella's lighthouse home. The stylized depictions of the two felines on the cover aptly convey their different personalities, and the mixed-media and digital illustrations within offer several seascapes punctuated by hand-lettered onomatopoeic phrases throughout. Repeated images from the story appear on the endpapers.