How brave can a little girl be when her beloved bear goes missing? Arthur always keeps Bella safe at night. He is bold and brave and sees off the scary monsters so that Bella can dream of all her favourite things. But one night, Arthur is missing. Where can he be? Bella finds him tucked up with her baby brother. Bella makes a brave choice. She can manage bedtime without Arthur and, triumphantly, she does so! Full of atmosphere, this is a touching story of how a little girl grows up.
Bella has a bear named Arthur. Like other bears, he's soft and cuddly. Unlike other bears, Arthur knows karate and works tirelessly all night to protect Bella from monsters, dragons, slugs, and other things that lurk in the shadows. One night, Arthur goes missing. Her mother, her father, and her little brother search high and low, but he is nowhere to be found. Will Bella ever find him again? Or can she find a way to be brave all on her own?
Jess Meserve was born in America and grew up there and in the UK. She graduated with both a BA and an MA in Illustration from Edinburgh College of Art. Since then she has done a number of highly praised fiction jackets, including At the Firefly Gate by Linda Newbery, and black and white inside illustrations for fiction, including Keith Gray's Smarties Award Winning title The Runner (Random House) and Drawing Together (Walker). She moved to Canada in 2004, and is now living in Edmonton, Alberta
