Isabelle the Itch

by Constance C. Greene

Meet Isabelle, the original itch

Isabelle is an itch. She can’t sit still and is always jumping from one thing to another. Being an itch means that she plans, jokes, plots, and schemes her way through life. Isabelle fights her best friend, Herbie, every day after school, and she’s probably the fastest girl in her class, especially now that she has her new Adidas sneakers. Isabelle’s dad says she could climb a mountain if she could just focus on one thing at a time. But why do one thing when you could do ten?

When her older brother needs a substitute for his morning paper route, Isabelle has a chance to prove to everyone, especially herself, that she can channel her energy into something useful.

In this, the first in Constance C. Greene’s rollicking Isabelle series, readers will discover that a little determination can make all the difference.

Genres: Fiction, Childrens

119 pages, ebook

First published January 1, 1973

About the author

Born on October 27th, 1924, Constance C. Greene, the daughter of newspaper reporters, published A Girl Called Al (Viking, 1969) the story about a very intelligent girl who is an under-achiever and latch key kid, although Greene says that at the time of the writing the term wasn't being used yet. Al was a likable character and other books followed.

One of Greene's most popular books, Beat the Turtle Drum (Viking 1976), came from personal experience. At the age of eleven, Greene's sister died. The story relates how a young girl learns to cope with the accidental death of her sister. The book was adapted for television in 1976 as Very Good Friends and was shown on the ABC After-school Special.

Greene also wrote other juvenile and adult novels, among them Nora: Maybe a Ghost Story and Isabelle the Itch.

—Leslie Greaves Radloff

Reviews

[Natalie]

This was cute. Isabelle's not always a good friend but you can see her starting to figure that out as the book goes on.