6 h 34 minAudiobook16 minSummaryRead it, hear it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at costPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
How do you find your place at a new school without leaving yourself behind?
Tabitha comes to Ivy Hall with a spirited nature and a place to find among other girls. In Ruth Brown MacArthur's school story, a new community brings questions of friendship and belonging. At its heart is a simple tension: wanting to be part of the group while holding on to what makes you yourself.
Tabitha at Ivy Hall explores kindness, the wish to fit in, and the courage to remain yourself. School life gives these ideas a concrete setting: a girl among other girls, learning what it means to belong. The appeal lies in that personal struggle, with friendship at the centre rather than fast action or dark themes.
What you’ll discover
- A spirited young heroine Meet Tabitha as she enters Ivy Hall and seeks a place in its community.
- The pull of belonging Explore the wish to fit in without giving up your own nature.
- Kindness at the heart Consider how kindness helps shape friendship in a story centred on girls' school life.
- Courage to be yourself Follow a theme that makes a spirited girl's search for acceptance feel personal.
- An old-fashioned school world Spend time with a gentle school story where friendship and belonging take centre stage.
Who will love it
Readers who love spirited heroines, school friendships, poems to recite, and warm family stories, and anyone who enjoys frontier mining towns, lively dialogue, and a girl learning to master her own fierce heart.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- A girl who hates her name
- A grand name brings grand trouble
- Kindness comes in unexpected forms
- Temper, a melon, and an apology
- Courage on the desert
- A stranger's gift and a father yields
- Ivy Hall and the friends it brings
- What the book is really about
- How the story is told
Who’s who
- Tabitha CattA black-eyed, quick-tempered girl who hates her name, loves reciting poems, and longs for friends and a real home.
- Tom CattHer gentle older brother, who protects her and works hard to earn a college education.
- Maximilian CattTheir stern, restless father, a prospector bitter about the past, who struggles to show love.
- Aunt MariaThe fussy aunt who keeps the house, fears the desert, and finally speaks plainly to her brother.
- Carrie CarsonA kind, fair-haired mine superintendent's daughter who becomes Tabitha's first true friend.
- Mrs. VaneA frail, wise doctor's wife who teaches Tabitha to count to ten and to say sorry.
- Miss PomeroyThe silver-haired principal of Ivy Hall, who guides her girls with firmness and motherly warmth.
- Chrystobel ClaytonTabitha's spoiled, beautiful roommate at school, who learns to share and to care for others.
Formats and delivery
- eBook
- On your phone, tablet, computer or Kindle, with the type as large as you like.
- Large-print eBook
- The same book in bigger, clearer type, from the first page.
- Audiobook
- 6 h 34 min, complete, read by Lucas Linden.
- 15-minute summary
- The key ideas in about 16 minutes, to read or to hear.
- Paperback
- 6 × 9 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
- Hardcover
- 6 × 9 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
- Large print paperback
- 8.5 × 11 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
- Large print hardcover
- 8.5 × 11 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
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Tabitha at Ivy Hall
by Ruth Brown MacArthur · 1911
A girl who hates her name recites war poems at the top of her voice and fights anyone who teases her.
Medium level5–10 hours to read25 languages
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In short
Tabitha at Ivy Hall is a children's novel by Ruth Brown MacArthur, set in the early years of the twentieth century among the mining camps of the American desert and a girls' boarding school in California. It follows Tabitha Catt, a black-eyed, quick-tempered girl who hates the name her father gave her.
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
A girl who hates her name
The story opens on a dusty road in Ferndale. A thin, sunburned girl stands beside a ten-quart pail of blackberries and acts out a war poem about Barbara Fritchie, using a mullein stalk for a flag. A boy named Joe Pomeroy laughs at her from a tree and chants a rhyme about Tabby Catt. In a flash she drags him down and pounds him with her fists.
A tall, bearded man pulls her off, and she does not know him at first. He is her father, Maximilian Catt, home from the mines after almost a year away. He marches her home, forbids her any berries, and sends her to bed without food. In a fury she flings the whole pail into the yard and grinds the fruit into the sand with her bare feet.
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What is Tabitha at Ivy Hall about?
It tells of Tabitha Catt, a quick-tempered girl who hates her name and moves with her family to a desert mining town, then to a California boarding school, where she finds friends and learns to master her temper.
Why does Tabitha hate her name?
Her last name is Catt, and her father also gave her the first name Tabitha. Children sing teasing rhymes about Tabby Catt, so she dreams of a grand new name and fights anyone who laughs.
Who is Ivy Hall's principal, and what is the school like?
Miss Pomeroy, a silver-haired and motherly principal, runs Ivy Hall in California. It is a school of ivy-covered halls, friendly teachers, evening chapel, and girls who share rooms, gifts, and holiday fun.
The author
Ruth Brown MacArthur
American children's author
Ruth Brown MacArthur wrote stories for girls in the early twentieth century, and Tabitha Catt is the heroine of a small series. Her books show a world of mining camps, small schools, family chores, and recited poems. She writes with a warm, moral voice and a ready humor, and her heroines are lively, honest, and flawed.
More by Ruth Brown MacArthur
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