SOLVED. YA book about adoption and foster. Two girls, one I think was called Arabella. For children but mature. [s]

[Me]

I read this about 3 years ago. It’s about a girl whose name I think was Arabella. It starts with her on a bus going to the hospital to cure her sick mother. On the way a woman gives her money to buy medication. But her mother dies because there was no medicines at the hospital. Her little sister was named star but in a different language, however she dies as a baby. She lives with her grandmother somewhere in Africa. Her mean uncle went to England and found a girlfriend whose name I think is Sally or Sadie, who he marries without the proper papers back in their home church. They want to return to England but need a child to do that, so they take her with them. Her uncle is stuck in Africa so she has to live in a tiny flat with his girlfriend, until her uncle returns. His girlfriend makes her do all the work, and reassures her that it will all get better when her uncle comes and that ‘they will be like a proper family’. Meanwhile in a different place in England, it’s a girl who loves ice skating’s birthday, and her mum is going to get her a foster sibling. Her mum fosters a boy whose father is healing in hospital. She hates him because her time that she spends with her mother, ice skating, is ruined because he has to come along. He also never cries even when she put his food in the bin. The boys dad eventually heals and he takes the boy back home which makes the girls mother heartbroken because she grew to love him as her own son. The other girl (I think her name was Arabella) runs way because her life is getting worse, her uncle hasn’t returned and she is trying to find a way back to her grandma. She ends up meeting a teacher who turned out to be the women who gave her the money back in Africa. This teacher tells her that apparently her grandma died already. The other girls mum decides to adopt someone permanently, and they end up getting Arabella. They like each other because Arabella hates ice skating because she scraped her knee and screamed the rink down. Instead on her mum and her night out, Arabella stays with their grandparents. I thought the name of the book was Arabella but I can’t find it anywhere.

[Becca]

The Girl Who Saw Lions by Berlie Doherty. Her name is Abela - you were close with Arabella!

[Me]

Thank you so much!!