Charlie likes her life, and would like everything to stay just as it is, but Fate has other plans for her: a strict new teacher, Miss Beckworth (who insists on calling her Charlotte), a different seat assignment (next to Jamie Edwards), and a mother who’s acting as if her new employer is more than just a friend. As Charlie’s perfect life starts to unravel, she takes refuge in a school project, composing the diary of a Victorian nursery maid named Lottie whose life has roots in Charlotte’s own, e.g, she has a teacher named Miss Worthbeck. Although US readers may be unfamiliar with some of the Briticisms, the tone and content of Charlie’s conversations with her friends and her mother are spot on and instantly recognizable. The small, black-and-white, cartoon-like drawings scattered throughout the book serve as graphic exclamation points for Charlie’s ongoing struggles to master her emotions and adjust to change. Funny, incisive, and true to life, this book introduces a heroine who is easy to root for’she’s a terrific combination of feisty and fragile. (Fiction. 9-12)
Pub Date: Oct. 1, 1999
ISBN: 0-385-32718-8
Page Count: 214
Publisher: Delacorte
Review Posted Online: May 20, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 1999
Categories: CHILDREN'S FAMILY
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One of a four-book series designed to help the very young prepare for new siblings, this title presents a toddler-and-mother pair (the latter heavily pregnant) as they read about new babies, sort hand-me-downs, buy new toys, visit the obstetrician and the sonographer, speculate and wait. Throughout, the child asks questions and makes exclamations with complete enthusiasm: “How big is the baby? What does it eat? I felt it move! Is it a boy or girl?” Fuller’s jolly pictures present a biracial family that thoroughly enjoys every moment together. It’s a bit oversimplified, but no one can complain about the positive message it conveys, appropriately, to its baby and toddler audience. The other titles in the New Baby series are My New Baby (ISBN: 978-1-84643-276-7), Look at Me! (ISBN: 978-1-84643-278-1) and You and Me (ISBN: 978-1-84643-277-4). (Board book. 18 mos.-3)
Pub Date: Jan. 1, 2010
ISBN: 978-1-84643-275-0
Page Count: 12
Publisher: Child's Play
Review Posted Online: June 3, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2010
Categories: CHILDREN'S FAMILY
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BOOK REVIEW
A girl and her sister start off rather glumly in the back seat of the car, leaving all their friends behind, because they are off to a family party. When they arrive, they are kissed by Aunt Joan—the worst—and then there is more kissing and a bunch of cousins just hanging around. But the kids start sharing war stories (hair cuts, lost teeth, split lips) and playing shark on the lawn; there are hideouts under Uncle John’s chair and potato-chip thievery; and then there is all that food beloved of family gatherings, for it is Gran’s birthday. At the end, of course, no one wants to go home. In sprightly rhyme, Reid captures the range of experience, from initial wariness to high hilarity, present at parties full of relatives. Her illustrations, done in painted Plasticine on board, have a wonderful texture, making a Hawaiian shirt, three-bean salad, and Mary Jane shoes pop out of the page. A treat. (Picture book. 4-9)
Pub Date: April 1, 1999
ISBN: 0-590-97801-2
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 1999
Categories: CHILDREN'S FAMILY
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