I COMPLETELY KNOW ABOUT GUINEA PIGS

Where, oh where, is Soren Lorenson? The effervescent Lola has lost both her imaginary friend and her effervescence. The branding statements on the cover—“Charlie and Lola ™” and, wrapped ’round in Mouse ears, “Playhouse Disney”—give clues, which the verso of the title page confirms, in a teeny-tiny font: “Text based on the script written by Paul Larson and Laura Beaumont. Illustrations from the TV animation produced by Tiger Aspect.” (Catalog that.) Sure, it looks like a Lauren Child book, with its dizzy collage design that combines fabric, photographs and spiky-haired cartoons, but the resemblance ends there. Lola’s sturdy older brother Charlie is no longer a foil for his irrepressible little sister but merely her narrator, as she expresses her longing to babysit the class guinea pig for the vacation and then in short order loses it. Hmmm—didn’t Clarice Bean do that first (Clarice Bean, Guess Who’s Babysitting?, 2001)? Not only will children looking for an original Charlie and Lola story not find one, they won’t even find an original story, period. Shame on everyone involved in this borderline-fraudulent endeavor. (Picture book. 3-6)