Saturday, April 02, 2016

Absolutely One Thing

Absolutely One Thing. Lauren Child. 2016. Candlewick. 32 pages. [Source: Review copy]

First sentence: I have this little sister, Lola. She is small and very funny. Sometimes for a treat, Mom says, "We are going to the store and you may choose one thing." "One thing EACH," I say, "or ONE thing between two?" And Mom says, "Each."

Premise/plot: Charlie and Lola are brother and sister. Charlie takes great care of his little sister. And he's surprisingly very patient, very kind, very tender with her. Lola is without a doubt a handful! In this new book, Charlie and Lola are going to the store. If they can get ready and out the door. If LOLA can get ready and out the door that is. Nothing goes quite as planned with these two... Which gives the author plenty of opportunity to sneak some math lessons into the story itself.

For example:
It takes me three minutes to brush my teeth, one minute to remember that I have forgotten to eat breakfast, four minutes to eat my puffa pops, three minutes to brush my teeth again and eight minutes to find Lola's left shoe. That makes us nine minutes late.
My thoughts: I love, love, love, LOVE Charlie and Lola. I thought I had made peace with the idea of there being no more new Charlie and Lola books. So I was surprised and thrilled to see a new one being published! This book is FUN and delightful. It is a very strong addition to the series. It isn't just an adaptation of a TV episode, a somewhat weaker imitation of Lauren Child's beloved characters. This book captures the heart and soul of what makes this series great.

Text: 5 out of 5
Illustrations: 5 out of 5
Total: 10 out of 10


© 2016 Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews

3 comments:

Katie Edwards said...

The Charlie and Lola books are something special! My favourite is something like "I will not ever, NEVER eat a tomato," because I was a very fussy eater as a child. Lola is such a bright, stubborn little girl, and the illustrations are full of character.

Joy Weese Moll said...

The cover is so bright and fun!

Laurie C said...

I'm not familiar with the Charlie and Lola books, but I love Candlewick Press, so I'm sure they're a lot of fun to read!