Lissy's Friends [Hardcover]

Grace Lin (Author)

Book Description

Age Level: 3 and up | Grade Level: P and up

What do you do when you’re the new girl at school? If you’re Lissy, you make a friend. A paper friend. And to Lissy’s surprise, her little origami bird opens his eyes and says hello! So she quickly makes more friends. And soon Lissy has more friends than she can count!

But what do you do when your friends have to leave? If you’re Lissy, you make another friend . . . but this time one that stays.

Utterly imaginative and charming, Lissy’s Friends is a fresh take on the importance of friendship.

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

During her first day at her new school, Lissy feels ignored, so while eating lunch alone, she creates an origami bird to keep her company. Then the bird, which she names Menu, magically flutters to life. With Menu in her pocket, Lissy feels better, and she folds more paper friends. At the playground, Lissy spins her menagerie on the merry-go-'round and loses them in the wind, but happily, a girl finds and returns Menu, and a new friendship begins. With a minimal, evenly paced text, Lin's story captures authentic new-student feelings. Like many kids, Lissy works through her loneliness privately, rather than by telling a parent, but her inventive methods will reassure kids. Lin's bright, cheerful paintings, enlivened with colorful, origami-paper-inspired patterns, boost the story's comforting tone, and a final image, showing Lissy's blown-away paper friends in Paris enjoying coffee, adds to the whimsy. Origami instructions appear on the endpapers. A solid choice for children harboring new-school anxieties, this will partner well with Helen Stephens' Blue Horse (2003), which has a similar premise. Engberg, Gillian
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

About the Author

Grace Lin lives in Somerville, Massachusetts. She has written and illustrated many children’s books, including Year of the Dog and Dim Sum for Everyone.

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 3 and up
  
• Hardcover: 40 pages
• Publisher: Viking Juvenile (May 17, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0670060720
• ISBN-13: 978-0670060726
• Product Dimensions: 10.2 x 8.4 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #783,526 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Hello! Thanks so much for your interest in me and my books!

I grew up in Upstate NY with my parents and 2 sisters, whom are featured in many of my books, including "Dim Sum For Everyone!" and my novels, "The Year of the Dog" and "The Year of the Rat." My mother and I were the star characters in my first book, "The Ugly Vegetables"--I cut both my sisters out of that story! They were quite upset with me and made me promise never to cut them out again. And since then, I haven't...yet.

While many of my books highlight my family, not all of them do. My Newbery Honor-winning novel "Where the Mountain Meets the Moon," is an Asian inspired fantasy that some people call a Chinese 'Wizard of Oz,' and my early reader "Ling & Ting" is inspired by the old 'Flicka, Dicka & Ricka' books I read when I was young.

I hope you enjoy my books. Please visit my website: www.gracelin.com for more info about them (behind the scene stories and pictures) as well as other amusing anecdotes!

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Getting by with a little help from her friends, May 22, 2007

By 

E. R. Bird "Ramseelbird" (Manhattan, NY) - See all my reviews
(HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (TOP 100 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Lissy's Friends (Hardcover)

Origami. I could never do origami. As a kid it didn't matter if you wanted me to fold a crane, a frog, or a paper hat. For all the logic involved, origami was equal in difficulty to playing the accordion so I never really took to it as a result. It's the old if-you-can't-do-something-it-must-not-be-worth-doing argument. What I did like to do, though, was play with inanimate objects and give them distinct personalities. Not your usual toys and dolls, necessarily. I'd have sweeping romances involving crayons and the coloring pages they were in love with. Epic battles and court intrigue could come out of a deck of playing cards (particularly if the Jacks looked nefarious and cruel). So as it is, I found "Lissy's Friends," by Grace Lin to be a perfect intersection of something I loathed as a kid and something I loved. Where does that leave the book? Firmly in the latter category, I'm happy to report.

Being the new girl in school can be infinitely lonely. Lissy's kind of a solitary gal to begin with and when no one talks to her or sits with her at lunchtime, she creates a little paper crane out of a nearby lunch menu. To her delight, the crane comes alive and Lissy has literally "made" a friend. When her mother (misunderstanding, naturally) says that she's sure that Lissy will make lots of friends the next day, her daughter guarantees that this will be true. Now she swamped in wonderful friends of every shape and size, "And Lissy was never alone." Unfortunately, when a ride on the merry-go-round in a stiff breeze sends her companions heavenward, this moment of despair is quickly alleviated by a girl like Lissy who's interested in her origami skills. Now Lissy has human friends by her side while her former companions are now taking a bit of café au lait on the banks of Paree.

There is a moment in this book where Lin could have lost her readers entirely (at least her grown-up ones) had her writing been heavy-handed or icky sweet. It is when Lissy's first origami creature, the paper crane, it comes to life in her hands. Some artist/illustrators would have imbued this moment with a great deal of silliness. With Lin, however, the moment just hangs there. For some reason, it makes perfect sense; not goofy or sentimental. Just a magical little occurrence that could be real or the figment of a lonely little girl's imagination. Even the happy ending where the once missing origami friends write Lissy a missive from Paris comes across as more touching than cutesy. I also loved that in Lissy's mind, her animals (with the exception of the original little stork) become the size of their real-life equivalents. The giraffe and elephant tower above Lissy, while the tiny mouse and crab (origami crabs?) scuttle beneath her feet.

Lin's art is what I like to call deceptively simple. Clean pen-and-ink lines and supposedly simple human figures make up most of the scenes. But Lin has possibly outdone herself with this book. Lissy creates at least twenty different origami friends, and each one is made out of a different kind of paper. Their designs and colors never repeat twice. In one scene, Lissy and friends look out the window at some kids who are going to the nearby playground. Not only are the animals realistic looking origami critters, all folds and bends, but the curtains, floor, wallpaper, and Lissy's shoes, pants, and jacket are ALL different colors and patterns as well! You'd think this sort of thing would hurt to look at or, at the very least, take in. Not the case. But what about when the animals disappear? Would that mean that the book becomes dull and less interesting? Not if you consider that the kids Lissy befriends by the end are all wearing their own distinctive patterns and colors. There were other little lovely details as well. The book takes place in the fall and feels particularly autumnal from scene to scene. I also loved Lissy's "secret smile" she keeps when she thinks of the living little paper crane who is her first friend.

In the back of the book lie step-by-step instructions for creating your own paper cranes. They're pretty straightforward, but be sure you have your origami skills well-sharpened when the child in your life demands a crane just like the one in the book. When people ask me at my library for books about making friends, I think I'll take them at their word from here on in. The making doesn't happen to be a problem. It's the keeping that takes some work. A gentle, genuinely touching little tale.

5.0 out of 5 stars lissy...lovely story., June 5, 2011

By 

D. W. McKenney "diamond_mcsweenie" (NY) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Lissy's Friends (Hardcover)

This has been my daughter's favorite book for several years. Like Lissy, she was very shy, and loved beautiful arty things. She was enchanted by the origami animals. Reading along as Lissy learned to fit in and make friends helped my girl be brave enough too.

5.0 out of 5 stars All things bright and beautiful, July 6, 2008

By 

ilovebooks4kids (Somerset County, NJ, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Lissy's Friends (Hardcover)

Grace Lin's bold, rich illustration style makes her newest title leap off the shelf. If you pick it up, you and your child will not be disappointed.

Lissy is the new girl in school, and when she doesn't attract new friends, she decides to make one herself by folding her lunch menu into an origami paper crane. My child loved the play on the phrase "make a friend" and giggled when it was repeated in the tale.

Lin's vibrant illustrations become the star of the story. Each origami friend is fashioned from a new patterned paper, and Lissy's clothing also looks as pretty as chiyogami. The wallpaper, her umbrella, the sky--every element is colored with whimsy, yet the multiple colors and patterns do not overwhelm. Children will have fun spotting each origami animal in the illustrations, especially the tiny, magical "Menu" who started it all.

Lin's text, in contrast, is simple and straightforward, telling a sweet story of friendship without being too sugary.

The book even includes instructions to fold your own paper crane, but I have to admit I still haven't gotten it right. You may want to pick up an origami instruction book with Lissy's Friends because your child will definitely want to make their own friends!