The Lottie Project [Import] [Paperback]

Jacqueline Wilson (Author), Nick Sharratt (Illustrator)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 11, 2008 | Age Level: 9 and up | Grade Level: 4 and up

Jacqueline Wilson is a bestselling author in England, second only to J. K. Rowling.

Charlie's world is changing -- for the worse. Her new teacher refuses to call her anything but Charlotte. (Blech!) And forces her to sit next to Jamie Edwards, the most revolting stuck-up boring boy in the whole class. (Yuck!) And assigns her a project on the boring Victorian period. (Ugh!) But Charlie's dreary research -- and her active imagination -- leads to some interesting discoveries. Like Lottie . . . a nursemaid whose life in the Victorian era holds some interesting parallels to Charlie's own.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Wilson (Double Act) here introduces an animated heroine who delivers droll observations in a self-assured voice with a decidedly British accent. "I love fooling around, doing crazy things and being a bit sassy and making everyone laugh," announces Charlie (short for Charlotte). Her engaging prattle chronicles events at school--where she tangles with her teacher, bickers with her best friends and works on a project about Victorian life--as well as happenings at home. Charlie's newly unemployed single mother takes on three part-time positions, the most notable being a job as caregiver for a youngster who lives with his father. Much to the girl's chagrin, her mother takes a fancy to her employer. Their evolving relationship provides the backdrop for the novel's most dramatic and poignant scenes, in which Wilson reveals her ability to elicit tears as well as laughter. Between chapters, readers find reproduced "pages" from Charlie's school report--journal-like entries written by a poor Victorian girl who leaves home to help support her family. Wilson creatively reshapes Charlie's own experiences to depict the plight of a girl living 100 years earlier, thus adding new dimension to Charlie's perceptions while offering intriguing period particulars. Sharratt's lively, doodled spot drawings further reinforce the protagonist's view of life, both present and past. To borrow a phrase from Charlie, it would be "easy peasy, simple pimple" to welcome her back. Ages 8-12. (Oct.)
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

Grade 4-6-Charlotte (Charlie) Enright thinks her first day of school will be "Easy-peasy, simple-pimple"-until she meets her new teacher. Miss Beckworth is a no-nonsense type, whereas outspoken Charlie likes to play the class clown. To make matters worse, Miss Beckworth assigns seats alphabetically and Charlie ends up sitting next to Jamie Edwards, the perennial teachers' pet. This year, the class is focusing on the Victorian period; each student is required to do a special project on the era. When Charlie spots a photograph of a nurserymaid about her age, she names her Lottie and writes a diary from the servant's point of view. Lottie's fictional diary entries alternate with Charlie's own story, with the former adding historical detail, and both narratives reflecting the changes in the girl's life. And things are changing for Charlie: her single mother loses her job and becomes romantically involved with the father of the child she now baby-sits, her best friends are suddenly boy crazy, and she finds out that Jamie isn't all that bad after all. Wilson has written a funny, thoughtful novel with a well-developed main character. Charlie's emotions and reactions are true to life-frustration, jealousy, and uncertainty about the future. By turns poignant and humorous, this book is a winner. Sharratt's entertaining pen-and-ink illustrations are scattered throughout, highlighting details from the text.
Terrie Dorio, Santa Monica Public Library, CA
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 9 and up
  
• Paperback: 208 pages
• Publisher: Corgi (November 11, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 044086853X
• ISBN-13: 978-0440868538
• Product Dimensions: 5.1 x 0.6 x 7.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (21 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,190,655 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A lovely book by an amazing story-teller!, March 9, 2002

A Kid's Review

This review is from: The Lottie Project (Paperback)

Once you start reading 'The Lottie Project', you just can't stop. I bought it just yesterday from a book store and I already finished reading it. All the characters are very well-portrayed and the illustrations are amusing. Charlie is an average eleven-year-old with lot's of problems. She doesn't like her new teacher who insists on calling her by her full name, Charlotte. She is made to sit with James Edward, the snobby, goody-two-shoes rich boy. She also has to do a project on the Victorians, whom she hardly knows anything about. But Charlie gets a lovely idea to make a diary for Lottie, a young girl who is sent to work as a nurserymaid in the Victorians' time. She gets quite absorbed in the project and finds that her real life isn't much different from fictional Lottie's. First, her mom loses her good job as a manager and has to do oddjobs like cleaning people's houses and baby-sitting. But worse than that, could Charlie's mom possibly have a boyfriend? All-in-all, an amazing story very well portrayed by a master story-teller. Well worth the money!

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A lovely book by an amazing story-teller!, March 9, 2002

A Kid's Review

This review is from: The Lottie Project (Paperback)

Once you start reading 'The Lottie Project', you just can't stop. I bought it just yesterday from a book store and I already finished reading it. All the characters are very well-portrayed and the illustrations are amusing. Charlie is an average eleven-year-old with lot's of problems. She doesn't like her new teacher who insists on calling her by her full name, Charlotte. She is made to sit with James Edward, the snobby, goody-two-shoes rich boy. She also has to do a project on the Victorians, whom she hardly knows anything about. But Charlie gets a lovely idea to make a diary for Lottie, a young girl who is sent to work as a nurserymaid in the Victorians' time. She gets quite absorbed in the project and finds that her real life isn't much different from fictional Lottie's. First, her mom loses her good job as a manager and has to do oddjobs like cleaning people's houses and baby-sitting. But worse than that, could Charlie's mom possibly have a boyfriend? All-in-all, an amazing story very well portrayed by a master story-teller. Well worth the money!

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Great Book, February 6, 2002

A Kid's Review

This review is from: The Lottie Project (Paperback)

Charlotte Alice Katherine Enright (better known as Charlie) is getting to a point where life has several problems. First of all, she has no father (well, sort of. He left her and her mother when Charlie was very young), so Charlie and her mom aren't exactly the richest people, and live in a small apartment, with one bedroom, a bathroom,and a kitchen. Plus, her single, young mother, Joanne Enright (better known as Jo) has recently started dressing up and wearing makeup for no reason what so ever. And if that wasn't enough, she has even worse problems at school.

Charlie is starting a new year at school, and she thinks that it is going to be a great year, but she is very wrong.This year, she meets the devil: a new, extremely strict teacher named Ms.Beckworth, who ruined everything for Charlie. For example, Charlie was planning on sitting with her best friends Lisa and Angela, but instead, Ms. Beckworth put Lisa and Angela together, and put Charlie with the most irritating, snobby,smarty-pants kid in the whole class: Jamie Edwards. Plus, Ms. Beckworth assigned the class a boring Victorian project, but Charlie decided to give the project a little twist, and that's when the diary of Lottie, the Victorian nursery maid,was born. Will Charlie ever survive this year?

The cute, funny book, The Lottie Project, by Jacqueline Wilson, is an enjoyable, must-read book. I am not alone when I say, "I loved it!". This one-of-a-kind book could never relate to any other books. This book was cutely humorous, and was hard to put down. I really enjoyed the fact that Jacqueline Wilson compared a main character (Charlie) with history (Lottie). If you enjoy books that are just plainly sad, mysterious, or historical, then maybe this isn't‚ your match. But, if you are a person who enjoys a cheery story with a tint of sadness, a speckle of mystery, and a tad bit of history, then this is definitely the book for you!