Customer Reviews

Lottie's New Beach Towel

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

In her afterward, author Petra Mathers informs us, in part, "...Looking back, I think Lottie's World on Crook Road in Oysterville has always been there. Finally, one day, the fog lifted and I could see it all clearly..." She later states, "Things happen whether I'm there or not, and I don't want you to miss anything." That could be taken as a cute invitation to children to engage their imaginations with her, along the lines of Shel Silverstein's, "If You are a Dreamer," intro to "Where the Sidewalk Ends." On the other hand, it could also be taken as a window into our author's psychotic process. That would be the more cynical interpretation, but after reading "Lottie's New Beach Towel," I'm really inclined to believe the latter. There is a surreal, dreamy disorganization to this book. The action starts with Lottie, the chicken, squeezing lemons when a beach towel arrives from her aunt. Soon she at the beach, hopping from her towel to the cooler, to the towel, to the cooler (the sands hot), and ultimately into the cool water. She mistakes her own chicken-foot for a starfish. So far, good stuff. Her buddy Herbie shows up on a boat. A couple half pages of choppy action and- with a call of "Hard to lee," which I imagine means something, they are stranded on an Island. Suddenly they are in the middle of a wedding. At this point, I was a tad befuddled. I thought I had been skipping pages. But after a nice ceremony and party, they find their way home and Lottie, bloated from excessive wedding cake, writes a thank you note to her aunt for the towel.

I don't know, I'm not really knocking the book. My daughter loved it, it's sort of cute and interesting. But it just made my mind spin a little, it was like Fellini directed an episode of Felix the Cat. It made me wonder whether Mathers is a genius writing a kid's book that was over my head or if her wiring is a little on the loose side and she's learned to channel her associations into mildly entertaining dreamy stories.

But thumbs up. It passes the important test in my home ("Read it again Daddy"), and the illustrations are quirky-quaint-cool.

I am a children's librarian, and I find this book to be extremely charming. The folksy paintings are a treat to behold, and the story and characters are cleverly drawn. There is much humor, both subtle and obvious, that helps make this a picture book to read more than once.

My daughters are all teenagers now, and therefore pretty far over picture book age. Still, every summer we bring out Lottie's New Beach Towel to the family room coffee table so we can enjoy and re-appreciate the wry humor and simple, colorful illustrations on every page. It's the best of summer in a book.

The illustrations are just wonderful in this book and so is the story. If you love the beach, you will definitely enjoy this. Lottie uses her beach towel in a variety of ways, to walk on when the beach is hot, as a sail when Herbie's boat stops running, as a bridal veil. And it is great that Lottie writes a thank-you note to her Aunt Mattie for the towel. The text is simple to read, but it is slightly more "grown-up" in nature compared to other childrens books we have. Nonetheless, since we are avid readers, my three year old loves it and we also have "Lottie's New Friend".

My 16-month old daughter LOVES this book and the cute illustrations - grandma has been "forced" to read it over and over and it has kept her attention. We're looking forward to getting the other books in the series.

This is the first in a series of 3 books with Lottie the Hen and Herbie the Duck. Wonderful illustrations, sweet stories. Highly recommended.

My 3 Year old laughed out loud at Lottie's antics. The brief text is accompanying by charming pictures that tell the rest of the story. This book is a great gift for any child who loves the beach.

As far as our family of four is concerned, Lottie's world created (or captured?) by Perta Mathers is a treasure. These books are quirky, funny and magical. We've read them to our kids over and over and it always feels like taking a nice little trip together.

In Mather's books, things happen as if they would in real life, only everything is non-threatening, everyone is friendly and nice and the world is a wonderful place.

Lottie's New Beach Towel was the first one of the series that we had bought years back when our younger daughter was just a baby. Since then, we made sure we got them all.

I only wish Petra wrote one or two more... We want to know what's going on in Oysterville.

I found this book to be poorly written. It does not flow very well. Honestly, it didn't make much sense. I "got" the point but the lack of any detail just failed what could have been an excellent story. The illustrations are quite charming, but it doesn't save the narrative. It did not hold the attention of the 5 YO that I read to today. However, it might work with a children under two or three who just want to look at the pictures and create their own story.