Quite a dull book
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This is a pretty minimalist book. Whole pages are taken up by a plate of fish fingers, a potato or a plate of peas, and there are only 30 pages to begin with. There is no story to speak of, the book consisting of a repetitive series of mealtime conversational snippets. The illustrations are basic.
My young son was bored with it at the first go and did not want to renew acquaintance with it. There are hundreds of more stimulating, more imaginative books out there - why bother with this?
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I love Charlie and Lola!
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There aren't many bad things about having more than one child. The prospect of repeated re-reads of the same stories that the last child has just grown out of (in our case, I guess it was probably the Usborne "Apple Tree Farm" books) is one minor negative.
However, Charlie and Lola appeared after the birth of our last child, and so we were able to add these books to our bookshelf. Lauren Child's illustrations are utterly charming, and the text captures the "special" spoken form of a cheeky pre-schooler ("I will never not ever eat a tomato!").
This book is about Lola's fussy eating habits, which her brother Charlie manages to overcome with the sort of subterfuge that will be familiar to many a parent (we managed to persuade a child to eat tuna and pasta by telling her it was tuna and conchiglie, which was at least true!).
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The original - and best!
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As the (now BBC-powered) Charlie and Lola juggenaut rolls on it is worth remembering that this is where it all started.
A well-deserved winner of the prestigious Kate Greenaway medal for 'distinguished illustration in a book for children' this book would nevertheless not work nearly as well without the author's uncanny ability to get inside a child's mind and wrap the result in such disarmingly charming prose.
The story is narrated in the first person by Charlie establishing a very firm child's perspective from the outset. Additionally the absence of adults from the storyline other than by reference (a la the famous 'Peanuts' strips by Charles Schultz) serves to seal the story almost hermetically into a children's world allowing them to explore, seemingly without inhibition, this often angst-ridden theme.
I must have read this story to Alice (now 3 1/2) over a hundred times over the last three years, and despite her having watched it countless times on DVD as well there seems to be no end in sight for its run of popularity.
If you want Charlie and Lola in book form this is absolutely the place to start. If you like this I would also recommend "I Am Not Sleepy and I Will Not Go To Bed" and "I Am Too Absolutely Small For School". The books that follow are inferior bi-products of the TV episodes and in my view fit for DVD consumption only.
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brilliant
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I brought this book for my children 2 years ago,when they were aged 4 and 2 and they stil love it now.
Great story line about a fussy eater and how she is encoraged to eat by her brother charlie who pretends mash potatoes are cloud fluff and carrots are orange twiglets etc.also has lovely pictures.Can't wait for the next book to be released about lola and Charlie.
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Captured my nephews imagination from the first page!
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As I was babysitting my 4 year old nephew at Christmas, and he is a fussy eater, I thought this would be a good 'story for bedtime'. I must admit when I previewed it before his visit I thought some of the illustrations were a little odd, but these 'oddities' were the parts that drew his attention the most. The author obviously knows what's going on in a childs mind. It made my babysitting an extremely enjoyable experience, so much so that I'm doing it again very soon, with the help of the next book entitled 'I am not sleepy and I will not go to bed'. Keep them coming please Lauren!
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