Lottie Paris Lives Here

by Angela Johnson, Scott M. Fischer (Illustrator)

Overview

Award-winning author Angela Johnson and illustrator Scott Fischer take you inside the mind of a spunky girl and the imaginative world she lives in with this delightful story now available as a Classic Board Book!

Lottie Paris may be precocious, but she still knows how to act like a kid. She dresses up, plays on the slide, and prefers to eat cookies instead of vegetables. She has a great imagination and sees the possibilities in the simplest pleasures. Plus, she’s sassy, so there’s no chance of getting bored.

Join Lottie Paris in her world and you’ll never look at yours the same again!

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780689873775
Publisher:	Simon & Schuster Books For Young Readers
Publication date:	08/30/2011
Pages:	32
Product dimensions:	8.60(w) x 11.10(h) x 0.60(d)
Lexile:	AD480L (what's this?)
Age Range:	5 - 8 Years

About the Author

Angela Johnson has won three Coretta Scott King Awards, one each for her novels The First Part Last, Heaven, and Toning the Sweep. The First Part Last was also the recipient of the Michael L. Printz Award. She is also the author of the novels Looking for Red and A Certain October. Her books for younger readers include the Coretta Scott King Honor Book When I Am Old with You, illustrated by David Soman; Wind Flyers and I Dream of Trains, both illustrated by Loren Long; and Lottie Paris Lives Here and its sequel Lottie Paris and the Best Place, both illustrated by Scott M. Fischer. Additional picture books include A Sweet Smell of Roses, Just Like Josh Gibson, The Day Ray Got Away, and All Different Now. In recognition of her outstanding talent, Angela was named a 2003 MacArthur Fellow. She lives in Kent, Ohio. Visit her at AJohnsonAuthor.com.

Scott M. Fischer is a painter by birth, a musician by training, and a storyteller by choice. Best known as the author/illustrator of JUMP!, he is also the illustrator of Twinkle, the New York Times bestselling Peter Pan in Scarlet, Lottie Paris Lives Here, and Lottie Paris and the Best Place. Scott lives with his wife, daughter, and a menagerie of animals in Belchertown, Massachusetts.

Editorial Reviews

These in-sync collaborators offer a lighthearted glimpse into a day in the life of a bubbly African-American girl who lives with her Papa Pete in a house across from a park. Johnson's (The Day Ray Got Away) free-association narrative has a chatty cadence: "Do you like Lottie's hat? Uh-huh, me too. Lottie sure can wear a hat. Not everyone can wear a hat like that." Reinforcing the heroine's animated personality, Fischer's (Jump!) punchy gouache paintings reveal Lottie playing in the park, dressing up like a princess, washing her dog with the garden hose, and spending time in the "quiet chair" after she demands cookies (and ignores her vegetables) at dinner and later breaks her father's cellphone. The type also nods to Lottie's energy and spontaneity as it zigzags and swings across the pages. Fischer's art takes liberties that add to the book's sense of playfulness: Papa Pete's face is never revealed; Lottie's extravagant hat is decorated with animals, flowers, and a bright blue feather; and her dog is lavender. Lottie's world is a welcoming one, and she inhabits it fully. Ages 5–9. (Aug.)

Publishers Weekly

PreS-Gr 2—Lottie Paris is an exuberant, imaginative, and mischievous girl. On an outing to the park, Papa Pete, shown from the waist down, is in his socks, holding Lottie's shoes in one hand and clasping her hand in the other while she walks alongside him wearing his too-big boots and what looks like a man's necktie cinched around her waist as a belt. As the girl entertains herself, "going this way and that way and under the trees, around the fountain," Papa Pete, again only visible from the waist down, is seen seated on a park bench lacing up one of his shoes. Back home after a day of adventure, Lottie is in her bedroom that "is also a castle where the fish are her guards," and where her imagination is free to run wild. The day continues on to dinnertime and afterward when Lottie does something that lands her "in the quiet chair by the door." Fischer's large gouache images created with brayer, linocut, stamping, airbrush, sandpaper and brush line are endearing. Although the pictures appear to be simple, they contain a lot of visual cues pointing to the bond between Papa Pete and Lottie. A universal story told through the eyes of a vivacious youngster.—Mary N. Oluonye, Shaker Heights Public Library, OH

School Library Journal

Sure, she lives here, but she also plays, pretends and occasionally gets in trouble in this lively story about a young African-American girl and her Papa Pete.

Textured, colorful gouache illustrations portray exuberant Lottie with stylized proportions: thin, gangly arms and legs topped by a veritable explosion of brown hair. She is clearly the focus here. Papa Pete's face is never shown, although readers see other parts of him: his feet when he relaxes on the porch; his lower half when he's holding Lottie's hand. Papa Pete is patient, dangling Lottie's little shoes from his fingertips (she wears his) when it's time to go walking and allowing her to eat a cookie before her vegetables; however, he's gently firm when necessary. Text and art generally complement one another: When it's stated "Now, this is Papa Pete leaving the room and his phone....," then "And this is Lottie in the quiet chair—again," it's up to the art to show the broken cell phone. Unfortunately, it's confusing when the text mentions a "babysitter," but Papa Pete is shown; is he her father, grandfather or just someone watching her? Perhaps it doesn't matter; their loving relationship is the point here.

The final spread shows the small family's love: Lottie in Papa Pete's lap on the porch swing, eyes closed, smiling, cuddling her little dog on her lap. (Picture book. 3-6)

Kirkus Reviews