Charlie and Lola: My Best, Best Friend: 05/16/15

I Will Not Ever Never Eat a Tomato (or I Will Never Not Ever Eat a Tomato in the United States) by Lauren Child introduced Charlie and Lola to the world. They went on to have their actual own adorable television series — so popular in fact that the library DVDs are scratched to death. The series in turn inspired a new series of books writen by Carol Noble.

Charlie and Lola: My Best, Best Friend by Carol Noble is one of the television series inspired books. It has new to the book characters but will be recognizable to fans of the series. Even if you haven't seen the series, these characters are still great additions to the series.

Sometimes when a children's series goes from book to television and back to book, something is lost in the process. Characters change. Artwork adjusts. Old quirks are smoothed over. Not so with Charlie and Lola. Somehow even with the expanded characters and scenery (school, neighbors, etc), Charlie and Lola as characters stay true to themselves. Lola keeps her unique diction. Charlie is the loyal, patient, and bemused older brother.

If you watch the television series, Lola's best friend from school is Lotta. They are the best, best, bestest friends ever. Except sometimes something gets in their way. This time, it's a someone — a new girl at school.

As a fan of the series, and the mother of another fan, these series inspired books help fill the gap. We can't always find an unscratched, playable DVD, but we can find and read the books. We're getting pretty good at doing the different characters' voices.

Five stars

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