Lottie Paris and the Best Place by Angela Johnson {The Children's Bookshelf}

Well folks, it's official: I've completed my MLIS! (For those who don't speak academic jargon: Master's in Library and Information Science.) It's been several long years of juggling a full-time job, a family, and classes, but this past week I finished up my last exam and the grades are in. While it's been a struggle to get everything accomplished sometimes, I wouldn't trade away a minute of my experience. Becoming a librarian has been a goal of mine as long as I can remember, and now I can finally say that I am!

So what better way to celebrate than with a terrific picture book? Today's pick is one of our recent favorites, in a series we absolutely love. Angela Johnson's plucky heroine is back for a new adventure in Lottie Paris and the Best Place. If you've read Lottie's first outing, you won't want to miss this newest outing, in which Lottie heads off for her favorite place ever: the library!

Lottie wants to check out books about space, but she's not bargaining for the bonus she finds - a new friend, Carl, whose best place is also the library. Both Carl and Lottie know all about the library: how to behave (mostly), and where all the great books are kept. Carl's after dinosaur stories, and that's how he and Lottie run into one another. Right away they recognize kindred spirits, and by the end of this lively tale, the two are fast friends, sharing a cozy spot together in their best place, at the library.

Everything I loved about the first Lottie Paris title remains in this next adventure. She's every bit as vivacious and irrepressible as she was the first time around, and the illustrations by family favorite Scott M. Fischer have a lot to do with that. Fischer's spreads have a lot going on, but the action remains centered around our heroine, and now her new friend Carl as well. I love the way Fischer captures the joy of a child, particularly when Carl and Lottie each enter the library for the first time. (Pretty much exactly like that last panel of Sprout, above.)

Lottie Paris is a welcome new addition to the shelves of books about mighty girls - it's really nice to see one that features a heroine with brown skin and gorgeous curly hair. And even better, Lottie shows us just how fun books really are. After you read Lottie Paris and the Best Place, you won't be able to get to the library fast enough!

Lottie Paris and the Best Place by Angela Johnson, published by Simon & Schuster
Ages 3-6
Source: Library (where else?)
Sample: "In the morning Lottie Paris wakes to stars that glow all around her and to planets swiftly tilting from her ceiling. She imagines herself floating among them."
Recommended

Don't miss the first Lottie Paris adventure, Lottie Paris Lives Here

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