Laura Charlotte - Softcover

Galbraith, Kathryn O.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 069811437X ISBN 13: 9780698114371

Publisher: Puffin Books, 1997

Synopsis

A mother describes her love for a toy elephant she was given as a child, a gift she has now passed on to her daughter

About this title

From School Library Journal:

Kindergarten-Grade 2-- A warm, family-history story, temperamentally akin to Ehrlich's Zeek Silver Moon (Dial, 1972) or Jarrell's exquisite The Knee-Baby (Farrar, 1973). Laura, still awake in bed, asks her mother to tell her again the story of Charlotte, the stuffed elephant who links Mama's childhood with her own. Mama complies with pleasure, reliving her early life with Charlotte and her quiet joy in passing on a gift of love to her daughter. Laura knows just how the story goes, and prompts her mother with the telling, from Charlotte's first arrival as a birthday gift, through Mama's nighttime rescue of her lost elephant, to Laura's own welcome arrival and Charlotte's new place in her life. The story's simple declarations and sure details draw readers into an authentic shared familiarity. Cooper's pictures are endearing, filling the pages with photographlike re-creations of Mama's past and of the story's present. The twilight colors, rendered with high graininess, perfectly suit the moods of bedtime and of reminiscence. The conversations and the time shifts, while smoothly integrated, make this most comfortable for one-on-one sharing, but with the right reader, it would work well for story times, too. --Karen Litton, London Public Libraries, Ontario, Canada
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Publishers Weekly:

A girl who is afraid to go to sleep asks for the familiar story of Charlotte, her handmade stuffed elephant. It is the mother's own story, and though it is late, she tells it to her daughter. When she was five, her grandmother made her an elephant out of sewing box scraps and she named it Charlotte, "the prettiest name in the world." There is some confusion about the generations--sometimes it's unclear just which grandmother is which--but Galbraith has written a gently reassuring story about the love that spans generations and is handed down with toys. It is also a tale of a girl getting older and outgrowing the need for a stuffed playmate and protector, but who nonetheless is saving it for her own child. Cooper's ( Grandpa's Face ) somber-toned illustrations envelop the reader in their warmth as they capture the mood of summer nights and cozy bedrooms. Ages 4-8.
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Puffin Books
• Publication date: 1997
• ISBN 10: 069811437X
• ISBN 13: 9780698114371
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 32