I have always loved Lauren Child but Ned has suddenly fallen in love with Charlie and Lola or Charlielola (all one word) as he calls them. We need to read the books every night now and I have discovered the joys of reading Lauren Child’s original books rather than the TV adaptation books. Has anyone else found them awkward to read?
Ugh, yes. I loathe TV adaptation books. They make horrible read-alouds.
Yes! The point of view is all skewiff. It’s half told from Charlie’s first person perspective but Lola does stuff where Charlie can’t witness it, and it slips into this awkward floating narrative voice.
I love the originals though, and adore the television series (hint, there are a lot of them on youtube). They are Charlielola in this house too.
Yes, totally awkward. I remember the first one we got and I didn’t realise the tv adaptation ones existed. I was reading it and I thought “this just doesn’t flow like the others. It’s like they’ve just written out the tv show verbatim!”. And then I looked at the front of the book and realised that it wasn’t actually written by Lauren Child in the same manner as the others.
Yes. What Katie and Penni and Lauren said.
We only do originals for read-alouds.
I’m glad I’m not the only one! I LOVE the TV show too Penni. The voices are so great and now I find myself trying to replicate Lola’s voice when I read aloud. Ned thinks I’m quite mad I’m sure.
That’s interesting to read. Luckily I’ve only bought the originals (all online without knowing there were two types). Our daughter loves them!
We love Charlie and Lola too and I agree with everyone else. I had the fortune of seeing Lauren Child talk at a conference in Dubai and she said she is planning on doing another! I was so excited.
I agree. I was just saying to my husband the other night that I find Charlie and Lola books hard work to read aloud. Maybe it’s because, like Lou, I’m trying to do the Charlie and Lola accents!