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Charlie & Lola
I Will Be Especially Very Careful
Lola's best friend Lotta has an extremely special new coat, and Lola really wants to borrow it. Lotta isn't so sure...'I will be especially very careful', says Lola. But will she be able to keep it all fluffy and white and new?
32 pages, Hardcover
First published August 7, 2008
About the author
Lauren Child
459 books852 followersLauren Child MBE is an English author and illustrator. She was the UK Children's Laureate from 2017-19.
Child grew up in Wiltshire as the middle child of three sisters and the daughter of two teachers. She has always been interested in the many aspects of childhood, from gazing into toy shop windows to watching American children's shows from the 1960s. After attending two Art Schools, she travelled for six months, still unsure about which career to embark upon.
Before writing and illustrating children's books Child started her own company 'Chandeliers for the People' making lampshades. It was only when she came to write and illustrate the book Clarice Bean, That's Me that she decided to devote her time to writing and illustrating books for children, which combines her fascination for childhood and her talent for designing and creating. Child gets her inspiration from other people's conversations or from seeing something funny happen.
Her book I Will Not Ever Never Eat A Tomato won the 2000 Kate Greenaway Medal. For the 50th anniversary of the Medal (1955–2005), a panel named it one of the top ten winning works, which comprised the shortlist for a public vote for the nation's favourite. It finished third in the public vote from that shortlist.
Child lives in North London.
Child grew up in Wiltshire as the middle child of three sisters and the daughter of two teachers. She has always been interested in the many aspects of childhood, from gazing into toy shop windows to watching American children's shows from the 1960s. After attending two Art Schools, she travelled for six months, still unsure about which career to embark upon.
Before writing and illustrating children's books Child started her own company 'Chandeliers for the People' making lampshades. It was only when she came to write and illustrate the book Clarice Bean, That's Me that she decided to devote her time to writing and illustrating books for children, which combines her fascination for childhood and her talent for designing and creating. Child gets her inspiration from other people's conversations or from seeing something funny happen.
Her book I Will Not Ever Never Eat A Tomato won the 2000 Kate Greenaway Medal. For the 50th anniversary of the Medal (1955–2005), a panel named it one of the top ten winning works, which comprised the shortlist for a public vote for the nation's favourite. It finished third in the public vote from that shortlist.
Child lives in North London.
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Displaying 1 - 21 of 21 reviews
December 4, 2010
My Elena girl has been grieving over moving from Texas for about six months. We'd read books on moving, talked about moving, and had visits and parties with school friends to say good-bye, but still, moving deflated her, and I felt pretty shitty because I had no mommy sense about what exactly was going on, other than thinking it was the overall strangeness of leaving a place where you learned to walk and knew where the pop-tarts were kept and how to reach them in the dark when your parents were asleep.
And then Elena started drawing picture after picture of drunken stick figures with large, roly-poly heart bellies. The figures would hold hands under rainbows and have a house on each side of them. I tried; I was careful and vaguely praised her use of color and didn't come right out and say "WTF with all of these bloated people?". But, smart girl that she is, she saw how purposefully and persistently dumb her mother was and finally pointed straight at a figure with a messy, scrawled, penciled-in dark face and said "This is my best friend that I miss what has the brown skin that we left at Texas." And then it hit me what she was missing most- the grandaughter of a neighbor! A kid who I didn't think to let her say good-bye to because my daughter saw her infrequently, mostly on rare weekend visits when she'd stay with her grandma and Big Daddy. Ach, it had been so obvious and I'd missed it until she punched me with the whole RIP, my bestest friend bit. When a kid, any kid, but especially one I made, tells me things like this, I kind of crumple up a bit inside like a used and wadded kleenex. It is fucking hard being a mother, I swear.
Fortunately for me, a few weeks after hanging the fiftieth "here lies my special Texas friendship" picture on the fridge, we visited the library and Elena found this book. And Lotta in the book is just like her old friend, wise and kind and brown-skinned. She read it over and over and then we decided to write her friend that she just left there all alone in Texas. And the grandparents of the friend made the little girl write back (I know this because there was a line in her last letter that went like this: "My grandmother was in a play called Kill a Mockingbird by Happer Lee"; no little girl would just write that without grandmother's prompting, I think...call me cynical). So, four stars for the Lotta and Lola friendship in this book.
And then Elena started drawing picture after picture of drunken stick figures with large, roly-poly heart bellies. The figures would hold hands under rainbows and have a house on each side of them. I tried; I was careful and vaguely praised her use of color and didn't come right out and say "WTF with all of these bloated people?". But, smart girl that she is, she saw how purposefully and persistently dumb her mother was and finally pointed straight at a figure with a messy, scrawled, penciled-in dark face and said "This is my best friend that I miss what has the brown skin that we left at Texas." And then it hit me what she was missing most- the grandaughter of a neighbor! A kid who I didn't think to let her say good-bye to because my daughter saw her infrequently, mostly on rare weekend visits when she'd stay with her grandma and Big Daddy. Ach, it had been so obvious and I'd missed it until she punched me with the whole RIP, my bestest friend bit. When a kid, any kid, but especially one I made, tells me things like this, I kind of crumple up a bit inside like a used and wadded kleenex. It is fucking hard being a mother, I swear.
Fortunately for me, a few weeks after hanging the fiftieth "here lies my special Texas friendship" picture on the fridge, we visited the library and Elena found this book. And Lotta in the book is just like her old friend, wise and kind and brown-skinned. She read it over and over and then we decided to write her friend that she just left there all alone in Texas. And the grandparents of the friend made the little girl write back (I know this because there was a line in her last letter that went like this: "My grandmother was in a play called Kill a Mockingbird by Happer Lee"; no little girl would just write that without grandmother's prompting, I think...call me cynical). So, four stars for the Lotta and Lola friendship in this book.
April 7, 2021
*Writing on behalf of my 4-year old*
I really enjoyed this book. It is one of my favorite books because I like fluffy things. And this book is about a fluffy white coat. And I learned how the whole book by-heart.
I learned that if you borrow things from your friends you must take care of it and return it safely.
I really enjoyed this book. It is one of my favorite books because I like fluffy things. And this book is about a fluffy white coat. And I learned how the whole book by-heart.
I learned that if you borrow things from your friends you must take care of it and return it safely.
October 4, 2019
Ages: 4-7
Characters: Charlie, Lola, Lotta; characters of different ethnicities
-teaches about sharing
Characters: Charlie, Lola, Lotta; characters of different ethnicities
-teaches about sharing
August 21, 2021
Lola is lucky here.
A big belly laugh at the end when Lottie says 'no' to more lending.
Fun. Engagingly illustrated and arranged.
A big belly laugh at the end when Lottie says 'no' to more lending.
Fun. Engagingly illustrated and arranged.
December 16, 2021
Okay, this was a very cute book. The illustrations with materials were amazing and the writing was engaging and funny.
September 1, 2019
I will Be Especially Very Careful by Lauren Child, Realistic Fiction. This book has a good theme of not to lose others things. It does not use proper english which can be an issue when young children are learning to read. It utilizes very visually appealing imagery as it is a collage which will draw students into paying more attention.
November 19, 2009
Lauren Child has created a picture book with a careful look at friends borrowing from one another. Many of us has had an incident in which we have borrowed something from a friend and something went wrong. This is a wonderful book for discussing the topic of borrowing and the responsibility that comes with it.
April 6, 2011
I love the adventures of Charlie and Lola. Maybe it's the fact that I hear sweet little British accents as I read these stories, but I just think they are so charming. Jordan has not been quite as charmed yet, but she does think that Lola is funny. Maybe I should try to read them with some English flair.
November 12, 2011
Hooray! Charlie and Lola come to story time rescue yet again. We needed stories about coats. This one is large in format (great for group sharing) and a story with which children can identify. Lola's best friend receives a coat from her grandmother. Lola adores the coat so much she asks to borrow it, promising to be "especially VERY careful".
January 30, 2012
Recommended by kids for NYRA 2013, although a little bit old, from 2008. Charlie and Lola are always adorable, and this one is cute too. The story has a friend who let Lola borrow her brand-new white fur coat for one day. Charlie helps his little sister keep the coat safe from spills, rain, and sticky tapes while running errands, but Lola ends up forgetting the coat at the library.
August 19, 2012
A Charlie and Lola book, Lola really wants to borrow her friends new furry coat but forgets it after promising to take good care of it. Things work out, but not always in real life when it comes to borrowing toys and things from friends. We had some good conversations about this after reading the story. Very sweet and cute.
December 27, 2012
Not my favorite Lola story. I've turned into a fussbudget ... why is it she doesn't have to live with the consequences of her actions? Because, let's face it ... usually, if you were to lose the prize possession of a friend? Most of the time you wouldn't get it back.
Do still love the collage style pictures.
Do still love the collage style pictures.
Read
July 28, 2011I found out something sneaky about these books: some are actually by Lauren Child and some are not. You can tell the ones she did. I'd like this one as much as Slightly Invisible but did enjoy it better than the newest one My Best Best Bestest Friend.
November 29, 2013
I like reading these books because Lola just makes me laugh. In this one she extra careful until something happens. I just love how she extra careful with someone's things, this could be a teaching lesson for children.
January 5, 2012
Probably the best Charlie and Lola book I've read.
February 11, 2013
Charlie and Lola books crack us up!
October 23, 2013
Another lovely Charlie and Lola book. These are fast becoming a favourite for bedtime stories for my 2 year old daughter.
January 1, 2015
funny because lola kept ruining lotta's coat.
June 6, 2014
maybe when we're older...
December 1, 2015
Great illustrations and cute story.
Displaying 1 - 21 of 21 reviews