As part of the celebrations for their 85th anniversary, Puffin Books are reissuing eight classic children's books in handsome clothbound editions, with colourful sprayed edges and matching ribbons (both bright pink in this case). They look special, very collectable and reader friendly too.
Alongside Charlotte’s Web (E. B. White) and Pig-Heart Boy (Malorie Blackman) is The Extremely Embarrassing Life of Lottie Brooks by Katie Kirby. First published in 2021, it more than qualifies for the list, if nothing else for the sheer amount of pleasure it will have brought to readers.
As Nadia Shireen points out in the foreword to this special edition, the genius of Katie Kirby is her understanding of Lottie’s world and the perfect way she captures her voice, the voice of an eleven-and-three-quarter-year-old girl. Funny, insightful, true, it’s a wonderful addition to the diary canon of children’s literature, sitting perfectly alongside Adrian Mole or Diary of a Wimpy Kid, which you can also buy in this format. Best enjoyed with a KitKat Chunky, but hugely enjoyable reading at any time.
The Extremely Embarrassing Life of Lottie Brooks (Puffin 85th Anniversary Clothbound Edition) Synopsis
Celebrating 85 years of Sparking Imaginations
A beautiful clothbound edition of the much-loved modern classic The Extremely Embarrassing Life of Lottie Brooks. Bound in real cloth with two coloured foils and sprayed coloured edges, this deluxe edition is a perfect gift or collector's item. Part of an eight book set published to mark the 85th anniversary of Puffin Books. With a brand-new foreword from Nadia Shireen.
Lottie Brooks is 11 ¾ and her life is already officially over - not only is she about to start high school without any friends or glamorous swooshy hair, she's just discovered she's too flat-chested to wear A BRA! She might as well give up now and go into hibernation with her hamsters Sir Barnaby Squeakington and Fuzzball the Third.
Lottie navigates the many perils of growing up in this fantastically funny illustrated series for a 9-12 audience, filled with friendship, embarrassing moments and plenty of lols.
Collect all eight titles in the Puffin Clothbound 85th Anniversary Collection
Katie Kirby is a writer and illustrator who lives by the sea in Hove with her husband, two sons and dog Sasha. She has a degree in Advertising and Marketing and after spending several years working in London media agencies, which basically involved hanging out in fancy restaurants and pretending to know what she was talking about, she had some children and decided to start a blog called 'Hurrah for Gin' about the gross injustice of it all. Many people said her sense of humour was silly and immature so she decided to have a bash at writing children's fiction. The Extremely Embarrassing Life of Lottie Brooks was her first novel.
Katie likes gin, rabbits, over-thinking things, the smell of launderettes and Monster Munch. She does not like losing at board games or writing about herself in the third person.
