The Lottie Project
Encyclopedia
The Lottie Project is a children's novel
by English
author
Jacqueline Wilson
. It is illustrated by Nick Sharrat. The book is different from most Jaqueline Wilson books, as they are mostly told by characters who are not popular in school and are usually bullied by the popular students.
photo of a girl who looked exactly like her and from then on she becomes interested in history. Charlie decides to write her history project as the fictional diary of a Victorian servant
girl named Lottie. Her form teacher, Miss Beckworth is shown as a very strict and old-fashioned teacher whom Charlie hates at first, but develops a liking for by the end of the story. Her partner, James Edward [Jamie] is the nerd of the class but Charlie and he become good friends and he kisses her.
The novel alternates between the narrative of events in Charlie's life and extracts from the diary
This novel also contains elements of metafiction
. Charlie has to deal with the worry of her mother's employment problems and her struggle to pay the mortgage on their flat. She and Jo have a close relationship and she feels threatened by any romance she perceives in her mother's life, as she worries that she will lose her. This culminates when Mark and Robin take Jo and Charlie for a trip to a theme park, and Charlie and Robin witness Mark and Jo kissing. This leads Charlie to speculate that they will both be abandoned and forgotten; frightened, Robin runs away to find his mother. Charlie has to deal with the consequences of her actions and her insecurity issues.
Children's literature
Children's literature is for readers and listeners up to about age twelve; it is often defined in four different ways: books written by children, books written for children, books chosen by children, or books chosen for children. It is often illustrated. The term is used in senses which sometimes...
by English
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
author
Author
An author is broadly defined as "the person who originates or gives existence to anything" and that authorship determines responsibility for what is created. Narrowly defined, an author is the originator of any written work.-Legal significance:...
Jacqueline Wilson
Jacqueline Wilson
Dame Jacqueline Wilson, DBE, FRSL is an award-winning English author, known for her vast and diverse work in children's literature. Her novels have been adapted numerous times for television, and commonly deal with such challenging themes as adoption, divorce and mental illness...
. It is illustrated by Nick Sharrat. The book is different from most Jaqueline Wilson books, as they are mostly told by characters who are not popular in school and are usually bullied by the popular students.
Plot introduction
The Lottie Project is a story about Charlotte Enright (Charlie) set in late 20th century England. Charlie is the most popular girl in her school. She assumes she will find history lessons boring but she sees a VictorianVictorian era
The Victorian era of British history was the period of Queen Victoria's reign from 20 June 1837 until her death on 22 January 1901. It was a long period of peace, prosperity, refined sensibilities and national self-confidence...
photo of a girl who looked exactly like her and from then on she becomes interested in history. Charlie decides to write her history project as the fictional diary of a Victorian servant
Domestic worker
A domestic worker is a man, woman or child who works within the employer's household. Domestic workers perform a variety of household services for an individual or a family, from providing care for children and elderly dependents to cleaning and household maintenance, known as housekeeping...
girl named Lottie. Her form teacher, Miss Beckworth is shown as a very strict and old-fashioned teacher whom Charlie hates at first, but develops a liking for by the end of the story. Her partner, James Edward [Jamie] is the nerd of the class but Charlie and he become good friends and he kisses her.
The novel alternates between the narrative of events in Charlie's life and extracts from the diary
Main late 20th century characters
Charlotte Enright or mostly known as Charlie Enright, is a fierce, boy-hating girl and she lives with her young mum, Jo, who was a teenager when she became pregnant with Charlie. Jo has a good job and they start living comfortably, Jo loses her job and they begin to worry. At Charlie's school,the new teacher Miss Beckworth, gives the class a project on Victorians. At first. Charlie is immensely bored by this but soon begins to enjoy herself while doing a diary instead of a report like everyone else. Moving on in the story, Jo starts various new jobs, including being a child-minder, where she minds a boy called Robin. Jo, much to Charlie's horror starts to become attracted to Robin's dad, Mark. Mark too seems to fall for Jo and invites Charlie and Jo to an amusement park called 'Red River' where Charlie brought her famous cupcakes (she was an extremely good baker especially of cakes). There she sees Mark and Jo kissing and she points this out to little Robin, saying that his dad will not love him now that he has Jo. Robin is very sensitive and is not used to living without his mum and becomes sad. Robin starts crying but Charlie doesn't try to comfort him. Charlie and Jo have a large fight because Charlie doesn't like Mark and doesn't want Jo going around with him. Late at night, Mark calls Jo and says that Robin is missing, and Charlie feels that this is her fault. She admits what she said to Mark and Jo. They soon find Robin and it turns out that he has pneumonia. She becomes afraid that Robin will die and starts crying in school. Miss Beckworth in surprisingly comforting so Charlie begins to like her. In the end, Robin survives but Mark is still not completely nice towards Charlie but is getting better. Charlie wins an award in school because of her diary, about Lottie, the servant. Charlie begins to like Robin and is nice to him. She is also nice to Jamie, a geeky boy she didn't like at first and has had to sit next to in class during the term. Charlie spends her Christmas with Mark and Robin but she doesn't mind much anymore because Jo assures her that she will never get married and it will always be the two of them.Major themes
The Lottie Project explores how a girl copes with the changes in her life.This novel also contains elements of metafiction
Metafiction
Metafiction, also known as Romantic irony in the context of Romantic works of literature, is a type of fiction that self-consciously addresses the devices of fiction, exposing the fictional illusion...
. Charlie has to deal with the worry of her mother's employment problems and her struggle to pay the mortgage on their flat. She and Jo have a close relationship and she feels threatened by any romance she perceives in her mother's life, as she worries that she will lose her. This culminates when Mark and Robin take Jo and Charlie for a trip to a theme park, and Charlie and Robin witness Mark and Jo kissing. This leads Charlie to speculate that they will both be abandoned and forgotten; frightened, Robin runs away to find his mother. Charlie has to deal with the consequences of her actions and her insecurity issues.
Awards and nominations
- 1998, Stockport School's Book Award, winner.
- 1998, Sheffield Children's Book Award, highly commended.
- 1998, Oak Tree Award, Nottingham Children's Book Award, shortlisted.
- 1998, Red House Children's Book AwardRed House Children's Book AwardThe Red House Children's Book Award is a series of literary prizes for works of children's literature published during the previous year. The prize was known as the Children's Book Award from its inauguration in 1981...
, shortlisted.
Theatrical adaptation
The story has also been adapted for the stage and was performed in 1999 and 2000 at the Polka Theatre, Wimbledon, England.Release details
- 1997, United Kingdom, Doubleday, ISBN 0385407033 & ISBN 978-0385407038, 1 May 1997, hardback
- 1998, United Kingdom, Corgi, ISBN 044086366X & ISBN 978-0440863663, 4 June 1998, paperbackPaperbackPaperback, softback or softcover describe and refer to a book by the nature of its binding. The covers of such books are usually made of paper or paperboard, and are usually held together with glue rather than stitches or staples...
- 1998, United Kingdom, Chivers Children's Audio Books, ISBN 075405036X & ISBN 978-0754050360, March 1998, compact cassetteCompact CassetteThe Compact Cassette, often referred to as audio cassette, cassette tape, cassette, or simply tape, is a magnetic tape sound recording format. It was designed originally for dictation, but improvements in fidelity led the Compact Cassette to supplant the Stereo 8-track cartridge and reel-to-reel...
- 2006, United Kingdom, BBCBBCThe British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
Audiobooks, ASIN 1846070910, 3 April 2006, compact discCompact DiscThe Compact Disc is an optical disc used to store digital data. It was originally developed to store and playback sound recordings exclusively, but later expanded to encompass data storage , write-once audio and data storage , rewritable media , Video Compact Discs , Super Video Compact Discs ,... - Also published in other countries
- 2010,Book of the month in The Official Jacqueline Wilson Mag