Lulu Atlantis and the Quest for True Blue Love

Starred review from January 14, 2008
Lulu Atlantis from Sweet Pea Lane, with a baby brother and a dad off saving extinct animals like the Double-Eyed Fig Parrot, confides her troubles to her best friend, Harry. So what if Harry is a talking spider in a top hat whom no one else can see? He offers good advice, reminding a skeptical Lulu that “to find True Blue Love, you would not have to search beyond your own backyard.” It’s no surprise that the adventures in these four linked stories leave Lulu with the realization that she is already enmeshed in everyday scrumptious love—the fun percolates within Martin’s (Travels with Rainie Marie
) flavorful storytelling. Lulu, responding to the arrival of the baby, takes Harry and runs away. In a woods “as bleak as a midwinter midnight,” they encounter a skunk who calls Lulu “kiddo” and “girlie”; when she asks for advice, he says, “I’m a skunk, not a magician, I don’t got all the answers”—then tells her precisely what to do. Subsequent run-ins involve three gangster bakers (Scarecrow, Lefty-Righty Louie and Jimmy Creamcheese) and Princess Fancy the diabolical cat. Martin winningly deviates from the narrative with descriptive interjections: “Please understand, Farmer Wallenhaupt’s Frog Pond was not a pond as most people imagine a pond to be. It was filled with silver water whose droplets slid about like mercury.” The scenarios are whimsical; the emotions run true. Ages 7-11.

March 1, 2008
Gr 2-4-Martin has created a most unusual cast of characters in this series of four quirky stories about Lulu Atlantis, an independent little girl on a quest for True Blue Love after the arrival of a baby brother. She is accompanied everywhere by her loyal companion Harry, a daddy longlegs who sports a top hat and green shirt (with many sleeves) and freely dispenses loving advice: "Never make a skunk mad!" and "Go where life takes you." As she continues her quest, Sam the Baby becomes Sam the Toddler, and a series of entertaining episodes ensue. Lulu's voice is unique and funny: she tells a threatening Yogurt Skunk (so named because he had to be freed of a yogurt carton stuck on his head), "I've got a father who's always away, a mother who forgets I even exist, and an uninvited baby brother who hogs every minute of Mother's time! And I'm running far away]! I've got my hands full, buddy." Readers will also meet a philosophical Eggman; cranky, hard-of-hearing Grandpère Hy; and demanding Great-aunty Hauty. Snappy dialogue and just the right amount of tension move the plot along smoothly, and in the end Lulu discovers what her friend Harry has tried to tell her all along: "]to find True Blue Love, you would not have to search beyond your own backyard." This would be a delightful read-aloud for families or classrooms, but the length may be challenging for younger independent readers."Lee Bock, Glenbrook Elementary School, Pulaski, WI"

Copyright 2008 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

July 1, 2008
Human Lulu and her best friend Harry, a top hat-wearing spider, experience adventures as Lulu gets used to having a new baby brother. Lulu's situation is one to which many readers can relate. Her emotions run a realistic gamut, from jealousy to sadness to hopefulness, within the context of her quirky imaginary world (though, frustratingly, adults tend to solve her problems).

(Copyright 2008 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)