Charlotte in Paris

By Joan MacPhail Knight and Melissa Sweet

A nineteenth-century American girl journals her trip to Paris where she meets famous painters like Mary Cassat, learns about art, and more.

It’s 1893. Charlotte and her family have lived abroad in the famous artist colony in Giverny, France, for a year, when an exciting invitation arrive. The celebrated American Impressionist Mary Cassat is having an exhibition in Paris. And so, Charlotte and her family are off to visit “The City of Light.”

Like a true Parisian, Charlotte dines at a café along the Champs-Elysées, watches a marionette show in the Jardin des Tuileries and explores the Louvre Museum. She visits the Eiffel Tower on her birthday and celebrates Christmas Eve in the shadow of Notre Dame.

Illustrated with stunning museum reproductions and lovely watercolor paintings and collages, the book also includes biographical sketches of the featured painters. Charlotte’s charming scrapbook will leave readers of all ages shouting, “Vive Paris!”

Praise for Charlotte in Paris

“[A] delightful heroine. . . . [A] charming offering.” —Booklist

“The narrative is breathless and chock-full of incidental characters, including every dog Charlotte meets. Sweet’s delicate watercolors of details like “les parapluies” and “la citronade” represent the protagonist’s paintings and fully balance the fine-art reproductions that appear throughout. . . . This enchanting episode in Charlotte’s life introduces Paris, gardening, and an exciting period in the art world.” —School Library Journal

• Language: English
• Publisher: Open Road Integrated Media
• Release date: Jan 4, 2013
• ISBN: 9781452125718

Book preview

Charlotte in Paris

BY JOAN MACPHAIL KNIGHT

ILLUSTRATIONS BY MELISSA SWEET

Contents

Title

Charlotte in Paris

About the Author

Copyright

April 28, 1893

Rue de l’Amiscourt

Giverny

The postman has been very grumpy lately. He says there are so many American painters here in Giverny that he can scarcely lift his mailbag with all the letters he has to carry. He handed me an important-looking letter addressed to Monsieur et Madame Glidden.

When Papa came home from painting at the river, he let me open the envelope. It’s an invitation to Paris! A Miss Mary Cassatt is having an exhibition. Papa says she is the most famous woman painter in all of Europe. The Fosters will be going, too. Lizzy Foster is my best friend. When Papa decided to come to Giverny a year ago, Lizzy and I missed each other so much. Then Mr. Foster decided he also wanted to learn the new French way of painting called Impressionism. So the Fosters have come to Giverny and rented a house right down the street from us.

Last night, we had our neighbors the Perrys to dinner to meet the Fosters. Edith Perry is my age and she has a little dog named Degas just like my dog, Toby. Raymonde set the table out in the garden and cooked a special dinner of tiny roast hens with their feet tied together. For dessert, we had Tarte Tatin, a delicious upside-down apple cake.

Edith and I told Lizzy all about our famous neighbor, Monsieur Monet. When we got to the part about the water garden and the Japanese bridge, Lizzy had to see for herself. We climbed the garden wall and crept along the mossy stones past Monsieur Monet’s hothouse to the bamboo forest until we could see the Japanese bridge . . . and Monsieur Monet could see us! We had such a fright, we fell to the ground. I hope Mama never finds out about this. She always tells me to mind my own affairs.

May 20, 1893

Rue de l’Amiscourt

Giverny

This morning I sat in a green field and

Reviews for Charlotte in Paris

[cheryl_in_cc_nv · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Too long for me, and the child's voice too breathless, enchanted w/ everything, it seems. But I do like seeing all sorts of paintings and images that relate to history, presented in mutual context. (Same comment for every book in the set.)

[roxygamboa · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

This sequel is such a great read. The illustrations in this book are just so fun and make you feel like you're right in Paris. After living in Giverny, France for a year she now gets to go to Paris to see the impressionist Mary Cassatt. During this journey, she also gets to celebrate her birthday at the Eiffel Tower. Throughout this book you even get to learn a little bit of French, about the painters, and also even a recipe.

[keristars_1 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

This is a sequel to Charlotte in Giverny and begins almost immediately after that one ends. Charlotte's cousin Lizzy has come to Giverny, where they spend the summer spying on Claude Monet, taking care of the garden, and learning French (except when Lizzy and her family are lucky enough to go the seaside!). When fall rolls around, Charlotte's family receives an invitation to Mary Cassatt's show in Paris, so they decide to go to the city for winter.Just like the Giverny book, this is a sweet and uncomplicated story told in diary and scrapbook format about Charlotte's life in the 1890s. She gets to mingle with famous artists and sprinkles her scrapbook with French vocabulary words as well as a recipe or two (plus reproductions of artwork by Impressionists that match the story).To be perfectly honest, while I found the Paris chapter to be equally lovely as the Giverny one, I didn't really enjoy it as much. It almost felt like too much of a rehash, or something that may have been better in a single book with some editing. But maybe it's just because I read them too close together...I still think they're fantastic for giving a human side to famous names and artwork, and the watercolor sketches and mixed-media collages by illustrator Melissa Sweet are still gorgeous and fun.I think this is a great and wonderful series, but I won't seek out the next two books, though I'll recommend the whole set for children.