Lissy's Friends

by Grace Lin

Book Overview

What do you do when you're the new girl at school? If you're Lissy, you make a friend. A paper friend. And to Lissy's surprise, her little origami bird opens his eyes and says hello So she quickly... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0670011150
• ISBN13: 9780670011155
• Release Date: January 2007
• Publisher: Viking (Dolly Parton's Imagination Library)
• Length: 40 Pages
• Weight: 0.40 lbs.

Customer Reviews

my new favorite book!

Grace Lin Viking Juvenile (2007) ISBN 9780670060726 Reviewed by Sophia McElroy (age 5.5) for Reader Views (8/08) This is my new favorite book! I love all the animals that Lissy makes with paper. My favorite part of the story is when Lissy finds a friend at the park and they go back to her house to play and make paper animals. The last page of "Lissy's Friends" by Grace Lin shows you how to make your own paper crane. My Mom tried to help me make one, but we couldn't figure it out! I told her that when she gets older she will have to try again.

Charming book!

My Daughter is 3 & loves this book! The story & illustrations are warm & delightful.

All things bright and beautiful

Grace Lin's bold, rich illustration style makes her newest title leap off the shelf. If you pick it up, you and your child will not be disappointed. Lissy is the new girl in school, and when she doesn't attract new friends, she decides to make one herself by folding her lunch menu into an origami paper crane. My child loved the play on the phrase "make a friend" and giggled when it was repeated in the tale. Lin's vibrant illustrations become the star of the story. Each origami friend is fashioned from a new patterned paper, and Lissy's clothing also looks as pretty as chiyogami. The wallpaper, her umbrella, the sky--every element is colored with whimsy, yet the multiple colors and patterns do not overwhelm. Children will have fun spotting each origami animal in the illustrations, especially the tiny, magical "Menu" who started it all. Lin's text, in contrast, is simple and straightforward, telling a sweet story of friendship without being too sugary. The book even includes instructions to fold your own paper crane, but I have to admit I still haven't gotten it right. You may want to pick up an origami instruction book with Lissy's Friends because your child will definitely want to make their own friends!

Cute and fun book!

Cute story, wonderful pictures, and happy lesson for kids who are a little different. We loved it!

Getting by with a little help from her friends

Origami. I could never do origami. As a kid it didn't matter if you wanted me to fold a crane, a frog, or a paper hat. For all the logic involved, origami was equal in difficulty to playing the accordion so I never really took to it as a result. It's the old if-you-can't-do-something-it-must-not-be-worth-doing argument. What I did like to do, though, was play with inanimate objects and give them distinct personalities. Not your usual toys and dolls, necessarily. I'd have sweeping romances involving crayons and the coloring pages they were in love with. Epic battles and court intrigue could come out of a deck of playing cards (particularly if the Jacks looked nefarious and cruel). So as it is, I found "Lissy's Friends," by Grace Lin to be a perfect intersection of something I loathed as a kid and something I loved. Where does that leave the book? Firmly in the latter category, I'm happy to report. Being the new girl in school can be infinitely lonely. Lissy's kind of a solitary gal to begin with and when no one talks to her or sits with her at lunchtime, she creates a little paper crane out of a nearby lunch menu. To her delight, the crane comes alive and Lissy has literally "made" a friend. When her mother (misunderstanding, naturally) says that she's sure that Lissy will make lots of friends the next day, her daughter guarantees that this will be true. Now she swamped in wonderful friends of every shape and size, "And Lissy was never alone." Unfortunately, when a ride on the merry-go-round in a stiff breeze sends her companions heavenward, this moment of despair is quickly alleviated by a girl like Lissy who's interested in her origami skills. Now Lissy has human friends by her side while her former companions are now taking a bit of café au lait on the banks of Paree. There is a moment in this book where Lin could have lost her readers entirely (at least her grown-up ones) had her writing been heavy-handed or icky sweet. It is when Lissy's first origami creature, the paper crane, it comes to life in her hands. Some artist/illustrators would have imbued this moment with a great deal of silliness. With Lin, however, the moment just hangs there. For some reason, it makes perfect sense; not goofy or sentimental. Just a magical little occurrence that could be real or the figment of a lonely little girl's imagination. Even the happy ending where the once missing origami friends write Lissy a missive from Paris comes across as more touching than cutesy. I also loved that in Lissy's mind, her animals (with the exception of the original little stork) become the size of their real-life equivalents. The giraffe and elephant tower above Lissy, while the tiny mouse and crab (origami crabs?) scuttle beneath her feet. Lin's art is what I like to call deceptively simple. Clean pen-and-ink lines and supposedly simple human figures make up most of the scenes. But Lin has possibly outdone herself with this book. Lissy creates at least twenty different origami