My Sister Lotta and Me

An animated text and inventive multimedia illustrations distinguish this unusually charming book, originally published in Dahlback and Ramel's native Sweden. Against a background of sepia-tinted photos of the interior of an antique dollhouse, Ramel superimposes paintings of two very different but inseparable sisters. The narrator introduces her sibling, Lotta, and admiringly describes Lotta's antics as the two cavort in various rooms throughout the house: they play school (``I'm always the teacher. Lotta, she's a classroom full of children--the most mischievous class I've ever had''); the fearless Lotta walks on a makeshift tightrope (``She goes around for hours with her eyes shut''); and they make honey buns (``I've tried to show her how to crack eggs and beat them, but Lotta claps them hard between her hands, then lets them fall like little Humpty-Dumpties!''). Embellished with such fanciful painted details as scurrying mice and a juggling alligator, Ramel's pictures are as lively as the young duo they showcase. Ages 5-8. (Aug.)