Lotta's Progress

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

In this historical novel set in 1838, Lotta, a German immigrant girl, and her family have trouble adjusting to their new life in America, until she befriends Louisa May Alcott. Ages 8-12. May

Children's Literature - Gisela Jernigan

In this well-written and carefully researched young adult novel, that skillfully blends lively fiction with the equally exciting true story of the Alcott family, we meet and identify with 11-year-old Lotta Muller. She and her large German family struggle to survive in pre-Civil War Boston. Lotta and her family were forced to leave Germany for political reasons. They are discouraged to find life in America even more difficult in some ways. When Lotta's father disappears, and with her mother soon to have a baby, a desperate yet resourceful Lotta seeks and receives aid from the socially conscious Alcott family. Fans of Little Women, as well as those who just want a good story, will enjoy this novel which really brings the characters of Louisa May and her family to life, as well as creating a new, believable immigrant family. An author's note explaining what is true and what fiction, and three recipes are included.

School Library Journal

Gr 5-7Carlotta Muller, 12, and her family immigrate to Boston from Germany in the late 1840s. There, they encounter language barriers, unjust arrest, destruction of their home by fire, ethnic bigotry, poverty, and illiteracy. They are befriended by the Alcott family, including Louisa May (Louy). Friendship and support also come from the Callaghans, recent Irish immigrants and neighbors of the Mullers. A few stereotypes aside ("Mither o' God!") and a little melodrama ("sitting bolt upright, coughing, her eyes wells of terror"), the book's sympathetic characters boost reader involvement. The interaction between Lotta and Louy, two temperamentally similar characters with dissimilar backgrounds, reveals the personalities of the two girls on both intellectual and emotional levels. The intrusion of the Alcotts into the story is a bit jarring as, deus ex machina-like, they rescue the Mullers from crisis after crisis. Johnston provides a note that clearly separates the story's factual content from the fictional, and connects the book's characters to Alcott family members and characters in Little Women. Lotta's Progress lacks the complexity of Avi's "Beyond the Western Sea" books (Orchard, 1996), but is more substantial and rewarding than Kathleen Kudlinski's Shannon (Aladdin, 1997).Liza Bliss, Worcester Public Library, MA

Kirkus Reviews

Spun off from Johnston's Louisa May (1991), this tale of a German immigrant family's harsh first winter in America not only captures some of the flavor and spirit of Little Women, it also artfully suggests how incidents and people from Alcott's real life ended up in her novels. One of five children (with another on the way), Lotta Muller watches hard times take their toll: Her mother and little sister fall ill; Vater, unable to find steady work, takes to drink and finally disappears altogether; her brother is jailed for stealing food. Fortune smiles on the Mullers at last when a kindly passerby gives Lotta the address of Mrs. Bronson Alcott, who briskly enlists her gentle, brilliant husband and four lively daughters to take matters in hand. Sixteen-year-old "Louy" becomes Lotta's special friend, helping her to learn English in exchange for German lessons, and teaching her to value her own mind and talents. Chock full both of biographical facts and literary references (the Alcotts are so close to the Marches, and the Mullers to the Hummels, that Johnston's story and the classic may blend in some readers' minds), this book, strong enough to stand on its own, also makes an engaging prelude—or postscript—to its timeless progenitor.