The official age rating for Lottie Brooks is 9 to 12, and for once the official number has it about right. It matches our shelves too. We put the first book at 9 and the later ones at 10. But if what age Lottie Brooks is for were really that tidy a question, you wouldn’t be looking it up.
The confusion is that the books look younger than they are. Doodles on every page, a hamster called Sir Barnaby Squeakington, covers that promise pure silliness. Then you flick through and Lottie’s worrying about bras.
Katie Kirby‘s series is everywhere right now, and she owns a good stretch of the funny books for 10 year olds shelf. If your child hasn’t brought one home yet, a classmate will sort that out soon enough.
Why the 9 to 12 rating confuses people
Picture the standard forum thread. A mum says her 7 year old is happily reading Lottie Brooks, and the replies tell her the rating is 9 to 12 and the books aren’t really suitable. Both halves of that conversation are kind of right.
A strong 7 year old reader genuinely can read these. The sentences are chatty, the doodles carry half the jokes, and nothing about the vocabulary will slow them down. The rating was never about the words. It’s about what Lottie is going through.
What age is Lottie Brooks for, honestly?
In The Extremely Embarrassing Life of Lottie Brooks, Lottie is 11 and about to start high school with no friends, no glamorous swooshy hair and (her words) a chest too flat for A BRA. That opening tells you everything about the content. Friendship politics, crushes, embarrassing families and the early rumblings of puberty, all played for warmth and laughs.
And that’s as far as it goes. Swearing, none. Romance, a first kiss at most, and that’s several books away. What earns the 9-plus floor is that the comedy runs on secondary-school life. If that world means nothing to your reader yet, most of the jokes have nowhere to land.
So the zone is 9 to 12, and the bullseye is a Year 5 to Year 7 reader who can see this world coming, or has just arrived in it.
The books get older as Lottie does
The useful detail no listing gives you. Lottie ages through the series, and the content moves up with her.
Book one is starting-secondary territory, new-school nerves and friendship worries. In The Catastrophic Friendship Fails of Lottie Brooks she’s back for spring term, done with trying to impress mean girl Amber and very done with being nicknamed Cucumber Girl. By The Mega-Complicated Crushes of Lottie Brooks it’s summer, and the agenda is braces, a MEGA-crush called Daniel and a first boyfriend on the scene.
A keen 9 year old is in exactly the right place starting book one. Whether they sprint straight on to the first-boyfriend instalments is your judgement call, and at least now you know where the series is heading.
Is Lottie Brooks OK for a 7 year old?
Content-wise, a 7 year old could read these tomorrow and be fine. What they can’t do yet is find them funny.
The comedy is built from WhatsApp groups, who’s-sitting-with-who and the agony of a crush knowing you exist. A 7 year old can read every word and still miss the point, because the jokes are about a world two school years away. A desperate-to-read-it 7 year old will be fine. A lukewarm one gets a much better version of Lottie by waiting a couple of years. Our piece on how to tell what age a book is for goes deeper on why the words and the content don’t always agree.
Too soon for Lottie? Four for the meantime
These four keep the doodles, the friendship mess and the laughs, minus the puberty chat, and all of them shelve a year or two below Lottie.
Yours Troolie, Alice Toolie by Kate Temple
Yours Troolie, Alice Toolie
Alice Toolie’s secret diary has been read by her worst enemy, Jimmy Cook. It’s war. Then their teacher makes them pen pals for the term, and the letters slide from insults into a joint plan to make billions at the school fete, featuring a captured ghost and jars of unicorn vomit. The diary format at its silliest. For 7 and 8 year olds.
V.I.P.: I’m With the Band by Jen Calonita
V.I.P. – I’m With the Band
Mac Lowell’s mum lands the coolest job EVER, and suddenly Mac is on tour with her favourite band, Perfect Storm, recording every moment in a journal full of daydreamy doodles. Built for the child who’s in it for Lottie’s doodles and lists. For 8 up.
Marya Khan and the Incredible Henna Party by Saadia Faruqi
Marya Khan and the Incredible Henna Party
Marya’s eighth birthday is a week away, and she wants a party as over-the-top as the ones her rich neighbour Alexa throws. So she promises the most incredible henna party ever. Her plans backfire in style, her heart stays enormous, and there isn’t a crush in sight. For 8 and 9 year olds.
Holly-Mei: The Not-So-Perfect Plan by Christina Matula
Holly-Mei – The Not-So-Perfect Plan
Closest to Lottie in age, without the growing-up content. Holly-Mei Jones is determined to make this term in Hong Kong the best yet (great friends, a spot on the field hockey team, a whole city on her doorstep), and then her friend group starts to splinter. Friendship drama played straight and warm. For 10 up.
Already through the lot? Then it’s our books like Lottie Brooks guide you want, with books like Dork Diaries covering the other big diary series in her world. And if you’re weighing up that series for your own reader, we’ve answered what age Dork Diaries is for too.
Just so you know…
Little Reads stocks three Lottie Brooks books and every pick above.
It’s a hand-picked library of 3,000+ books for children aged 5 to 11. A free account gives you 100+ free books, and full access is £7.99 a month after a 7-day free trial. Cancel anytime.
We’re a library, not a classroom, so it’s not the app for phonics or learning to read.
But if Lottie has moved into your house, we’ve got plenty lined up for the moment she’s finished.