Review Detail

Charlie is concerned when he hears that he has been assigned to Mrs. Burke's fourth grade class, since he accidentally hit her with his shoe the year before. Also, she has a lot of rules and is insistent that everyone keep their desks clean, and Charlie is always a mess. Charlie doesn't want to run afoul of Mrs. Burke, but he manages to get in trouble right and left. He doesn't like his white tennis shoes, so he colors them with black marker. He is kind to the new student, Hector, who comes from Chile, but he climbs on his chair and falls, wastes a lot of toilet paper and creates a mess, and throws another shoe, this time to retrieve a soccer ball that students are not supposed to have out of the gym. In the end, though, he has a talk with Mrs. Burke and finds out that the two of them can get along.

This reminded me strongly of Carolyn Haywood's Eddie books; well meaning child who just is constantly messing up. The pictures are fairly charming, and I can see this being well liked by first through third graders. There is a sequel coming out in the spring, Charlie Bumpers and the Really Nice Gnome.