Nice Try, Charlie!
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- $10.99
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- $10.99
Publisher Description
A new picture book about friendship and community from Matt James, acclaimed author and illustrator of The Funeral.
With his cart full of treasures and big green hat, Charlie is a neighborhood fixture. When he finds a pie, he sets off to find the owner — and helps some friends along the way.
Poignant and funny, this story is an ode to resourcefulness and the compassion that turns neighbors into friends. Charlie and his friends might not have much — but they have each other.
Correlates to the Common Core State Standards in English Language Arts:
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.2.3
Describe how characters in a story respond to major events and challenges.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.3.7
Explain how specific aspects of a text's illustrations contribute to what is conveyed by the words in a story (e.g., create mood, emphasize aspects of a character or setting)
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.5.7
Analyze how visual and multimedia elements contribute to the meaning, tone, or beauty of a text (e.g., graphic novel, multimedia presentation of fiction, folktale, myth, poem).
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
A mysterious pie is the catalyst in this quirky Canadian story that follows Charlie, a pale, bearded fellow who wears a pickle-colored 10-gallon hat and "finds things to do with the things that he finds." When Charlie spies a pie in a box, Aunt Myrtle, a Black bespectacled wheelchair user, cautions him to find its owner instead of eating it. So Charlie dutifully sets off with his cart in tow, asking various neighbors including a brown-skinned basketball player named Margaret, an untalented white tuba player named Malcolm, and even a group of birds if the pie belongs to them. When Charlie cannot find the owner, Aunt Myrtle rallies the community to share the sweet treat. Engaging illustrations of the cityscape, rendered in acrylic, gouache, and ink and supplemented by cut paper, photographs, and more, provide dimensional elements amid speech-balloon-festooned pages. Though the pie's dubious edibility may raise questions, the compassionate, inclusive community and Charlie's winsome persistence are highlights in an otherwise lean book. Ages 3 7.
