AUGUST 2011 - AudioFile
Hero and first-person narrator Charlie Joe Jackson has a lot to say! Not only does he provide a window on middle school life, but he also delves, in alternating chapters, into his rationale and suggestions for how to avoid reading for pleasure or assignment. His aversion to book reports and position papers as well as his curiosity about girls strikes a familiar chord. MacLeod Andrews’s voice is refreshingly kid-friendly. His enthusiasm never flags, and his pacing mirrors the ups and downs of school—dragging when Charlie Joe is on the principal’s or his parents’ carpet and highly animated when the character is plotting with friends Timmy and Katie. Andrews’s spot-on inflections bring chuckles to the vignettes. Will Charlie Joe change his tune? A question-and-answer session with the author concludes the recording. A.R. © AudioFile 2011, Portland, Maine
School Library Journal - Audio
Gr 5–7—In this wry and engaging story (Roaring Brook Press, 2011) by Tommy Greenwald, Charlie Joe has achieved the honor of being the cool kid who gets by without ever having to read a whole book. Now that he's in middle school, however, and his friend Timmy won't trade book reports for ice cream, Charlie has to get more creative to maintain his record. He is an extremely clever young man and knows all of the proper phrases to use in his reports. Also, he can work a friendship so that both parties come away feeling that they have won, and he promises to spread his manifesto of non-reading with a book filled with short chapters and monosyllabic words. Toss in some very authentic middle-school romance, a few interesting teachers, and 25 "exclusive non-reading tips," and the book fairly flies along to its surprisingly ironic ending. MacLeod Andrews performs Charlie's narrative with humor and typical middle-school sarcasm, using exaggerated voices for the other characters. Bonus features include an interview with the author, a section of the book that Charlie refuses to read, and a song about the joys of reading. With a sequel already in the works, Charlie Joe promises to be popular with fans of "The Wimpy Kid" series, and should make even the most reluctant readers stick around to the last (short) chapter.—MaryAnn Karre, Horace Mann and Thomas Jefferson Elementary Schools, Binghamton, NY
School Library Journal
Gr 5–7—Charlie Joe Jackson is a likable middle schooler and an unabashed nonreader. In fact, he's so against the practice that he constantly flirts with danger to ensure that he never has to crack a book. He makes deals with friends to fill him in on assigned reading. When he is caught, it becomes much more difficult to pull off his year-end, research-heavy "Position Paper." He nails it, but there is no happy ending, and he writes a book—this book—as punishment. Greenwald believably inhabits the mind of a tween, with the cliques and short-lived first romances that come with it. Charlie Joe narrates his story while providing humorous tips between chapters about reading and avoiding it. This is a fun, fast-moving look at middle-school life through the eyes of a kid who would rather clean his room than pick up a book. Reluctant readers will be pleased.—Travis Jonker, Dorr Elementary School, MI
AUGUST 2011 - AudioFile
Hero and first-person narrator Charlie Joe Jackson has a lot to say! Not only does he provide a window on middle school life, but he also delves, in alternating chapters, into his rationale and suggestions for how to avoid reading for pleasure or assignment. His aversion to book reports and position papers as well as his curiosity about girls strikes a familiar chord. MacLeod Andrews’s voice is refreshingly kid-friendly. His enthusiasm never flags, and his pacing mirrors the ups and downs of school—dragging when Charlie Joe is on the principal’s or his parents’ carpet and highly animated when the character is plotting with friends Timmy and Katie. Andrews’s spot-on inflections bring chuckles to the vignettes. Will Charlie Joe change his tune? A question-and-answer session with the author concludes the recording. A.R. © AudioFile 2011, Portland, Maine
Kirkus Reviews
Charlie Joe will do just about anything to avoid reading in this humorous cautionary tale for book-hating middle-grade students.
Debut author Greenwald takes on the persona of Charlie Joe Jackson, a middle-school boy who hates reading. His avoidance techniques get him into serious trouble with his parents, his teachers and his friends. After a year of avoiding reading—paying off a friend in ice-cream sandwiches to read books for him and manipulating his friends so he won't have to read for the all-important position-paper project—Charlie Joe is forced to spend his summer vacation writing a book about his poor choices. Charlie Joe's insider knowledge of the inner machinations of middle-school cliques will make younger readers smile in anticipation, and his direct address to readers makes make him feel like an older buddy showing the way. Sprinkled into the narrative are "Charlie Joe's Tips" to avoiding reading books, written on faux notebook paper, that serve as a little diversion from the plot. As amusing as this is, Charlie Joe's voice is not consistent and occasionally jars with the intelligent, smart-guy sarcasm that characterizes most of Charlie Joe's prose.
That aside, slackers everywhere have a new, likable hero in Charlie Joe Jackson. (Fiction. 10-12)
