Crazy Charlie

by Ruth Brown

Crazy Charlie loves to eat. He eats canoes, bicycles, & even houses! No one can stop him, no matter how hard they try. Then one day, smething terrible happens to Crazy Charlie: he loses all his teeth. Will anyone be able to help Crazy Charlie or will he be toothless forever?

Genres: Picture Books

32 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1982

About the author

Born in 1941, Ruth Brown is the creator of some of Britain's best loved children's books. She has created a great many picture books for Andersen Press and is highly respected as an author and illustrator.
She attended Bournemouth College of Art, 1957–59; Birmingham College of Art, degree (with first-class honors), 1961; Royal College of Art, M.A., 1964.
She is married to artist Ken Brown and they have two grown-up sons and one grandchild.

Reviews

[J9 · Rating 3 out of 5]

After reading A Dark, dark tale, I fell in love with it, and hoped I'd find some more "dark" stories in the Ruth Brown collection. While this isn't dark in any way, it IS, however, a wonderful story with some unusual and completely unique aspects to it. Ruth Brown once again has a flavor all her own with magical illustrations that just pull you into their beauty. The story is adorable, the illustrations are so detailed! My 3 yr old twins and 5 yr old both love Ruth Brown. Just an overall fun book that's a great addition to any children's collection. Highly recommend this author!

[Kali · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is one of those picture books you finish and then state blankly at, wondering "What the heck was that?"

For starters, Charlie is not your average picture book animal character. He eats everything he sees. He eats everyone he sees. Kind of alarming, especially for the other animals in the jungle he lives in. Still, Charlie is famous the world over for being enormous and... Gluttonous. And he likes that.

Then all of his teeth fall out of his mouth. Now, if this sounds like something straight out of your nightmares, you're not alone. Spontaneously losing one's teeth is a common (BAD) dream theme that, apparently, we've decided to introduce kids to nice and early here. Odd choice, but maybe at least there'll be a good moral here about oak hygiene or- Wait. No. No, apparently we're going to give no explanation whatsoever for this phenomenon, leaving kids with the notion that this is just something that happens sometimes without warning. Well, that's a fun way to traumatize kids, I guess.

If you're wondering how a crocodile eats or, you know, stays alive without any teeth... That's just too bad, because this book won't explain that. It will, however, introduce a plant-collecting dentist/tourist who sends Charlie an enormous set of dentures, providing him with the creepiest (and wrongest) set of teeth possible - full on human chompers in a big ol' crocodile mouth. No thank you. Please.

Needless to say, this makes Charlie famous once again (but still doesn't explain how he eats with flat teeth?), which makes him pleased as punch - presumably because we may as well add "fame itself is a valid life goal" to the things we're teaching children here.

Then it's the end of the book and... No, I don't know what we just read either, so please don't ask me. Thanks.

[Suzannah Cooper · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a charming tale of how you do not need to act aggressively or negatively to get noticed, you can be through being nice and smiley! The humour and descriptive language would appeal to KS1 and 2.