Charlie Is a Chicken

by Jane Denitz Smith

A bad joke? Charlie Siegel has a pretty normal life. Until the notes start. Charlie is a chicken. Charlie smells. At first he thinks they are a joke. After all, why would anybody be mean to him? But the notes keep coming and Charlie begins to think that they might be true. He wants to ask his best friend, Maddie, about it. But lately she's been more interested in talking to the popular girls than in hanging around him. Suddenly Charlie's world seems to be spinning out of control. Why is this happening to him? And will his life ever be normal again? Charlie Siegal is leading a pretty normal fifth-grade life until the day the mysterious notes start to appear. The notes are stupid, mean, and mostly untrue, but Charlie cant help being hurt by them. Somebody is going to a lot of trouble to make his life miserable. And its working. Nothing is the same for Charlie, not even Maddie, his best friend for as long as he can remember. Suddenly Maddie has become as unrecognizable as the handwriting on the notes hes been getting. Shes spending more and more of her time with horrible Jessica McGuire, a girl they used to ignore. And shes staying away from Charlie every chance she gets. Does Maddie have something to hide?In her second novel for young readers, Jane Denitz Smith has created a heartfelt story about what it means to test the limits of friendshipand what it takes to make everything right again.

Genres: Realistic Fiction, Friendship

176 pages, Hardcover

First published September 18, 1998

About the author

Jane Denitz Smith was born in Allentown, PA, and graduated from Clark University. Her first book, Mary, By Myself, was hailed as "an impressive first novel from a promising new author" by Horn Book Magazine. She is also the author of Charlie is a Chicken published by HarperCollins. An English teacher and mother of three children, Ms. Smith lives in Massachusetts.

Reviews

[Waffle...♥]

I picked up this book for only this one reason: It has a the word 'chicken' on it. Yea, I know I'm wierd. But I was pretty bored that day and I was intrested on why this kid was called a chicken. I didn't expect to like this this much to my surpise it did! To me it was very touching and I even cried! I pretty much forgot when I read this and what it was about. Something about 'goodies' as well along with notes. I also remember I liked Charlie... he's awesome! I don't think if I re-read this book I'd like it as much compared to all those awesome books I've read. But at some point this book had touched me deeply... :)

[Sylvia]

Boy's struggle with nasty notes from peers.