Book Review of Cheeky Charlie by Mat Waugh
I’ve not written a review in a while, because lately I haven’t read a book exciting enough to write about. But after reading the story of Cheeky Charlie by Mat Waugh, I thought I must let you know about this one. Who is Charlie? He is a three year old tornado that sweeps away about anything in its path. Wherever he goes he leaves a trail of heavy damage and destruction. Sounds like a pretty interesting story, right? Well, once you start reading it you know it’s more than just that. It’s 110 pages of total fun - the kind of pure fun you expect when you pick a Roald Dahl book. And indeed, I noticed the author had been inspired greatly by the prose style of Roald Dahl. There were also references of his books in two places.
Alright, now. About the the book.
Do you have a brother? I hope that if you do he’s strange too, because then you’ll know how I feel.
They are not just words. They aptly sum up the entire personality of a
cheeky, little brother called Charlie. The stories of his amazing feats are
simply unbelievable. So when his sister was asked at the school if she had been
up to anything interesting during the holidays, she tells the story of her
brother Charlie, and they hardly believed her. The story goes like this: two
construction workers came to work in the garden. One of them had a tattoo of a
naked lady on his back. Cheeky Charlie saw the tattoo and liked it immensely. He
ran his finger over this tattoo – not once, nor twice, but every time he saw
it, he wanted to admire it. On a certain day, there not having anything in
particular to do, Cheeky Charlie, armed with his felt pens, he set out for
something creative while the man took a nap on the grass.
And what did he say when he was asked about it?
‘Nuffink’, he said. ‘I done nuffink.’
He didn’t look like he’d done nuffink though. He looked like he’d definitely done somefink – and I knew what it was.
And it came up that the tattoo had undergone a complete
renovation. The naked lady wasn’t naked anymore.
She now wore a pair of bright green trousers, and a purple and brown stripy top. And an orange hat. And she was carrying a blue handbag.
There was this other
story about Cheeky Charlie’s treasure hunting where he almost lost the Aircrew
Medal, but of course I am not going to tell you about it. But I can’t help
mentioning what happened when Charlie crawled under some of the sun loungers in
a hotel. The car keys were missing, the suncreams were swapped, even the shoes
were misplaced – as a result there was bit of a misunderstanding among the
loungers and they pointed angrily at each other. By the time things turned real
hot by the pool, Charlie was already back to his family. However, when the
loungers started pointed at them, they thought it wise to slip away from the
spot.
Funny stories such as these are written rarely these days. Though Cheeky Charlie was written primarily for children, a grown up man too can have a
hearty laugh reading the stories. I loved it so much that immediately after
finishing the book, I went to the beginning to read it again. It will be quite an understatement to remark Mat Waugh has an exceptional gift of story telling. I'd really like to read the other books in this series.
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