Charlie Joe Jackson’s Guide to Not Reading by Tommy Greenwald starts out as just that–a guide or self-help book on how middle school students can avoid reading.  Narrative passages are intermingled with handwritten notes on lined paper, comic-style illustrations, and lists of tips.  At first glance the book appears to be another Diary of a Wimpy Kid-style book.  True, there is some common DNA there:  under-achieving middle school student in typical middle school setting punctuated with pictures.  However, there are some divergences, too.  There is a lot more prose and the quality of writing is definitely up a notch.  Also, this is a book about middle-schoolers that actually feels like it is targeting middle school readers rather than elementary school readers.  The main character, Charlie Joe, doesn’t feel like a juvenile delinquent.  He likes his family (how refreshing) and is surrounded by friends that are somewhat diverse and substantial, compared to the typical characters in this genre/style.  Named for his sons–Charlie, Joe, and Jack–author Tommy Greenwald wrote this book for kids who don’t like to read and I enjoyed some of his humor on the subject.

Content Analysis:

Profanity/Language:  5 religious exclamations; 3 mild obscenities.

Violence/Gore:  Verbal threat; description of the Beatles Dead Baby Album Cover.

Sex/Nudity:  Flirting; girls called “hot”; character kisses another character; a passing observation by a character suggesting they drop the “Sex Education” class; characters like other characters; student observes that a teacher is nice-looking.

Mature Subject Matter:

None

Alcohol / Drug Use:

None