Cover Image: Charlie Bumpers vs. His Big Blabby Mouth

Charlie Bumpers vs. His Big Blabby Mouth

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Member Reviews

Students will enjoy this story. Charlie is a typical fourth grader that all kids will be able to connect with. The story had a great message and definitely will keep kids interested.

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Charlie Bumpers vs. His Big Blabby Mouth was a quick, fun read about the struggles kids face in telling the truth vs. the exaggerated truth. Poor Charlie doesn't mean to tell a lie, but an exaggeration about his Dad's job turns into a huge problem! I can imagine a lot of kids going through this as they try to impress other children or live up to the expectations others have of them. Charlie seems to get himself deeper into the lie each day and he isn't quite sure how he is going to get out of it, if he can even get his Dad to come in for Career Week! Charlie Bumpers vs. His Big Blabby Mouth is a story about school challenges, family, friendship and overcoming obstacles. There were so many great things about this book, but I didn't feel that the title or the cover really matched the story well.

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This is the sixth book in the Charlie Bumper series. Charlie's fourth grade class is having careers week and the parents have been invited to visit the class and share about their jobs. The teacher is looking for one more parent to fill the final slot. Charlie listens to some of his classmates bragging about their parent's jobs and what they will bring in for the class.. He wants everyone to like his dad so he tells his teacher that his dad will come in. He then starts to brag about his father's job leading his classmates to believe he is president of his company, has his own jet, will bring calculators or maybe even computers for everyone and more. Unfortunately, Charlie does not correct these stories and his father does not want to come to present. He finally convinces his dad to come, but he still does not know what to say to his classmates about the calculators. To add to his problems, his father loses his job, and Charlie causes a problem when he is delivering a message for the office and loses his job as well.

The great thing about these stories is that kids can relate to Charlie's issues. Kids often brag about their parents jobs or abilities to others. In this day and age, most families know someone who has experienced job loss or unemployment for one reason or another. The Bumper family help each other through their difficulties and help them to reason out solutions. I like that Charlie's older brother Matt took a role in that in this story. Readers may smile when they learn what Mr. Bumpers decides to do to share and entertain Charlie's class as well as the solution for his unemployment. I like this series. It is a good one for boys, particularly reluctant readers as well as being ideal for a read aloud and offering all sorts of great lessons to share and discuss. A great addition to a school, class and family library.

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