CHARLIE'S GREAT BIG BACKPACK

Nerdy, feckless Charlie faces a new challenge: camping!

Charlie’s antithesis, Big Louis, with his bowling-ball physique, glowering unibrow, and huge, tapering arms, intimidates everyone. But not Charlie! He’s excited to partner with Big Louis on the class camping trip. Admittedly, Charlie’s backpack is “a little heavier than usual,” thanks to his family members, who have advised him to be as prepared as possible. On the trip, a combination of Charlie’s clumsiness, carelessness, and errors soon incapacitates Big Louis: He is wounded, drenched, and hoping to be freed from his well-meaning partner. Then, confronted by a huge bear, Big Louis turns “whiter than a vampire’s backside.” Charlie’s intervention seems futile, and when he runs to his tent, it looks like he’s abandoning his buddy. Instead, he returns with an improvised catapult. Why the bear hasn’t already dined on Big Louis isn’t explained, but the catapult sends several jugs of honey into the forest, where the bear happily follows, earning Charlie a new title: “the Scarebear.” The hyperbolic line drawings—predominantly black and white (emphasizing Louis’s black, skull-adorned T-shirt and black hair) with touches of color (Charlie’s enormous red eyeglasses)—play up the absurd contrast between the two characters. While the conclusion to this tale, translated from Spanish, may feel a bit out of the blue, it’s nevertheless a funny and satisfying one. Characters have skin the white of the page.

Another triumphant adventure for this ever-striving hero to the bespectacled and undersized.