Charlie's Eyeglasses

In each one, Charlie sets out to fearlessly represent both the smaller kids in the world and the eyeglass wearing ones (I don’t have a Venn diagram in front of me right now, but I suspect that there’s a fair amount of overlap between these two categories). But it wasn’t until I started reading some of the selections of these books that I fell in love with Charlie and his odd little world – A Fuse 8 Productions.

Charlie does everything he can think of to be seen by a girl named Iris, who is much bigger than he is. She gets glasses, which ups his hopes of being seen, but he remains invisible to her. So he tries a wide variety of glasses to change his visibility. As a last resort, he tries prescription eyeglasses, and discovers something unexpected that will surprise readers.

There's a delightful tongue-in-cheek humor here and the simplistic line-drawing illustrations against a stark white background suit the text perfectly. This is a fun import that children will enjoy – Puget Sound Council for Reviewing Children's and Young Adult Literature.

It is a sweet story that explores the deeper theme of wanting to be seen versus truly seeing. Del Mazo grasps the importance of rhythm for the page turn, and her pacing is spot-on – "Here’s Looking at You, Kids: 3 Picture Books About Eyeglasses". The New York Times