Carlo Castlecrusher - Hardcover

PreSchool-Grade 1–Every day at the beach, after Amon, Pei, and Cathy finish building their sandcastles, Carlo comes along and smashes them. After a new boy constructs a sand replica of a famous church, the other children are soon re-creating landmarks from their own countries. When Carlo crushes those, the many onlookers are shocked, and his father reproves him. The next day, Carlo rebuilds all of the structures and adds a new one–the Leaning Tower of Pisa. Everyone applauds and he is renamed Carlo Castlebuilder. The writing is stiff and awkward and the lesson-driven plot conveys a mixed message. Carlo's turnaround seems too easy and his father's reproach too gentle for the repeated crimes. The inclusion of children from different parts of the world is contrived, with the overt purpose of allowing them to create structures likely to be recognized by adult readers. The naive, mixed-media illustrations of slightly creepy, bug-eyed characters contain distracting brushstrokes and warped perspectives. While the bullying theme will be meaningful to many youngsters, the easy resolution will not. Better books on the topic include Cari Best's Shrinking Violet (Farrar, 2001) and Judith Caseley's Bully (HarperCollins, 2001).–Amy Lilien-Harper, The Ferguson Library, Stamford, CT
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