Annal:1989 Boston Globe-Horn Book Award for Picture Book

Shy Charles

Rosemary Wells

• 1989 Horn Book-picture winner
• Score: 10.39

Charles is a mouse of few words. He doesn’t like to talk, and he’s perfectly happy playing by himself. But his parents are not happy. “It’s time he played football or joined the ballet,” says Charles’s father. So off Charles goes to ballet class, where he curls up and pretends to be asleep. Football proves even less successful. Will anything bring Charles out of his shell?