Charlie Chaloosy is Often Quite Choosy by Brad Mason, Ed. D. Book Tour, Guest Post, & More! { Ends 2/16/24}

Review By LAWonder10:

Charlie Chaloosy seems like a fun new series. The first book is about expanding one’s interests and the positive outcomes it can have. It also encourages a child to be creative.

The Rhyming is good but one raises an eyebrow at a couple of the rhyming words that don’t quite fit the rest of the rhyme. It still is a very good and entertaining teaching tool.

The illustrations are cartoonlike; colorful, and full of expression. 

At the end of the story, two pages are provided that encourages the child’s own creativity.

I offer a Four and One Half Stars rating.

This book was gifted to me with no pressure to post a positive review This is my honest review.

What inspired you to start writing and how did Charlie come to life?

In retrospect, I feel like Charlie was living just below the surface of my subconscious because of how fast he came to be after a slight nudge from a friend of mine who happens to own a publishing company.

I am in my 34th year as an educator and I have spent the last 9 years as a superintendent in Southern California. Children are my passion, but most of my time is spent focusing on the operation of schools as an organization.

My publisher friend sent me a children’s book he was working on for another author and asked me to read it and provide any feedback I had or an endorsement for the book if I was so inclined. What happened next was very unexpected. I found myself reading the book very critically, the book was good but it hit me that I was being asked to preview a book that was going to be in the hands of children and that felt like a high calling. As such, I provided way more feedback than he was looking for and it sparked a conversation about where this passion was coming from.

We talked more and he challenged me to explore the idea of writing my own children’s book. I thought about it on my 1 ½ hour Southern California commute home that night and I began writing Charlie Chaloosy is Often Quite Choosy when I got home.

I wanted to write a book that helped address the issue of anxiety that I see in my work with children and as a Granddaddy of six. I wanted to write a book that is used as a tool in the hands of a child or caring adult that helps equip them to go outside of their comfort zone and gain experiences and success as they explore doing new things.

Charlie takes the reader through his own fixed mindset that limits what he eats, what he
wears and what he does. The reader sees that Charlie in one illustration is standing off
to the side watching other children play and you can tell that Charlie wants more. The
following pages see Charlie contemplating if he tried new things whether his likes would
expand, and expand they did. He also reached out to a child in the book and asked if he
wanted to ride bikes with him and the reader sees Charlie make a new friend.

A couple of novelties of the book are the rhyme scheme I use to tell the story and how I use the last two pages. I left the last two pages “blank” as a place for the child to draw a picture of something new they would like to try on one page and to write about it on the other. The child is given credit for becoming an author by continuing the story and committing to something new where they can grow, like Charlie.

I am humbled to think this passion project will end up in the hands of children and will be used to provide encouragement and confidence to those who might need it. I’m just getting started on the Charlie Chaloosy book series, so stay tuned.