Through the Looking Glass Children's Book Reviews
Louise the Big Cheese and the Back-to-School Smarty-Pants
Illustrator: Diane Goode
Picture Book Series
For ages 6 to 8
Simon and Schuster, 2011 ISBN: 978-1442406001
Louise Cheese is a small girl who lives in an ordinary house with ordinary parents. Louise Cheese would like to be a big cheese, and on the evening before the first day of school she decides that she is going to get straight As like Albert Einstein. She is going to be in Mrs. Pearl’s class and Louise is sure that Mrs. Pearl is just the kind of teacher who will give her straight As.
Alas for Louise. Mrs. Pearl is not in the slightest bit pearl-like. She is grey all over and it is said that she “never gives As.” Louise tries her best to earn the As that she thinks are rightly hers, but somehow she ends up being told again and again that she “can do better.” To make matters worse, Mrs. Pearl gives Lenny an A, but the teacher does not seem to think that Louise merits a single one. What is the dreaded teacher going to write on Louise’s report card? Will Louise be condemned to repeat second grade forever?
Young readers will laugh out loud as they follow the antics of Louise, who wants so much to be a straight A “smarty pants” student, and hence a “big cheese.” It is not easy getting big cheese status when people don’t recognize that you are worthy of being a big cheese.
With a loveable main character and delightfully funny illustrations, this is a picture book that will help children to understand that straight As don’t just appear. They have to be earned.
