Charles of the Wild

A liberating walk on the wild side (aka the Boston Common) awaits lapdog Charles in this wry tale. Accustomed to being carried to the groomer's ""so that he would not soil his paws"" and not being allowed outdoors because ""he might catch cold,"" Charles lives the high life-but longs for the low. His dreams, shown as a backdrop to an image of him happily asleep, are of gnawing a moose bone or joining coyotes that howl at the moon. One night, Charles slips out an open window. He loses his lamb's wool sweater, howls at a streetlight that he mistakes for the moon and hides in a rubbish bin, where he is found the next morning by a raggedy man. Allowing Charles to play but returning him to his fancy home, the man engineers a solution to please both Charles and his doting owner, a well-padded old lady. Unleashed, Charles provides a buoyant contrast to Boston's tidy rowhouses and manicured park, detailed here in refined daubs of brick red and forest green. To heighten the drollery, the Hassetts (We Got My Brother at the Zoo) provide absurdly tasteful scenarios (e.g., Charles's meals are pictured laid out on a white rug set with candelabra, fresh flowers and fine china) and adopt clipped, upper-crusty tones for the narration. Ages 4-8. (Mar.)