Synopsis
Even on beautiful days, bad things can happen. Bad things like Charlotte calling her best friend, Kate, a big pink baby, and Kate crying all the way home. Charlotte feels awful . . . in fact, she feels so awful she can’t even eat her pizza and french fries. It was that bad.
Then Grandpa shows Charlotte his invisible mistakecase . . . and she doesn’t believe her eyes! It’s a place where he keeps reminders of all the mistakes he never wants to repeat. Could Charlotte possibly have a mistakecase of her very own?
Sheryl O'Sullivan - Children's Literature
When Charlotte calls her best friend Kate a big pink baby, it sends Kate home in tears and starts Charlotte on the long road of guilt and forgiveness. Charlotte at first tries to hide her normal feelings of remorse, but finally she confides in her grandpa, who tells her about the Invisible Mistakecase. This wise grandpa tells Charlotte that he keeps all the mistakes he has made, that he does not want to ever make again, in an invisible suitcase. He pulls this out, opens it, and shows Charlotte a piece of pie. All of this is imaginary, but it leads to the real story of why grandpa has a piece of pie in his mistakecase. Eventually, Charlotte puts her mistake in the mistakecase and reconciles with Kate. The illustrations in this book are creative and charming. The difficult lessons of repentance and forgiveness are addressed in such a cheery way that children will want to have a mistakecase of their own, and will find apologizing much easier. 2005, Houghton Mifflin, Ages 3 to 8.