I am often seeking YA books for a book club I lead. When I discovered Charming as a Verb by Ben Philippe, I thought I had hit pay dirt. Philippe’s prose is described variously as “effortlessly charming,” “sharply funny and insightful,” and “witty and well-developed.” I also liked the title.
As I read, I agreed with most of the comments I had discovered. Henri Haltiwanger, first-generation Haitian, is a charming high school student. He’s busy with his schoolwork, activities, and dog-walking business. Henri attends the prestigious high school, Fine Arts Technical Education Academy (FATE), on a scholarship. Henri carefully keeps his friends at school and his home life separate.
The dog-walking business is, in fact, a one-man operation fully run by Henri himself with one employee: Henri. He created a website that makes it look as if he works for a larger company, Uptown Updogs. He even sports a T-shirt with the name and logo on it to make the company more legit.
His dog-walking scheme becomes problematic when Corrine Troy’s mother hires Henri to walk Corrine’s newly acquired dog. There are two problems with this new client. First, Corrine is one of Troy’s classmates. Second, Corrine and her mother live in Henri’s building where Henri’s father is the superintendent taking care of the building maintenance. A third problem develops when Corrine determines Henri is the sole employee of Uptown Updogs.
Corrine blackmails Henri into helping her overcome her lack of popularity at the school. Henri and Corrine are like oil and water, but readers may suspect that may change as they become better acquainted.
Although I thought the book would make a good one for our book club, I quickly realized that the story is not suitable for my group. I am not a prude, but the underage sex and drinking put me off the story quickly.
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