Smile: How Young Charlie Chaplin Taught the World to Laugh (and Cry)

An award-winning author and a Caldecott Medalist take a creative look at the early life of comedic genius Charlie Chaplin.Once there was a little slip of a boy who roamed the streets of London, hungry for life (and maybe a bit of bread).

His dad long gone and his actress mother ailing, five-year-old Charlie found himself onstage one day taking his mum's place, singing and drawing laughs amid a shower of coins.

There were times in the poorhouse and times spent sitting in the window at home with Mum, making up funny stories about passersby.

And when Charlie described a wobbly old man he saw in baggy clothes, with turned-out feet and a crooked cane, his mother found it sad, but Charlie knew that funny and sad go hand in hand.