Edwardo: the horriblest boy in the whole wide world
by John Burningham
2006

Edwardo starts the book described in various terrible ways, descriptions that are justified by the illustrations. Of course, he's also misunderstood. In his case, when he's misunderstood, this leads to positive changes. Nice, quite English seeming. As indeed Mr. Burningham is. Perhaps he's more familiar to me than name recognition suggests.