Convicted batterer Chris Brown is hoping to shake his bad boy image by reading to Harlem schoolchildren.

Brown, who is currently serving five years probation and 180 days community service for beating his ex-lover Rihanna in Feb. 2009, was recently approached by the principal of the Big Apple’s Sisulu-Walker Charter School with an invitation to join in at the school’s annual Family Read Night Event on March 11.

“I extended an invitation to all celebrities and politicians, and we had an acceptance by him,” says Principal Dawn Cejas.

Chris will attend the event encouraging young children to love literature — much to the delight ofparents of children at the school, who are not fazed by the “Run It” stars run-in with the law.

“He can come even though he was arrested. He’s coming to read to the children. He apologised on TV. Sometimes in real life we make mistakes,” mom Olubunmi Sonubi tells The New York Daily News.