Charlie Bumpers vs. the End of the Year
Written by Bill Harley and illustrated by Adam Gustavson

It’s the end of an era! Since its debut, the Charlie Bumpers series, written by Grammy-Award-winning author Bill Harley, has been praised as “fast-paced” and “enjoyable,” with “naturally funny moments” (School Library Journal). Charlie Bumpers vs. the End of the Year ends the series on a high, warm-hearted note, celebrating friends and family, and making the best of a bad situation.

When Charlie learns that Hector’s family is moving back to Chile at the end of the year, he is crushed. With Tommy’s help, he immediately starts cooking up schemes to keep Hector here, including a campaign to get him selected as next year’s School Ambassador. (Surely Hector will have to stay, Charlie reasons, if he has such an important job.) As usual, Charlie’s schemes lead to one near-disaster after another.

But moving away from his friends turns out to be the least of Hector’s problems. Three mean boys have targeted him for bullying and are making his life miserable. Hector wants to solve the problem by himself, but Charlie and Tommy see that he needs help. They start a campaign to save Hector and to defeat “The Jerzollies of Darkness.”

“Narrated in a balance of warmhearted insight and wacky naiveté, Charlie’s life will resonate with readers trying to navigate the simple but realistic perils of elementary school. Making friends, getting along with siblings, avoiding trouble at school—these situations matter to young readers, and Harley captures these emotions with a light and humorous touch.” —Kirkus Reviews

Check out the whole Charlie Bumpers series here, and don’t miss the free, downloadable series poster! Read an excerpt of Charlie Bumpers vs. the End of the Year and hear Bill Harley’s song for the last book of the series. There also a teacher’s guide available (for this book and all the rest of the books in the series).

Sign Charlie Bumpers’ yearbook! If you’re a fan of Charlie Bumpers and want to share your favorite moments with Bill Harley’s fun and wacky books, comment below with your “good-bye.” We’ll be sharing everyone’s good-bye messages to Charlie as we reflect on the end of this wonderful series.

Get your copy of Charlie Bumpers vs. the End of the Year on Amazon or at your local library, indie bookstore, or Barnes & Noble!

As a special Halloween treat, we’re giving you, our wonderful readers (and the rest of the internet, I suppose…), a super-exclusive (and by that, I mean: open to the entire computer-literate world) insider’s look at recording an audiobook!

Bill Harley is a two-time Grammy award-winning storyteller and the author of the Charlie Bumpers series. It only makes sense that he’d record his own audiobook.

So a few months back, armed with copies of The Squeaking Skull, lots of coffee, and our video camera, a couple of us from Peachtree headed to the ListenUp Audiobooks recording studio here in Atlanta.

In a dark room with orange padded walls, we (plus our awesome sound tech, Dante) carefully followed along, watching for mistakes, as Bill brought his characters to life.

This was one of the coolest things I’ve seen in book world, and I thought you might like to see what goes into recording an audiobook too. So here you go!

It may seem like spinning a spooky yarn ought to be easy as pumpkin pie, but, like tight rope walking, writing a children’s book (Am I right, guys?), and drinking black coffee, telling a scary story is a skill that must be honed with years of careful study.

But, since Halloween is just a few days away, consider this Scary Story Bootcamp.

(via duplexproductionblog.com)

Props: 

The only true necessity is a flashlight. Shine it under your face in the dark and give your audience a ghoulish grin. Works every time.

Other props might be things like a scary mask, a storyteller’s costume (cape? tophat? pipe?), maybe some fake snakes or bugs, or spooky music to play in the background.

Setting: 

You might think the setting in which you tell your creepy tale story isn’t important. Wrong. Atmosphere is vital. Here are some tips on working your audience into maximum fright before you even open your mouth.

• Indoors:
  • Make a blanket or pillow-fort. First off, they’re awesome. Second, they’ll hide all the light from outside the fort, leaving your flashlight as the only source of light. And third, forts are awesome.
• Outdoors:
  • Do you have an outdoor fire pit? The eerie light will flicker; the fire will crackle; and creatures of the night will skulk and slither in the shadows just out of sight…

(via stellarfour.com)

(via nypost.com)

• Tommy Knockers
• You Can’t Get Out

Moderately Scary:

• Bloody Mary
• The Headless Horseman
• Yellow Ribbon

(via marydoodles.deviantart.com)

Super Scary/Proceed with Caution:

• Girl in White
• Hairy Toe
• No Trespassing

The Best Original Scary Story Ever:

• The Long Fingered Man

Okay, that last one might be biased, but it is a great spooky story and you can read it (or hear it!) yourself in Bill Harley’s third Charlie Bumpers book, Charlie Bumpers vs. the Squeaking Skull!

Did we miss any of your favorite stories? Have you made up an awesome one that you’d like to share? Do you have any more tips on how to tell them? Leave a comment below!

 

Meet Charlie’s spookiest nemesis yet in CHARLIE BUMPERS VS. THE SQUEAKING SKULL, the third laugh-out-loud audiobook in the Charlie Bumpers series, read by Grammy award-winning storyteller, Bill Harley.

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To make matters worse, his dad has assigned chores to all the kids in the family and Charlie’s job is walking Ginger – the diggiest, sniffiest, and poopiest dog in the universe. Can Charlie deal with these challenges without causing havoc all around him?