It's Career Week, and Charlie Bumpers has convinced everyone that his dad would be the greatest speaker ever. But what happens when his dad loses his job? While his classmates are boasting about their parents' jobs, fourth grader Charlie Bumpers gets carried away and leaves the impression that his accountant dad is not only the president of his company but also that he will hand out free calculators to everyone. Then, with rumors flying around the school and expectations escalating, Charlie tells his teacher that his dad can speak to their class during Career Week. But just before the big event, Mr. Bumpers loses his job. How will Charlie explain to his class? Will his dad still come in during Career Week? Fortunately, Mr. Bumpers has some very surprising plans of his own. Black-and-white illustrations by Adam Gustavson enhance readers' enjoyment of the story.

Charlie Bumpers juggles school bullies and a wacky scheme to keep his best friend from moving in this heartfelt conclusion to Bill Harley's beloved middle grade series. When Charlie learns that Hector's family is moving back to Chile at the end of the year, he is crushed. So 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." Black and white illustrations throughout.

As Halloween nears, Charlie and Tommy hope to get out of taking their little sisters trick-or-treating and go to a sleepover at Alex's house, but when Charlie learns that partygoers will be watching a very scary horror movie he panics.