THE UNSTUMPABLE CHARLIE KITE

Greg Takoudes

Rights Available: World English, Translation, TV/Film, and all other rights handled by the bks Agency

In this novel for middle-grade readers we meet Charlie Kite. Charlie is a middle-grader from Brooklyn who finds himself slightly lost in life and at risk of becoming estranged from his father.  Charlie is an eminently relatable and likable protagonist whose story is one of fear, hope and ultimately triumph against the odds. This story deals with the wells of resilience that many parents would hope to instill in their children to help them deal with the everyday trials of school and family life, and the ability to face larger crises. In this story, Charlie becomes very lost in the wilds of the Adirondack Mountains of upstate New York and has to use his resilience and instinct to save his own life, and that of his father (Lem). 

In THE UNSTUMPABLE CHARLIE KITE, Charlie Kite is a zero. He's stuck in middle school with no real friends. No one notices Charlie at all. He is really invisible for most of each day - that is except at the school's lunch hour. That is when Charlie stands in the middle of the schoolyard and gives answers to every and any riddle the kids can throw at him.

Charlie was so good at riddles that he even competed in the NRAPASUT competition at the Jacob Javits Center in New York. That is the National Riddles and Puzzlers Association Ultimate Throwdown. No, I hadn’t heard of it either - but apparently it's a thing.

So Charlie lived his quiet life, except school day lunch hours, in Brooklyn with his mom. He had no other siblings and his mom and dad were divorced; and he never saw his dad anyway; which equally annoyed him as much as it made him sad. That is until his dad decided to make up for lost time by flying back to New York to take Charlie on a camping trip in the Adirondacks.

The problem was Charlie hated camping, and sort of hated his dad, but his dad was the only one who did enjoy riddles. In fact, Charlie learned all of his riddle skills from his dad.

So, Lem comes to New York to take Charlie (reluctantly) camping. It starts off badly, but then gets better, they really start to bond, but then it all goes terribly wrong. There is a bear attack. An impending snow storm. A lack of food. An unconscious Len. And a worried mother searching with a rescue team. 

Then there is Charlie. All alone and lost. In the dark woods. With a blizzard approaching, and trying to find his way home. Charlie desperately needs to remember his skills of solving riddles to save his dad, save himself, and save the day. 

Greg Takoudes is an author, filmmaker, and professor of film studies at The New School in Manhattan. His debut feature film Up With Me premiered at the South-by-Southwest Film Festival and won the Special Jury Award. Up With Me screened at film festivals throughout America and Europe, winning several awards, and was featured in O, The Oprah Magazine and other media outlets. The film was distributed by the Independent Film Channel (IFC). Greg also directed the short film Limit of Wooded Country, starring Tony-award winning actor Santino Fontana (Tootsie) and Jake Cannavale (Nurse Jackie). Greg’s feature film, The Jonestown Defense, is set for release in 2020, and he is currently in pre-production on a family crime drama set in Alaska.

Greg wrote the award-winning young adult novel When We Wuz Famous, published by Henry Holt (hardcover) and Square Fish (paperback), to strong reviews. In May 2019, his nonfiction book The Collaborative Director, about film directing aesthetics and collaboration, was published by Routledge. He has also published pieces on Huffington Post and Fatherly.

Prior to becoming a filmmaker and writer, Greg worked for Ron Howard and Brian Grazer as a member of the creative team at Imagine Entertainment in Los Angeles. He lives in Brooklyn with his wife, an executive editor at Phaidon, and their two children.