Paul Carafotes & Son continue the adventure at Fenway
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Actor/author Paul Carafotes, Big Papi, and young Charlie Carafotes enjoy some pleasure reading between innings at Fenway Park.

By Jim Clark

Though it has only been two years since readers were first introduced to the fantastic world of Charlie Bubbles, the fictitious youngster with an affinity for sudsy adventure and discovery is now featured in a third volume entitled Charlie Bubbles to Fenway!

The brainchild of Somerville/Greater Boston area native Paul Carafotes — with the aid and inspiration of his son, Charlie — the actor-turned-author has taken his children’s book series to its latest episode, within the world of professional baseball, specifically to Fenway Park, home of the Boston Red Sox.

Carafotes and his son Charlie will be touring various venues in the area this week, talking about and reading from the new book, which has been beautifully illustrated by Jeff Vernon.

The progression from the first book (2012’s The Adventures of Charlie Bubbles) to the second (last year’s Charlie Bubbles 2 Smartsville!) and on to the newest tale centered on Fenway, has been a fulfilling and enlightening experience for the senior Carafotes. As he explains, “Everything has to do with my son Charlie. His birth changed the course of my life in so many ways. I used to read him children’s books, and being a writer myself — having written plays and screenplays and being a fan of writing — I thought that I could do it. I did it as a gift, in a sense, to him. That someday when he’s a man and a Dad that he could have something that his father left him that he could pass along to his children. And it would be a fond memory of his relationship with his Dad, between the two of us.”

Carafotes’ first gifting of this sort was the initial Charlie Bubbles story, which eventually went to print in 2012 and has enjoyed great success in the children’s book marketplace.

“The first book was well-received and did very well. Then I had this whole idea about music, because I’m a big music enthusiast. Charlie was starting to play the drums, and we’re jamming together. I came up with the idea that the second book would involve music,” Carafotes explains. “We got a lot of beautiful things in that second book. It was quite good.”

Carafotes & Son: A winning team.

Carafotes notes that the fictional Charlie was in need of help from the other characters in the first book, but that in the second book the situation was reversed and Charlie began helping others. This set up an obvious sense of evolution of the overall scope of the epic tale of Charlie Bubbles.

“When we were doing the second book, [the real] Charlie came to me and asked, ‘Dad, will there be a third Charlie Bubbles book?’ And I was quite stumped by that question because I’d never really seen past the first book,” according to the author. “Here I was getting ready for the release of the second book, and I turned that question around on him.” He informed his son that there would be a third book, and that he was going to help him write it.

The father asked his son what the third book was going to be about, and the younger Carafotes declared right away, “Charlie Bubbles to Fenway!” It would be a baseball fantasy.

“So I took what he said and I started to develop the story. I had a visit to Fenway. The first book got me in, and I’ve been in movies and television for 35 years and met a lot of celebrities. But this book opened doors I had never gone through before. So I thought that was a very good intuitive thought that Charlie had. And since he love the Red Sox to the degree that I do, having grown up in Boston and spending my youth at Fenway Park, I thought — wow, what a perfect thing. It was just perfect.”

Carafotes then set about writing the story. It begins with Tai the Butterfly (an homage to Carafotes’ friend, Olympic skating champion Tai Babilonia), who was introduced in the second book, trying to teach Charlie to skate. Charlie has a hard time with this, and goes through a process of overcoming this difficulty, dealing with insecurities, and various obstacles that confront him as he learns to stand up on his own and skate. As the story unfolds, Charlie daydreams of playing baseball at Fenway alongside his heroes, the members of the Boston Red Sox.

“It’s a sweet story,” says Carafotes. “It’s a story about a boy believing in himself, fighting through adversity.”

Carafotes and his son Charlie will be in the Boston area this week, promoting the new book, with personal appearances scheduled as follows: Bestsellers Café, 24 High St. in Medford on Wednesday, April 23, 10:00–11:30 a.m.; Daddy Jones Bar, 525 Medford St., Somerville, Friday, April 25, 10:30 a.m.; Somerville City Club, 20 Innerbelt Rd., Somerville, Saturday, April 26, 11:00 a.m.–1:00 p.m.; and Somerville Public Library, 79 Highland Ave., Somerville, Saturday, April 26, 2:30 p.m. They will also be making an appearance on the NBC Boston TV show Urban Update on Sunday, April 27.

Paul Carafotes has recently finished up working in his capacity as an actor in the soon-to-be-seen film, Days Full of Night, which will be released widely later in the year, as well as making the film festival circuit. He is well remembered from a number of film and television appearances, notably playing the role of Harold Dyer in the television drama Knots Landing. Additionally, he is an accomplished stage and screenwriter and director.

Go to Amazon.com and order your copy of Charlie Bubbles to Fenway! and let yourself dream of all the great things you can become and do.