About the book

Follow For More

The end of the school year is always full of fun when counting down the days until the summer break finally arrives. This year, the letter P will change the lives of the kids in middle school… Eighth graders Jacob and Tyler, intend to make the most of their school’s alphabet countdown to summer when they learn that letter P will stand for Pool Noodle Day. They make a plan to give Max, the school’s bully, the whooping of his life with pool noodles since a pool noodle “fun fight” has been planned for lunch recess that day and the boys assume they won’t get into trouble since it is a planned activity. However, their plan doesn’t go off as smoothly as they had hoped it would when they hit a bit of a snag in their plan. In the end, they learn some good lessons about how to treat people, follow the rules, and give someone more than a second chance when needed to be a good human and friend.

Author Bio

Rachael (Swanson) Trump was born and raised in the northern California city of Eureka located a few hours south of the Oregon border. Writing for kids is a new adventure that Rachael never dreamed of happening, but she is finding that she is gaining more talents as she nears the age of fifty along with more enjoyment in life. She married her husband, Chad in 1995 and has two adult daughters, Gracelynn and Amanda. Rachael and Chad both grew up in Eureka and have a lot of family within the Humboldt, Mendocino, and Butte County areas. Rachael also has several family members in northern Arizona whom they enjoy visiting. They love going to nearby Sedona and Jerome, Arizona to take in the beautiful sites when visiting family. Rachael has worked at an elementary/charter middle school since 2007. She loves working with and getting to know the kids every year. When former students come back to visit, it is always a highlight that reminds her of why she continues to work in education. Rachael worked for the first nine years at the school as a Lunch Lady, but due to the repetitive nature of the job needed to change her path. She transferred within the school to become an Instructional Aide and is now a Special Education Aide working with the sixth through eighth grades. She also runs the school’s PBIS store where the students can purchase snacks, school supplies, toys, raffles, events, and more with their earned school themed points.

Miki-Taylor-Special-Edition-Bentleys-Fantabulos-Idea

Jacob is one of the main characters of this story. He is an eighth grader who lives with his older sister, Katie, and his mom in Northern California. His parents are divorced and his dad lives on the East Coast. Jacob loves to play basketball, but isn’t very good until his best friend helps him improve. Jacob is not a top student and doesn’t like History class, but does like Math class. However, he does study and tries hard to pass his classes. In the end, Jacob finally expresses his feelings about Max, learns it is better to speak up about problems to the adults who are there to help, and to give people another chance.

Max is the bully of this story and the reason Jacob is excited about Pool Noodle Day. Mas is an eighth grader that was held back a few times and is now two years older than his classmates. He has always had a bit of a mean spiritedness and mischievousness about him going back to his preschool days. Max is not very interested in doing his school work and it reflects in his grades. He does really like to play basketball and thinks he is on the road to being a pro player, but his teammates would beg to differ. Max is not the standard good-looking guy, but believes he is quite a ladies man. Max tends to pick on a lot of different kids over the years and his karma finally comes calling for him in this story.

Tyler has been Jacob's best friend since the 5th grade when he moved here from Sedona, Arizona with his mom and dad. His family relocated to northern California to be closer to his grandparents when a job at the local power plant opened up for his dad. Tyler is a great basketball player who has been playing for many years and helped Jacob get good enough to be on the school’s team this year. He is also a good student in all his subjects, but loves History most of all. He along with Jacob face some challenges going to school with Max and in the end learn that they all need to communicate better with each other and the adults at school. After learning these lessons, their friend circle grows a little bigger in the end.

Mrs. Brookshire is the principal of the school, always finding ways to have fun throughout the school year and comes up with new ideas for the Alphabet Countdown to Summer every year. This year she added Pool Noodle Day for the letter P with the intent of a fun day for the students. Instead the day takes an unexpected turn and she ends up teaching the middle school students some big lessons on how to be a good friend, making better choices, better communication between students and the adults on campus, and how even the worst kid can change for the better.

Super Not-Boring Stuff

Bentley & The Crew have created some funtastic, super de duper, wowie cool activities for you to do in school, at home, or at your favorite club. Send pictures of your activities & letters to to be featured on our website and receive fantabulous prizes from Bentley & The Crew and a chance to win an autographed copy of Bentley’s Fantabulous Idea!!

Follow For More

ABOUT THE BOOK

Author Bio

Super Not-Boring Stuff

Word Search

Coloring Pages

Betty's Socks