Little Charley Bear and The Strange Case of Origami Yoda

Chapman Entertainment names Vivid Imaginations as the new master toy licensee for its new preschool series, entitled Little Charley Bear.

Commissioned by CBeebies, Little Charley Bear revolves around a teddy bear named Charley who uses his imagination to go on adventures under the watchful eye of his pal, the Narrator. The series also features other characters including Squeak (a penguin), Tina (teddy bear), Pixel (a robot), Bluey (bunny), Caramel (cow) and Bella (a ballerina).

Under the five-year toy deal Vivid Imaginations will develop a Little Charley Bear toy line including plush, playsets, role play, arts and crafts, puzzles and games for distribution in the UK, France, Benelux and Germany.

Vivid also has global manufacturing rights for the brand excluding the US, and plans to debut Little Charley Bear products in the UK in fall/winter 2011. Vivid Imaginations also serves as the master toy licensee on Chapman's preschool series, Fifi and the Flowertots and Roary the Racing Car.

Amulet Books, an imprint of Abrams, inks a deal with Lucasfilm, Ltd. to feature Yoda n a new middle school novel titled The Strange Case of Origami Yoda.

Written by Tom Angleberger, the book revolves around Dwight, a "total loser," who somehow provides his sixth-grade classmates with particularly useful advice via an origami Yoda finger puppet; like the date of a pop-quiz, who has a crush on whom, and moments of potential humiliation.

How does Dwight do it? That's what Tommy, a hipper classmate, wants to know and sets to finding out how a dork like Dwight is pulling this stunt off.