Young fans 'whoop' it up for children's book hero

Horrid Henry, the antihero at the center of a wildly popular series of children's books, received a particularly apt tribute at a Naperville bookstore on Sunday.

Roughly a dozen young fans blew up Whoopee Cushions and then sat on them all at once, filling the store with a ... well, horrid noise.

The “Whoop Off,” which had all the fans laughing, took place at Anderson's Bookshop in Naperville, the town that is also home to Horrid Henry's U.S. publisher, Sourcebooks.

“It seemed like a perfect way to celebrate Henry,” said Chris Bauerle, director of sales and marketing at Sourcebooks. “And April Fools' Day is the kind of day that Henry would like best.”

Horrid Henry is the brainchild of writer Francesca Simon. The character is a rowdy prankster who loves to get into the messiest, most devious trouble he can.

First published in England in the 1990s, Henry's adventures started coming out in the U.S. via Sourcebooks in 2009. The books are published in 24 countries, and have sold more than 14 million copies worldwide, according to the series' official website, horridhenry.co.uk.

The Horrid Henry books are chapter books, each of which contains four stories. The most recent one is titled “Horrid Henry and the Zombie Vampire.”

“We thought they would fill a gap in the market for reluctant readers who are boys,” Bauerle said. “A lot of books for young people tend to be geared toward girl readers.”

Naperville resident Kelli Paul attended Sunday's “Whoop Off” with her 7-year-old son, Ravi, who became an avid reader after discovering Jeff Kinney's “Diary of a Wimpy Kid” book series.

“We kind of stumbled upon this event today,” she said. “But now I think this is something my son might enjoy. I was worried that when he finished the ‘Wimpy Kid' books he wouldn't find another series to read. But this looks like it will be good for him.”