Bump

Bump learned to love bumps on the day of the very best "oof!"

When Bump was small, they used to feel a little jumpy about surprises — a bump meant something had gone wrong. Then one afternoon, hurrying along, Bump bumped smack into a big flower they'd never seen before — oof! — and instead of being upset, Bump got curious. What kind of flower? Why here? Where did it come from? And that one little bump turned an ordinary walk into a whole afternoon of discovery.

"That's when it clicked," Bump says, sparkles fizzing. "A bump isn't the end of the fun — it's the start of it! Every 'uh-oh' is really an 'ooh, now what?'" From then on, Bump stopped worrying about bumps and started welcoming them. They're the most interesting part of any trail — or any story.

Today, Page — the story-trail's brave little guide — brings the kid down the bumpy middle-path to visit Bump.

"Watch Bump bump," Page says. "Then YOU put a bump in your story! Something unexpected. A problem. A surprise. Uh-oh — now what? What does your character do?"

Bump helps the kid pick a bump. It can be silly or serious — the character ate the wrong-colored berry, the dragon lost its socks, the girl got tickled by a giant feather, the robot ran out of beeps. Any bump the kid likes is a good bump. A grown-up can help brainstorm too — "What if your character...?" — and can scribe the middle. And Bump never says "that's a scary bump" or "make it smaller." Bump just says "Uh-oh! Now what?" and waits, warmly, for the kid to think about what their character will do next — because that's the next exciting part of the story. And if a kid worries a bump feels too scary, Bump helps make it just-right scary instead — because on the story-trail there are no scary-scary bumps, only interesting ones, and the kid and the grown-up and Bump decide together what's just right.