The Bunky Bump
Thursday, August 09, 2007
This is the Bunky Bump. Some bunkies , if they’re too tired, alter their composition to maximize their resources. The Bump is able to appear in several places at once, is always laughing and bouncing, and is perhaps the most annoying of all forms of the Bunky.
Alright. I’ve been inspired. There’s this website called write4kids that suggests kids’ books today sell because of the message popular books send are about empowerment and how to get away with stuff. Read this. So I have a goal. The Bunky, if I ever do get around to writing stories, will learn about the rules and follow them, instead of break them like Potter, or the Cat-in-the-hat, or any number of other characters.
What great funny or valuable lesson do you know of that would be great for the Bunky to learn? Maybe if I have some thoughts from outside, I might be able to come up with a good way to write on ‘em.
The Bunky is definitely going to wreak havoc with common household items, but the Bunky is also going to learn some values from her escapades, and hopefully grow into a full-sized bunky filled with responsibility and niceness, not a propensity toward criminal activities.
Hah, this’ll be fun. Maybe I’ll actually have something to blog now. I can blog my books.
But my angle is tougher than my goal. How to get this across attractively and with fun. My normal grown-up (barely) silliness doesn’t sound much like a good kid book theme. So I’m up for ideas.
Technical Jargon Break:
And, I’m also working on developing this character. I think the original Bunky, a few posts back, will be undergoing a major facelift. She needs to be on par with the cool simplicity of the Bump. Gotta come up with a color scheme and world of standard Bunky Imagery that will be consistent, eye-catching, and make good use of the colors you’ve commented on so much in my existing art (and my trademark swirls and tassels).
Lib,
Your kids-say posts are some really funny meat for this Bunky Idea. I oughta rip off some of those conversations.
The first story is below:
The Bunky learns to read.
The bunky wanted to make a cup of chocky. Chocky is hard to make. First you have to have chocolate. But there were dozens of brown bottles in the fridge. One was brown with red stripes. Another was brown with blue stripes. Each of the bottles was a little different from the others. How could she know which bottle held her chocolate?
The bunky was confused. She knew one of the bottles was filled with chocolate. She wanted the treasure-bottle filled to the top with brown, squishy, sweet goodness. Who knows what was in the other bottles.
The bunky decided to open one and find out if it was chocolate. POP went the top. She tipped the bottle over to see what came out.
A stream of green goo flowed out onto the floor. It was gobby and sticky, and smelled like bananas. Yuck. You can’t make chocky from banana flavored super-glue. In fact, you can’t even eat banana flavored super-glue.
The bunky quickly closed the lid on the banana flavored super-glue bottle and put it back. She made sure to put the bottle at the very back of the fridge so no-one would use it for chocky by mistake.
The bunky thought she would try another bottle. This one had a picture of a cup on the label. Maybe the cup was a cup of chocolate! She quickly popped the cap and tipped the bottle.
Out came a tiny cup! The cup landed right in the middle of the puddle of banana flavored super-glue. This was definitely NOT chocolate. The bunky put the bottle back in the fridge.
The bunky was very upset by now. She tried a few more bottles, but none of them was the bottle of chocolate.
There were baby chicks in one, and they were now happily chirping away in the tiny cup, safe from the banana flavored super-glue. It would have been terrible if they landed in the banana flavored super-glue.
Another bottle had gumballs, which scattered all over the floor when she poured them out (some got stuck in the banana flavored super-glue). The bunky loved gumballs, but she was so busy finding chocolate that she didn’t even notice her favorite flavor bounce right by her. Benny the kitten chased the gumball all the way to the back porch.
By now, the bunky was pretty tired of looking for chocolate. She sat down next to the chicks in the cup, careful not to touch the puddle of banana flavored super-glue with gumballs on top. The bunky needed to think.
She thought. She thought a lot. The bunky was good at thinking. After a while, the bunky thought of the answer.
MOM!
Mom would help. The bunky loved her mom very much. Mom was always smiley and filled with smart things. Mom would find the chocolate for the bunky so she could finally have her chocky.
The bunky found mom in the back yard, reading a book. Mom listened very carefully to the bunky’s problem and then said she could help. She told the bunky to get her a brown crayon and a red crayon, and a coloring book.
The bunky thought for another minute. What good would crayons and paper do for making chocky? But the bunky knew that mom was always smart, so she went to get the brown crayon and the red crayon and her drawing book.
Mom was a very good artist. She took the brown crayon and drew a brown bottle in the bunky’s book. The bunky was still confused. What would a paper bottle of chocolate do for making chocky?
Then mom took the red crayon and started to make funny shapes on the brown paper bottle. When the bunky asked what mom was doing, mom smiled and drew some more.
The bunky asked louder. Mom stopped drawing and looked up. She told the bunky she was writing chocolate. The bunky didn’t know you could write chocolate. Chocolate is for chocky. Chocolate is for drinking, not for writing.
But mom showed bunky her finished picture. She pointed to the red shapes on the brown paper bottle. She told the bunky about the letters she had just written.
C is for chocolate.
H is for happy.
O is for Oh boy!
C number two is for cool.
O number two is for okay.
L is for love.
A is for All right!
T is for Treats!
E is for Extra Chocky.
So the bunky took her new drawing from mom. She opened up the fridge and looked for the letters. It only took a minute. She found the right brown bottle really quick. She opened up the bottle and tipped it a little. Hooray! Some smooth, brown, sweet chocolate dripped right down to the floor, right on the heads of the cute little chicks in the tiny cup which was stuck in the banana flavored super-glue with gumballs in it. The chicks didn’t seem to mind the chocky. The bunky thought they might like the sweet treat too.
The bunky took her brown bottle of chocolate, and the bottle of milk out of the fridge. The bunky was very lucky, there was only one white bottle, which had to be milk, since the whole rest of the fridge was filled up with brown bottles.
This was the best chocky ever. The bunky had a huge glass of chocky, and smiled from ear to ear. She was very happy that mom had taught her how to read. Now she can make chocky all by herself any time.
Mom told the bunky to clean up the chocolate covered baby chicks in the tiny cup that was stuck in the banana flavored super-glue with gumballs in it after dinner. That took a long time, but the bunky took lots of breaks for more chocky that she made herself.