At the market, the white bird sings beneath a giant blue balloon decorated with white music notes while Bramble smiles nearby with his brush behind one ear.

A LITTLE WORLD AWAITS

Bramble’s Big Blue Dot

Get comfy, come a little closer, and let a new adventure unfold.

3 min read6 pages

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Bramble’s Big Blue Dot

At Meadow Market, tiny gray mouse Bramble in a green painter’s smock looks up with his brush at an enormous blue balloon marked with three white music notes.

Bramble was a small gray mouse who painted signs for Meadow Market. He painted round red apples for the fruit stall and yellow suns for the honey stall. His paintbrush was tiny, but his letters were neat.

One windy morning, Bramble found a huge blue balloon on the path. It was half-inflated, round, and wider than his whole house. “Did the sky drop a blueberry?” he squeaked.

Bramble runs along the market path after a blue balloon that has rolled beneath a large white bench, with carrot stalls and a pond behind him.

He tapped it with his brush. Plop! The blue balloon bounced once, then rolled down the path.

“Wait!” Bramble scampered after it. The balloon rolled past the carrot cart, under a bench, and toward the duck pond.

By the pond, a tall white bird gently holds the blue balloon’s string in her beak while Bramble kneels beside the balloon with his brush.

Beside the pond stood a tall white bird. A blue string dangled from her beak, and she looked very worried. The blue balloon stopped on the grass beside her.

“My balloon blew away,” said the bird. “It is the sign for my music show.”

Bramble looked closely. The blue balloon was only half full of air.

Bramble holds a pale straw at the opening of a flattened blue balloon while the tall white bird bends down to the other end.

“I think we can make it round again,” said Bramble. He fetched a smooth straw from the fruit seller. He gently put one end into the balloon’s opening and tied the balloon’s string around the straw. Then he held the other end up to the bird’s beak.

The tall white bird holds the string of a huge round blue balloon as Bramble reaches up to paint three white music notes on it beside the pond.

The bird blew. Bramble held tight. The balloon puffed bigger and bigger—blue, round, and bright.

Bramble painted three white notes on its side: do, do, do.

That afternoon, the bird sang beside Meadow Market. Her blue balloon sign bobbed overhead like a little piece of sky. Bramble sat in front with his brush behind one ear, smiling at the biggest sign he had ever helped make.