Under a huge gray umbrella covered with colorful marks, Ollie and Mum stand together smiling at their rainy doorstep.

A LITTLE WORLD AWAITS

Ollie and the Umbrella of Many Colors

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

3 min read6 pages

Read together or listen along, a page at a time

The best stories are the ones we share.

Read the whole story

Ollie and the Umbrella of Many Colors

In a school cloakroom, Ollie opens a tiny gray umbrella with a yellow dot on it and a duck-shaped handle while rain falls outside the window.

Ollie found the umbrella in the school coat cupboard. It was very small. Its handle looked like a duck’s beak, and its cloth was plain gray.

“Whose is this?” Ollie asked. No one knew. Rain tapped the windows. Outside, children hurried home under bright umbrellas.

Ollie opened the little gray umbrella. Pop! A yellow dot appeared on the cloth.

“It looks like a tiny sun,” said Ollie.

At the rainy school gate, Ollie gives Mr. Reed his yellow rain hat while holding the tiny umbrella, now marked with a yellow dot and stripe.

At the school gate, Mr. Reed, the crossing guard, chased his yellow rain hat as it blew into a puddle. Ollie scooped it up and handed it back.

“Thank you, Ollie!” said Mr. Reed.

Pop! A yellow stripe spread beside the sun dot.

At a rainy bus stop, Ollie holds the patterned little umbrella over a baby and the baby’s parents as the father changes the baby’s wet sock.

At the bus stop, a baby cried because her sock was wet. Mum found a dry cloth in her bag. While the baby’s father changed the sock, Ollie held the umbrella over them.

Pop! A soft blue swirl curled beside the yellow stripe.

Ollie points toward a bakery as a little puppy runs away with its lead trailing behind; two worried adults watch from beside him in the rain.

Farther along, Ollie shared his bus-stop seat with a tired neighbor. Pop! A red square appeared.

He spotted a worm wriggling across the wet path. Ollie gently moved it onto the grass. Pop! A green leaf grew on the umbrella.

Then a little puppy dashed past, tugging its lead behind it. “It ran toward the bakery!” Ollie called when a worried family came hurrying after it.

Pop! A silver zigzag flashed across the cloth.

At home in the rain, Ollie looks down sadly at his wet red boots while holding the small umbrella, now covered with colorful shapes.

By the time Ollie reached home, the tiny umbrella was covered in colors. It looked like a rainy-day parade. But Ollie’s own shoes were soggy.

He held the umbrella over the doorstep and sighed. “I wish you were big enough for me.”

The duck-beak handle gave a small quack. The umbrella stretched up, out, and wide above Ollie and Mum. Its colors shimmered in the rain.

Ollie grinned beneath the bright canopy. “Maybe it grows when someone needs it,” he said.

The next morning, the school coat cupboard stood open again. Inside sat a small gray umbrella, waiting quietly for rain.