Oona delivers the bubble letter to smiling Grandpa Ray, a large gray stingray resting beside his blue round door; the open letter shows two stingrays splashing under a yellow sun.

A LITTLE WORLD AWAITS

Oona and the Bubble Mail

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

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Oona and the Bubble Mail

Oona, a small purple octopus in blue round glasses and a yellow satchel, holds a silver bubble containing a stamped letter while working at a red coral post counter.

Oona was a little octopus who worked in a bright coral post office. She had eight busy arms. Two stamped shells. Two tied seaweed ribbons. Two sorted letters. And two held her round glasses when she bent close to read.

One morning, a silver bubble floated through the front door. Inside was a letter with a blue-striped stamp. It was for Grandpa Ray, who lived beyond the Kelp Forest.

“I can take it!” said Oona. She tucked the bubble safely under one arm. “I know the way.”

Oona holds the silver bubble letter beside a gray rock as huge looping green kelp surrounds her in the confusing forest.

Outside, the water swayed gently. Oona passed the clam bakery, where warm crumbs floated from the door. She swam past the sleepy seahorse station. Then she reached the Kelp Forest, where long green ribbons waved over her head.

But the forest looked different. A strong night current had twisted the kelp into big, loopy knots. Oona tried the left path. It led to a sandy hollow. She tried the right path. It led all the way back to the clam bakery.

Oona stopped beside a rock and held her glasses. “Oh,” she said. “I do not know the way now.”

A little red crab points upward from a gray rock while Oona watches blue bubbles rise among the tall green kelp.

A small crab popped out from under the rock. “Follow the bubbles that rise,” he said. “They drift toward the warm water near Grandpa Ray’s home.”

Oona looked up. Tiny bubbles slipped between the kelp leaves. Up they went—plip, plip, plip. She thanked the crab and followed slowly behind them.

Oona squeezes through a huge green kelp loop and hugs the silver mail bubble close with her arms.

A kelp loop blocked her path. Oona squeezed through a small opening. Another ribbon brushed the mail bubble. Oona caught it quickly and held it close. “Not today,” she told it.

At last, the kelp grew thin. Ahead stood a smooth gray rock with a round door. Grandpa Ray rested beside it, his wide wings folded like a blanket.

“Bubble mail!” called Oona.

Grandpa Ray opened the letter. It was from his granddaughter, Luma. She had drawn them splashing together in sunlit water. Grandpa Ray smiled so wide that his fins gave a happy wiggle.

Oona drinks from a small shell cup and marks blue bubble dots on a green kelp route map while Grandpa Ray smiles beside his round blue door.

“Would you like some warm seaweed tea?” he asked.

Oona watched the rising bubbles drift back through the kelp. “Yes, please. Then I must tell the post office about the new way.”

As she sipped tea from a little shell cup, Oona drew the twisty forest on the back of an old map. She marked the rising bubbles with blue dots. The next morning, every letter for Grandpa Ray found his round door without getting lost.