Pip crouches in the rain and uses the red umbrella to push a brown leaf away from a drain as water swirls down.

A PICTURE BOOK

Tib the Umbrella and the Puddle Parade

Get comfortable, then turn the page when you’re ready.

3 min read5 pages

You can listen to each page as you read.

Want to read it all at once? Open the whole story below.

Read the whole story

Tib the Umbrella and the Puddle Parade

At the front door, a child in a green raincoat reaches for a small red umbrella with eyes in a stand beside taller blue and yellow umbrellas.

Tib was a small red umbrella in the stand by the front door. On rainy mornings, Dad chose the tall blue umbrella, and Grandma chose the yellow one. Tib was often left behind.

One drizzly Tuesday, Pip came downstairs in shiny green boots. “I want to splash all the way to the bakery!”

“Take Tib,” said Dad. “He is just your size.”

In the rain, Pip splashes in a puddle while water drops swirl over Tib, the red umbrella nearby.

Outside, rain tapped on Tib’s red top. Pip held his curved handle, and they walked along the pavement.

At the first puddle, Pip jumped. SPLASH! A round drop bounced onto Tib.

“Did you see that?” cried Tib.

More drops bounced up with every jump. At the corner, they rolled round and round across Tib’s roof, faster and faster—a tiny watery parade.

Pip watches Tib drip above a puddle where a brown leaf covers a storm drain; part of a bicycle wheel appears at the edge.

“Where are they going?” Pip asked.

The drops rolled to Tib’s edge and pointed at a storm drain. A wet brown leaf covered it. Water gathered around the leaf, making the puddle wider.

A bicycle rider stopped. “That puddle is getting bigger.”

Pip could not reach the leaf without stepping into deep water. Tib gave a brave little shake. “Could you use me?”

Pip held Tib low by the handle. Tib’s red top gently pushed the leaf aside.

Glug, glug! Water swirled into the open drain.

The puddle shrank. The watery parade spun once around Tib’s roof, then sprinkled down like a happy clap.

At a bakery table, Pip looks at a raisin roll while Tib drips into a tray beside the open door; green boots and puddles show outside.

At the bakery, Pip chose a warm raisin roll. Tib stood beside the table, dripping neatly into a tray.

“You kept us dry,” Pip said.

Tib’s red cloth stretched proudly. “And we helped a puddle find its way.”

On the walk home, Pip splashed only in shallow puddles. Each time, Tib listened for: plink, plink, plink.