Every Story Connects & Gives Back

Every Bug & Bear book is part of a bigger story.
Some connect in wild ways. Some spark brand-new ideas.
All are powered by imagination—and right now, during the Painting Grace launch, they’re connecting to something even bigger: our Story Shapers’ communities.

Through September 5th, 75% of ALL Painting Grace royalties go straight to the schools selected by our Story Shapers.

So explore the series. Find your family’s next favorite.
And know that every story you buy helps shape the next one—and supports a local cause along the way.

Book Four: The Story Shapers

The Story Shapers is a manifesto of agency, empowerment, and courage—wrapped in a rule-breaking, rhyme-loving romp through the attic of imagination.

Billy and Mary weren’t looking for magic.
They were just snooping through an old attic.

What they found… was Bart.

A misunderstood rat, buried beneath crumpled-up “bad ideas.”
Stories he’d thrown out for being too weird, too twisty, too wrong.

And a treasure chest of characters so wild, so colorful, so wonderfully off-script… they might just be right.

Bart thought his stories didn’t belong.
Too messy. Too much.

But Bug and Bear know magic when they see it.
And with a little help from the duo who believe in rule-breaking brilliance, Bart learns that the best storytelling?

It doesn’t follow rules.
It breaks them.
Burns them.
And builds something better.

With a twitch of his whiskers, Bart finds the courage to bring those “bad” ideas to life.

The Story Shapers isn’t just a book—it’s a spark.
A rallying cry for kids to unleash their weirdest, loudest, wackiest ideas.

Because as Bart says:
“The world we want needs the magic we choose.”

Behind the Story

This is the bridge.

The book between the stories I created alone—
and the ones we now shape together.

It’s a love letter to the kids who color outside the lines.
To the parents who keep restocking the crayons.
To the creatives told their stories are “too weird,” “too wild,” or “not how it’s done.”

I’ve been that rat in the attic.
Too many notebooks. Too many “no’s.”
Too many ideas that didn’t follow the rules.

But The Story Shapers changed that.
The Should Sorter sparked Participatory Publishing—
and this book? This is where it hits the road.

This isn’t just a story.
It’s a signal flare.

To the misfits. The plot-benders. The rule-flippers.
The next generation of wonder-makers.

Here, kids don’t wait for permission.
They create. They contribute. They shape.

Because the future of storytelling doesn’t come from playing safe—
it comes from the bold ones brave enough to be too much.