Meet the characters
Who lives in Penumbra
Far below the rim of a great crater, where the sun visits for only a few hours a day, there is a tiny village, a deep blue forest, and a cave full of glowing flowers. Come and meet who lives there.
Lucy
Curious about everything. Kind to everyone.
Lucy lives in the smallest house in Penumbra, at the bottom of a great, quiet crater. She always wears the pink bow her mother gave her, and she carries a small pink flower in her satchel, in case she meets someone who needs one.
She talks to toads. She notices what everyone else walks past. And she is not very good at staying out of trouble.
So when the whole village decided the creature in the forest was a monster, Lucy wondered if he might just be hungry. She left him her sandwich.
Bubblegum
The whole village calls him the Polyclops.
He is enormous, with eight eyes, two little bat-fin ears and long, thin arms that reach past his knees. Every night he tiptoes out of the forest, and everyone says he is a monster.
But Bubblegum may look a little different, and there is a heart of gold in there. He is shy at first, and afraid of almost everything. He lives alone in a cave deep in the Umbra forest, where the flowers he grows glow in the dark.
Lucy named him for his eyes, pink and blue like bubblegum. When he tries the name himself, it comes out “B-b-Bubblegah.” And when someone believes in him, something wonderful happens to those eyes.
And the ones who love them
Every story needs a few good friends.
Mr. Toad
Lucy’s friend from the clearing by the river. An excellent listener and a toad of very few words. He does not enjoy being lifted into the air, and he would like that noted.
Lady Bird
Not a bird at all, whatever her name says. A ladybug who lands wherever she is needed most, which is usually on Lucy’s knee.
Lucy’s mother
She gave Lucy the pink bow. She worries, as mothers do, and she loves Lucy more than anything. She is also proof that grown-ups can change their minds.
Rue
The village healer, small and very old, with a long silver braid. She knows the old remedies and the old stories, including one about a flower that opens only at first light.
Their story
Read their story
Gentle bedtime stories about kindness, friendship and seeing the good in someone the world got wrong. For ages 3 to 7.
See the books
Where it all began
Before the books, there was a sketchbook
Lucy and Bubblegum were first drawn in pencil and ink in New York, more than ten years ago. Most first drawings are lost along the way. These ones were kept, waiting for their story to be ready.
ten years later
