THWUMP!
Quite possibly the darkest kid’s book you’ve ever read, I wrote Things That Go BUMP! In The Night with the idea of a gentle bedtime story that unravels into macabre humor and slapstick chaos.
The story follows a father’s well-meaning—but misguided—effort to calm his child’s fear of the dark by telling outlandish stories of terrifying sounds in the night that only affect grown-ups.
The book uses silhouette and a limited color palette as visual storytelling devices that imply “perilous predicaments in the dark”.
Intro:
“When I was a child, I was easily scared.
In bed, in the dark, I was never prepared.
So I’d cover my ears with my blankets held tight
against things that went BUMP! in the night.
As a grown-up, I find that I no longer shrink
from creaky old heaters or drips in the sink,
nor what’s in the closet or under the bed,
but what goes on out in the wide world instead.
So let’s go outside and see what we hear.
Is it something imagined or real that we fear?
As long as we’re careful, we should be alright
around things that go BUMP! in the night...”
