Brady the Book Sailor: Book to the Future Part II

The continuing adventures of Brady the Book Sailor, Auntie Kimberly, and GrapeBeard the friendly pirate. Catch up on Book to the Future Part I – or read on!

Brady opened his eyes and looked at the clock. 6:00 a.m..Time to get up and go to school! Oh, wait. Now he had video school because of the coronavirus. He’d had the best dream. He dreamed that the Storyvore family showed up in his bedroom and told him that he could use his Magic Purple Library Card to travel into the future. He could travel wherever – and whenever – he wanted, but he could only make two trips per day. He’d gone with Auntie Kimberly and GrapeB to FedEx (his choice) and to Starbucks (Auntie Kimberly’s choice).

And then…Auntie Kimberly had realized that they could travel to fall 2020 when Season 2 of The Mandalorian was already out! It had all seemed so real! Wait, was it real?

There was a way he could check for sure, because in his dream (or maybe in his real day yesterday), he’d set up a new email address.

He opened his computer, and…

Brady the Book Sailor: Book to the Future Part I

I started writing Brady the Book Sailor short stories to foster Brady’s interest in reading. When the real Brady not only became an avid reader (he’s now reading far beyond his grade level), but also started writing his own stories, Brady the Book Sailor went into semi-retirement. The real Brady is smart and clever and funny (he came up with the title for this story) and is quite the prolific writer, with an ever expanding universe of stories and spin-offs, heroes and supervillains, including the likes of The Kind Little Truck, Robot Snowman, Power Monkey, and Immortal Genius.  

But with the whole world stuck inside, the time seemed right to pull up anchor and unfurl the sails for another journey, to be told in two parts. You can start at the beginning of Brady the Book Sailor’s adventures or dive right in here…

Brady opened his eyes and looked at the clock: 6:00 a.m.. Time to get up and go to school! Oh, wait. Now he had video school because of the coronavirus. He climbed out of bed, and his foot was juuuuuust about to hit the floor when he heard five small sounds.

“GAAAAAAAAAAA!”

“GAAAAAAAAAAA!”

“GAAAAAAAAAAA!”

“GAAAAAAAAAAA!”

“Wooooooooof”

He looked down at the floor to see the entire Storyvore Family. The Storyvores were only three inches tall, and they usually lived at the library, where they filled their tummies by reading stories instead of by eating food. The parents were Milne and Diana; the kids were Padme and Pilke, and the dog was named Esteban the Magnificent. (The Storyvore family LOVED Drew Daywalt).

‘Twas Three Weeks Before Star Wars

Our journey nears its end.

Brady asked me to write him a “Week Before Star Wars” poem like I did two years ago for The Last Jedi. But I was a teensy bit excited, and finished two weeks early.

The Galactic conflict between Rebels and Empire, Resistance and First order, is overshadowed by the inter-generational battle over the power of the prequels. For more on this topic, check out The Board of Education’s “Why is Dad So Mad.”

For more content (including original stories from my favorite Sith Trooper), visit auntiekimberly.com


‘Twas Three Weeks before Star Wars: Rise of Skywalker Edition
by Auntie Kimberly (but we all know the real star is Brady)

Just three more weeks until Skywalker’s Rise,
And Brady and I had hearts in our eyes!
On starwars.com we checked out the news,
Then checked out our list of pre-movie to dos.

We laid out our matching shirts to be worn,
Read Spark of the Resistance and Resistance Reborn.
The tickets were purchased and all printed out,
(Plus stored on my phone in case there was doubt).

We talked about possible spoilers and twists,
Then pulled out some pieces of paper for lists.
Since Episode Nine was making us wait,
We’d write down the best parts from One through Eight!

The Kind Little Truck 2 by Brady

There once was a little truck named Mr. Truck, a/k/a Trickilious Exhaustpipe Truck. His name was almost bigger than he was.

The little truck liked to do kind things for others because that made him happy too.

The kind little truck decided to get books for little trucks who did not have any books. He started a charity called Truck House Donations.

Have a Merry Truckey Christmas: A Kind Little Truck Story by Brady

It was almost Christmas. It was December 24th, 11:59 p.m.. Only one minute until Christmas.

The kind little truck’s favorite day to be kind. The kind little truck’s name is really Truckilious Exhaustpipe Truck, but he prefers just Mr. Truck.

When the clock struck midnight, he woke up. And he told everybody who was up, “Merry Christmas.” Surprisingly he saw that there were 359 other cars who were up.

‘Twas The Day Before Christmas (A Brady the Book Sailor Poem)

‘Twas The Day Before Christmas
(A Brady the Book Sailor Poem)

‘Twas the day before Christmas at the start of our tale
And Brady the Book Sailor prepared to set sail.
His Magic Purple Library Card he took,
Which could whisk him away to a movie or book!

His Auntie came over, they picked up GrapeB,
(Who totally loved Brady’s new Christmas tree!)
Usually book sailing was all about play,
But Brady was leading a mission today!

He said, “Here’s the sack, and I’ve got the box”.
Auntie Kimberly asked, “What’s in here? Rocks?”
With the heavy sack over her shoulder, she paused,
“Ha, ha!” Said Brady, “You’re Auntie Claus!”

“Very funny,” she said, but he kind of was right.
“We must finish our mission before it turns night!”
“Follow me!” She said, to the pirate and boy,
“Reading’s a gift, so let’s spread some joy!”

The Kind Little Truck (Written by Brady)

Brady wrote this story all by himself – inspired by a special gift – and read it to the family at Thanksgiving!

The Kind Little Truck
(Written and Illustrated by Brady)

There once was a little truck named Mr. Truck, a/k/a Truckilious Exhaustpipe Truck. His name was almost bigger than he was.

He saw the garbage truck with a flat tire, so he stopped to help. He pulled out a little needle from the tire and started blowing air into the little hole.

Hiro the Hero Gyro

By Brady and Auntie Kimberly

Once upon a time, there was a sandwich named Hiro. He was a Gyro sandwich. And he was also a superhero. So he was Hiro the Hero Gyro.

You might wonder what kind of superpower Hiro the Hero Gyro might have.

Hiro the Hero Gyro could turn into any type of sandwich!

Hiro’s arch enemy was Sharky, a robotic shark. Sharky could swim in the water or walk on land, and was always getting up to trouble!  But luckily, Hiro the Hero Gyro always managed to save the day!

One time, Hiro the Hero Gyro was supposed to be on vacation from fighting crime.  He went to Coronado, CA and hung out on the beach for a few days.  He was having a great time, but then he heard on his sandwich scanner that a giant robot shark was robbing a bank!

Hiro hopped on to his BolognaMobile, drove to the bank, and rushed inside.  As he suspected, the giant robot shark was actually his nemesis, Sharky.

Layla the Letter Lady

I wrote this one right as Brady was graduating from Kindergarten and was starting to get really good at reading. Thanks to Dav Pilkey for the inspiration – I like to think that pranksters Harold and George would have loved to visit the NFRC. (Read on for more – and visit auntiekimberly.com for more content).

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One day, Brady and Auntie Kimberly went to Target. Just as they walked in the door, they saw a little old lady who was walking around picking up pieces of paper from the floor. She looked very sad.

“Can we help you?” Brady asked.

“Oh, gosh,” the little old lady said, I’ve dropped my whole sack of letters.”

At first, they thought she was a mail lady, but then Brady and Auntie Kimberly noticed that she was carrying a yellow sack, and that each piece of paper she picked up had a letter on it! There were B’s and G’s and P’s and Q’s and J’s and A’s and every letter in the alphabet!

Brady said, “I’m Brady, and this is my Auntie Kimberly, and we’ll help you!” He and Auntie Kimberly looked all over where the shopping carts were and they picked up several E’s, a couple of X’s, and a whole bunch of other letters.

They handed the letters back to the little old lady.

“Thank you so much!” the little old lady said. “Now I can put these back in my yellow letter satchel!”

“What do you do with all the letters?” Brady asked.

“Oh, I’m glad you asked!” the little old lady said. “I’m Layla the Letter Lady! These are actually magic letters! When you arrange them to spell things, you can make the letters come to life!”

‘Twas the Week Before Star Wars

I wrote this to amuse Brady (and myself) as the clock ticked ever closer to the premiere of The Last Jedi. You can also read more about our Star Wars journey here – and check out auntiekimberly.com for more content!

Of course, my apologies go out to to Major Henry Livingston, Jr. — or perhaps they should go out to Clement C. Moore.  Clearly, this is a controversy for the ages – to rival that age-old question of whether one should watch the Star Wars movies in story order or release date order*.

*release date order

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‘Twas the Week Before Star Wars

I try to use “inside voice” and not shout:
JUST ONE MORE WEEK ‘TIL LAST JEDI IS OUT!!!

The tickets were laid on the counter with care,
In hopes that Luke Skywalker soon would be there;

The Porgs were nestled all snug in their beds,
While visions of Ach-to danced in their heads,

And I, Auntie Kimberly, tried hard to sleep,
But heard BB-8 chirping: beep boop boop beep!

Inside my head there arose such a clatter,
I said to my brain, “Hey, what is the matter???”