A Pencil Bedtime Story: The Door That Opened Onto White Paper

This original pencil bedtime story gives you a complete tale to read aloud. A pencil draws a door before deciding what belongs behind it, leaving room for a surprising visitor. A short personalization note follows the ending, ready for an optional second telling.

The Door That Opened Onto White Paper

The pencil had drawn houses all afternoon. Square houses, tall houses and one house that leaned because the paper had slipped. By evening its point was soft and its wooden sides felt pleasantly warm.

On the last blank page it drew a door. A straight line, a curved top and a round handle. Then it paused. There was no house around the door, and nothing behind it except white paper.

The eraser rolled closer. "Shall I take it away?"

"Not yet," said the pencil.

It added hinges. The door opened inward, which was convenient even though inward had not been invented. A small drawn cat stepped through and looked around.

"Where does this lead?" asked the cat.

"I have not decided."

The cat sat down on the white page. "I can wait."

The pencil drew a grand staircase. The cat looked up all seventeen steps and yawned. The pencil asked the eraser to remove it. A mountain came next, but it left no room for the door to open. The eraser brushed that away too, leaving a pale smudge like a cloud.

"What were you hoping to find?" the pencil asked.

"Somewhere to put my bag."

The pencil noticed a tiny bag beside the cat's paws. It drew a hook at a comfortable height. The cat hung up the bag. Beneath the hook, the pencil added a stool.

"And perhaps a window," the cat said.

The pencil drew one. Beyond it lay the smudge left by the mountain, which now looked exactly like a distant hill in mist. The cat climbed onto the stool and rested its paws on the sill.

The page had become a room without requiring a staircase or a mountain. The pencil added a rug because it liked drawing stripes. The eraser tidied one corner and left the slightly crooked edge alone.

Near the bottom of the page, the pencil drew a second small door. It did not decide what lay behind that one. The cat glanced over its shoulder but seemed happy to leave it closed for now.

When the sketchbook shut, the pencil rested in its groove beside the eraser. On the last page, a cat had somewhere to hang a bag, a window with a view and a door for another afternoon.

A small change for your next telling

Your child can choose what appears beyond the second door. Keep the first room nearly empty, since that gives the story space to change. Drawing along is optional and can wait until another time. If a listener wants a familiar setting, use their own reading chair or a kitchen table instead of the picture's stool, without adding a lesson about what drawings should look like.

Day2Tale creates personalized, narrated stories.

Sources: Day2Tale support and product features