Character Spotlight: Rump

By Oliver Perry, Read to Them Staff

Hello, friends! We hope you are as excited as we are to start our journey into Rump by Liesl Shurtliff. Be it gnomes, trolls, fairies, or kings, one special boy stands at the center of it all, and his name is…

Rump

Name: Rump

Nicknames: Butt, Baby Rump, Rump Roast (none of which are nice, and all of which are coined by Bruno and Frederick.)

Age: 12

Home: A cottage on The Mountains

Job: Rump makes a meager living looking for Gold in the Mountains.

Family: Rump lives with his grandmother, or Gran, who he takes care of and supports with the rations he makes from looking for gold. Rump loves Gran very much.

Animals: Rump has a few farm animals that he and Gran raise at home. They have a cow, a donkey, and chickens. Rump believes that, “We don’t name animals. Names are special and saved for people…”, so the cow is called Milk, and the donkey is called Nothing!

Friends: Rump’s only friend in the world (aside from Gran) is Red. Even though she has a tendency to hit him from time to time, Red really cares about Rump, and vice versa.

Rhyming: Rump has a lot going on. He never finds any gold, there’s never enough food to eat, Frederick and Bruno are always giving him a hard time, and worst of all, he doesn’t know his full name! To deal with all of the stress, Rump has a special way to make himself feel better: rhyming. Rump turns things that are sad and boring, like mining for gold or his old cottage, into pretty, rhyming songs. He says that, “Rhymes make me feel better when I’m down.”

Notable Quote: “My destiny really stinks.”

In our first few chapters, things really do seem to stink for Rump. As we follow his tale, I wonder how much destiny will change for Rump? Either way, we hope you’ll meet us back here next Monday, when we’ll get to know Red a little bit better. Have thoughts on the first few days of reading Rump? Drop all your thinking in your Flipgrid page!

Have a great week, stay safe, and enjoy Rump!