Today’s reading takes us camping with two unlikely friends. In Monster and Mouse Go Camping, written by Deborah Underwood and illustrated by Jared Chapman, tiny Mouse bursts in with a big idea: let us go camping! Monster is not so sure. Walking in the woods, sleeping in a tent, telling spooky stories? It all sounds scary. Only the promise of food gets him out the door, and a hungry monster in the wilderness turns out to be a problem no packing list can solve.

I shaped this episode around a “Brave Enough to Try?” arc — following Monster from “maybe next year, or the year after that” to his very first night outdoors, and noticing how a good friend can make something frightening feel possible. It is also a story about what happens when plans fall apart, and how two friends forgive each other’s mistakes and find their way to a happy ending anyway.

Before recording, I made a small index-card collage of Mouse — cut from gray woodgrain paper, with big pink ears, a curly pink tail, and a slightly worried face, set inside a dotted red border in my handmade red-and-black frame. The woodgrain felt right for a story set in the woods, and that worried little expression matches the moment Mouse realizes her camping trip is not going quite the way she imagined.

Watch the full episode and find out how a monster, a mouse, and one very important forgotten item can still add up to a memorable night under the stars.