Dear Diary,

Today was an exciting day! I just finished the final draft of my new book (number 14 in the Benny’s Brave Bunny Series), The Grand Gurning Glitch. Writing this one has been quite the adventure, and I can’t wait to see how my friends in the Whispering Woods react to it!

For those who don’t know, gurning is this hilarious tradition that I stumbled upon while researching for this book. It started in England, of all places, hundreds of years ago! It’s basically a contest where people make the ugliest faces they can. I know, it sounds ridiculous, but it’s surprisingly tricky! Contestants often wear a horse collar around their faces to frame their expressions—really adds to the drama, I suppose. The idea is to twist your face into the most hideous, funny, or distorted shape possible. Can you imagine? Animals in the Whispering Woods would never do something like that, right? Well, not exactly.

In The Grand Gurning Glitch, Rocky Raccoon is at it again. He’s always loved pulling pranks, but this time, he gets himself into some real trouble. He decides to join a gurning contest we organized to raise food for the Whispering Woods’ feast. Rocky, ever the trickster, thought it would be a great idea to pull the ugliest face anyone has ever seen. But—oh no!—his face gets stuck in a gurning position! He’s horrified, and no one can seem to figure out how to fix it. The entire forest is abuzz with possible solutions.

We have Ollie the Owl giving a little lesson about the history of gurning contests. He loves to remind everyone that gurning is a human tradition and that we forest animals are far too sophisticated to be pulling such silly faces. Of course, Ollie is saying this while sitting as a judge for the contest!

We had a hard time finding enough judges, to be honest. It turns out not many animals wanted to look at all those ugly faces. I don’t blame them. But, we needed five judges, and in the end, we got them. There’s a lot of humor in the book, especially with Rocky realizing how his playful pranks can sometimes backfire.

The real heart of the story, though, is the lesson Rocky learns about taking responsibility and the importance of knowing when to stop pushing a joke too far. His friends (that’s us!) come together to help him, and in the end, we manage to set things right. Rocky learns to be more mature, and we all have a good laugh about it—once his face goes back to normal, that is!

I think this might be one of my funniest stories yet, but it also has an important message. We all like to have fun, but sometimes, even the best prank can turn into a bit of a problem. I hope readers enjoy this quirky story just as much as I’ve enjoyed writing it!

Until next time,
— Benny

Hey guys, you can learn much more about me and my Whispering Woods friends while reading the exciting adventure stories at:

https://bennysbraveadventures.com

Sing their songs, too, at:

youtube.com/@bennysbraveadventures

Read their adventure books:

https://www.amazon.com/s?k=hong+z+mccormickm