Media — The Grabbits

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Story Summary

When things are left out overnight, the Grabbits come to raid the mess. Finding things gone in the morning, the owner leaves a bedtime offering for the Grabbits, who return to swap the gift for what they took.

Author Q&A

What inspired you to write and illustrate The Grabbits?

I created the Grabbits to help kids and caregivers laugh about messiness and bond over the need to neaten.

It’s the book I wish my mom had had when I was a kid. As you can see from the video above, I was a pretty messy child. They say messiness and creativity go together, but that doesn’t make it any easier to deal with at the time. In fact, in my experience, messiness makes it harder to find the tools and space necessary to get creative and have fun.

In my childhood, messiness also created stress and conflict. When my mother was fed up, she would grab a garbage bag and stuff it with my toys as I raced to put them away before she hauled them to the curb. She yelled. I cried. It was awful for us both.

I designed the Grabbits to reframe the struggle against messiness to align caregivers with kids. The story makes bunny bandits the bad guys so that caregivers can shift from antagonists to allies. The Grabbits changes the conflict from caregivers against kids to everyone against the Grabbits.

Moreover, the story also supports caregivers’ authority by casting them in the role of Grabbit Prevention Experts. Thanks to the structure of the story, kids can trust their caregivers to advise them on how to keep the Grabbits away. Ideally, this shifts clean-up from a grudge match that pits adults against kids to a chance to laugh and team-up.

What influences are at play in the book?

The book is heavily influenced by my love of collecting stories from other cultures. I’ve always been fascinated by how societies use storytelling and superstition to get people to do stuff that’s good for them and/or for society as a whole. Icelanders, for example, still cite their belief in elves to encourage environmental conservation. Meanwhile, on the other side of the world, many Koreans still harbor a belief in “fan death” and avoid sleeping in a closed room with an electric fan because of a superstition that some historians attribute to the Korean government’s efforts to get people to use less electricity after the war.

I created the Grabbits to offer a way to take advantage of our brain’s natural inclination to attribute events to supernatural forces and give caretakers a chance to harness the benefits to helpful effect.

What’s the goal of the book?

The goal of the book is to keep caregivers and kids on the same side as they laugh about life’s messiness and build habits that keep everybody safe and sane.

As I worked on the book, I thought of friends who have vented their frustrations about teaching or raising kids. I’m talking about sweet, caring people who became teachers or parents because they love children and yet still voice frustration about having to either play the bad guy and fight kids to clean up or else spend time and energy they don’t have doing it themselves. Both exhaust them.

A friend I greatly admire really captured it when she said she just doesn’t like who she is when she yells at her kids. That struck my heart because I’ve always known her to be the paragon of conscientious kindness.

Making things harder, I think the pressure from social media to be the “perfect” parent or teacher really weighs on the caregivers I know. It might be part of a wider trend. Studies have suggested that Millennial parents are more depressed and may even be drinking more to cope.

So, my goal is to help get everyone on the same team, inject some silliness, and try to sidestep the strife.

How do you mean for readers to use the book?

I created the book to anchor a tool kit that helps build better habits.

Since habits take a while to form, the book is designed to invite multiple readings. It uses vivid colors, cinematic illustrations, and sticky rhymes to help the theme take root in kids brains. The rhymes take advantage of The Keats Heuristic, a neat quirk in our brains that makes us find rhyming phrases both more credible and more memorable. Perhaps the most famous example of this is Johnny Cochrane’s sticky phrase, “If the glove doesn’t fit, you must acquit.”

The book also packs each page with cultural references that will hopefully keep grown-ups entertained and remind them of the toys they had. I tried to make The Grabbits a book that kids and adults will enjoy reading repeatedly, discovering new things in the pictures each time.

Beyond the book, the Grabbits tool kit includes physical aids like the door hanger that offer a chance to build a daily ritual around the story and a library of free downloads that keep the fun going and the Grabbits fresh in mind.

The idea is to read the book, explore the themes, use the rituals, and play with the free activities to build better habits.

How did you do the illustrations?

I began by sketching and painting by hand, but I switched to drawing and painting on a Wacom tablet in Photoshop to have greater control and flexibility.

Each illustration has dozens, sometimes hundreds of individual layers that make up every element of the background and the characters. Working this way let me change and fine-tune every part of the composition right up until publication.

Where can people buy the book?

The book is currently available exclusively on the Grabbits’ shop at zeitkite.com. When the world opens up a bit more, I hope to get to do in-person events and sell through the kind of independent bookstores that are so vital to local communities.

Right now, I’m enjoying fulfilling orders myself because it allows me to sign every book to the buyer’s recipient(s) of choice and to tuck in a little extra treat, which I wouldn’t be able to do through a distributor.

What are your hopes for the book in the future?

I really can’t wait to do live, in-person events that combine a reading of the book with a game and activity.

Until then, I’ll keep building the library of free activities and finding ways to engage with my readers over social media. I’ve been having a great time building The Grabbits’ presence on Instagram and coming up with new weekly puzzles and games to keep the fun going.

If there’s enough demand, I’d like to a second book that tells the story of a child who borrows a grandparent’s cherished childhood toy without asking, only to leave the toy out, lose it to the Grabbits, and have to follow the Grabbits into the Lost and Found (their parallel universe) to reclaim it.

Need additional information? Check out the Grown-Up Portal for more on how the book works.

Grabbits Q&A

What are the Grabbits?

The Grabbits are magical creatures that live in a parallel dimension called the Lost and Found. While we’re asleep, they hop through portals to collect things we haven’t put away.

Where do Grabbits come from?

Grabbits and rabbits were once the same. When they began raiding ancient humans at night, they would take anything they found left out.

One night, the humans woke up. Half the terrified bunnies ran. They became rabbits.

The other half dug for their lives. They dug so deep they burst into a parallel dimension. Trapped when their hole fell in, they became Grabbits.

While the rabbits learned their lesson and now rarely raid humans, the Grabbits were determined to fill their new home with human stuff. Once they figured out how to open portals between worlds, they returned with new rules and helpful plans. Promising to steal no more, they vowed to take only items that seemed unwanted—stuff that we would never miss.

What do Grabbits take?

Grabbits take only things that haven't been put away.

What does it mean to put something away?

Putting something away means putting it in its proper place, like a bin, chest, drawer, closet, box, or spot.

How do Grabbits know an item hasn't been put away?

Grabbits have a special structure in their brain that senses when something isn't in its place.

Will Grabbits take anything that's been left out?

No. Grabbits take only things that interest them.

Can I see a Grabbit?

No. Grabbits only come when everyone is asleep.

Can I catch a Grabbit in a trap?

Unlikely. They're very sneaky, and they know all about traps.

Why don't Grabbits show up on our home security camera?

Unsure, but it appears Grabbits emit an electromagnetic frequency that projects an alternate timeline for the camera to capture based on the image the camera was recording right before the Grabbits arrived.

Can I stay up all night to stop the Grabbits from coming?

No. Sleep is essential for human survival. The best way to keep the Grabbits out is to put stuff away.

What if I have a very big toy or a project that I can't put away?

No worries. As long as the object is in its special spot, the Grabbits will ignore it.

Can I use the Grabbits to clean the house?

No. Grabbits are only interested in taking things they like, and they only like the stuff we like.

Can I get the Grabbits to steal someone else's stuff?

No. The Grabbits know this trick.

So, the Grabbits are basically burglars?

No. The Grabbits don't mean to steal stuff. They just take stuff they think is unwanted.

How can I know if things are neat enough not to lure the Grabbits?

Easy. Ask your grown-up. Grown-ups have the best sense of what will lure Grabbits and what won’t. For a surefire way to keep the Grabbits from coming, download your free Grabbit Prevention Inspector Badges and Door Hanger Kit here.

Artist Bio

Kim Soderstrom is a writer and visual artist. She lives in New York, where she focuses on creating work that sparks empathy to spread joy. Kim studied Anthropology and Studio Art at Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire after attending The Hackley School in Tarrytown, New York. In between trading her messy playroom for a slightly less messy art studio, Kim taught English for the Japan Exchange Teaching Program on a speck of coral in the South China Sea called Miyakojima. On Miyako, Kim learned Japanese while drawing silly pictures for the elementary school children who were willing to play her games. Today, she works under the direction of a grey bunny named Indy who both inspires and supervises her creative work.

Find more information about Kim’s work on the Grabbits here.