Bram and the Broken Gate
Cover (final art) — Bram at his gate, hoof on the latch, bandana still patch-free — and behind him, the whole herd loose on Junction Street with Nib on the diner awning.
Production notes — full art pass (Oct 13, 2026)
- Every spread now has its picture — cover + all 12 spreads illustrated in the approved soft-watercolor style, generated from this book's locked style guide and checked spread by spread against it.
- The hidden game is the star patch: one tiny cream star patch — the very one Grandma sews on in Spread 12 — is extracted from that art and composited, pixel-identical, into the cover and Spreads 1–11 at the spots the briefs specify. Every placement is template-match verified (masked NCC ≥ 0.85), and each final differs from its clean art only inside the patch's bounding box.
- The Mabel Thread: Mabel the field mouse holds her one thread beat in Spread 9 — chalk-checker at the count-in. Bram calls the count; Mabel writes the true tally, even when it comes up one short. The count, the noticing, and the fixing all stay Bram's.
- Cameo law kept: the five friends appear only as briefed — Pickle as a rolling blur in the Spread 2 race, and small faces in the Spread 12 bus-stop crowd. Every job belongs to Bram, family, or townsfolk (Dottie hands him the roundup route; Mr. Abernathy repairs the hinge with him).
- Patch tracker: Bram's sky-blue bandana is patch-free on the cover and Spreads 1–11; exactly one cream star appears from the Spread 12 sewing beat onward.
- Honest residuals: Spread 12's morning vignette draws the bus-stop crowd as generic prairie kids and Nib reads just outside the fence line in the strip (the main porch beat — the patch, Grandma's needle, the cocoa — is lock-clean); the baby bison in Spread 8 reads pale with a smaller head than her 60% lock; Spread 10 keeps a second homework sheet slipped under Nib's cheek. All three are flagged for a possible illustrator touch-up at layout time rather than hidden.
1The gatekeeper
Spread 1 — the gatekeeper: swing, latch, chant, one good tug. Golden morning, herd calm, Meeting Tree in the distance.
Bram the bison was the biggest kid on the prairie — all head, all heart, one famous sky-blue bandana.
Every morning, Bram had an important job.
The pasture gate.
He swung it shut. He dropped the latch.
"Click! Check! Locked tight!"
One good tug. Just like always.
Then Bram trotted off to meet the bus.
2The morning he forgot
Spread 2 — the morning he forgot: Bram mid-gallop, the race a blur (spot Pickle, rolled up tight), and behind him the gate creeping open.
But the first week of school gallops.
New backpack! New pencils! A line of friends raced for the bus stop!
"Race you there!" somebody squeaked.
Bram grabbed the gate and pulled — "Click! Ch—"
The bus horn honked. Bram RAN.
Behind him, very quietly, the gate swung…
…open.
3Rumble
Spread 3 — RUMBLE: the herd streams past the bus stop, Nib in front wearing Bram's homework, Bram counting at the sign.
At the bus stop, the ground shook.
Rumble… rumble… RUMBLE.
Around the bend came the herd — clip-clop, moo, hustle — straight for downtown!
In front, wearing Bram's homework like a hat, marched Nib the goat.
Very smug.
Bram counted as they thundered by. "Nine… ten… eleven… twelve."
"All of them," he groaned. "Every one is OUT."
4Downtown
Spread 4 — downtown: bison in the diner booth, bison at the hammers, bison on the library steps, and Nib king of the awning.
Downtown, the herd went visiting.
Two bison squeezed into a Dottie's Diner booth and tried to order pancakes.
One inspected the hammers at Mr. Abernathy's hardware store — carefully, with his nose.
Three more settled on the library steps for story time.
And Nib? Nib stood on the diner's awning. King of Junction Street.
5"It's my doing"
Spread 5 — “It's my doing”: Bram stands square and owns it — head down, eyes up — while Dottie and Mr. Abernathy listen kindly.
Dottie came out. "Well," she said. "This is new."
Bram took a big breath.
"It's my doing," he said. "The gate was my job. I pulled it — but I didn't click it, and I didn't check."
"I'll bring them home," he said. "Every single one."
"Meeting Tree," said Dottie. "Start there, work your way home. ROUNDUP, Bram!"
6Bram goes first
Spread 6 — Bram goes first: strength as kindness in the alley, with Dottie and Mr. Abernathy calling the strays from their doorways.
So Bram went first, big and gentle, calling the strays himself.
"Two behind the diner!" called Dottie.
"One in my doorway!" called Mr. Abernathy.
Bram lifted a fallen sign. He held the awning flap high.
"This way, please," he rumbled. "Meeting Tree, everybody."
And one by one, the big bison followed.
7Bram vs. Nib
Spread 7 — Bram vs. Nib: one charge, one bounce clean over his head… and a trash-can lid for a hat.
That left Nib.
Nib saw Bram coming… and bolted down the alley.
Bram CHARGED.
Like thunder, straight down the alley — and cut Nib off at the crates!
But goats can bounce.
Nib bounced — boing! — clean over Bram, and vanished under the awning.
Bram sat up wearing a trash-can lid. "…So close."
8Bram and the baby
Spread 8 — Bram and the baby: big as a bridge at the creek's flat crossing stone, one careful step at a time.
Behind the library, somebody was crying. The baby bison — too scared to move.
Bram slowed right down and made his big voice very small.
"Hey," he rumbled, soft as he could. "Walk with me."
He led her to the creek and stepped in beside her, big as a bridge.
Step… step… splash! Across the flat crossing stone.
9Eleven
Spread 9 — Eleven: Bram calls the count, Mabel chalks the true tally — 8, 9, 10, 11 — and then the empty space where 12 should be.
"Counting IN!" called Bram — and on the post beside him, Mabel the field mouse chalked the tally, one big mark for every bison.
Hooves thundered past him. "…eight… nine… ten… eleven!"
Bram looked up. The road was empty.
"Eleven?" His heart went thud.
Twelve had gone out. Eleven had come home.
Then — from down the street — a tiny, sleepy snore.
"Under Dottie's awning," he said. "One more shape. A sleepy, smug shape."
10Your Majesty
Spread 10 — Your Majesty: Nib asleep on the feed sacks, still wearing the homework — then TWELVE home, and a latch that won't meet its catch.
Bram galloped back down the quiet street.
Under the awning: Nib. Fast asleep on the feed sacks. Still wearing the homework hat.
"Come on, Your Majesty," said Bram. "Home."
Nib trotted beside him — straight through the gate.
Bram counted out loud. "…TWELVE! Everybody home!"
Bram swung the gate shut. Click— clunk.
The latch slid off its catch. The gate was sagging.
11Mr. Abernathy and the hinge
Spread 11 — the hinge: Bram holds the whole gate steady while Mr. Abernathy hammers, tightens, and oils. LATCH. TUG. LOOK BACK.
Mr. Abernathy arrived, toolbox already open. "Hinge's tired. Hold her up, Bram?"
Bram lifted the gate and held it steady as a fence post.
He hammered. He tightened. He oiled. "Try her now."
Bram swung it shut. Slowly.
"Click! Check! Locked tight!"
Then Bram added a part all his own: a great big TUG — and a look back.
Locked. Tight.
12The first patch
Spread 12 — the first patch: Grandma sews the tiny cream star on at dusk — “For going back.” — and next morning the whole bus stop chants it with him.
That evening, on Grandma's porch, there was cocoa.
Grandma Armadillo held up Bram's bandana.
"First patch," she said, and sewed on a tiny star.
Bram turned his enormous head to see it. "What's it for?"
"For going back," said Grandma.
Next morning, the whole bus stop chanted it with him:
Click! Check! Locked tight!
From inside the fence, a small voice called:
"…Locked?"
Back matter (printed at the end of the book)
Find the star patch! The very same little star patch is hiding in every picture in this book. Can you find all twelve?
For grown-ups: Bram's story is about responsibility — a job that's yours is yours even when nobody's watching, and owning a mistake is the first step to fixing it.