Perhaps you may have heard of CBS’s popular police-procedural show, Criminal Minds. I certainly have. Not to flex or anything, but I’ve seen every single episode of Criminal Minds that are currently on Netflix. That’s 12 seasons. It’s also 227 episodes and approximately 188 hours.
I spent a decent amount of those 188 hours lusting over my eternal crush, Matthew Gray Gubler, (aka Spencer Reid on the show). Gubler is also a director, artist, and the voice of Simon the Chipmunk in the live-action Alvin and the Chipmunks movies if any of that means anything to you.
And now, he’s a children’s book author! Rumple Buttercup, illustrated and written by Gubler himself, is a sweet story about the titular green monster learning what it’s like to belong and be himself.
Rumple has 5 crooked teeth, 3 strands of hair, and his left foot is slightly bigger than his right. He is weird. Rumple lives in a rain drain to avoid people seeing him and thinking he’s weird. When Rumple does leave, he wears a banana peel on his heard as a disguise. The only person he has to talk to is his imaginary friend made of trash, Candy Corn Carl. Rumple lives a lonely life, and all he wants is to have a real friendship without someone seeing how weird he is.
I won’t spoil what exactly happens in the end, but my absolute favorite quote in the whole book is “Everyone is weird. And that’s what makes us great”.
Now, I’m no book reviewer, but I can confidently say this book is a treasure. And not just because I think Matthew Gray Gubler is hot.
You can tell Gubler put so much heart into this book, especially the art and the message. If you’re familiar with Gubler outside of his acting work, you know he’s a pretty quirky guy. I can imagine that this book came out of his own struggle of feeling “weird” or like he doesn’t belong.
And I’ve definitely felt that before too I feel it all the time even as a 19-year-old college student. But I especially felt it when I was a kid. If this book was around when I was young, I’m 100% sure I would have loved it. I really wished I would’ve heard the message “it’s okay to be weird” more often back then, particularly in books.
But Rumple Buttercup exists now, and I love it just as much as 6-year-old me would’ve. If you babysit or have younger siblings, you need to read this to them as soon as you can. And if you’re a fan of Matthew Gray Gubler’s, you definitely need this book in your collection, even if you’re not the target demographic. If you can read, this book is for you. There’s no age limit on books.
So go pick up a copy from your local library or Amazon, and meet your new weird, green-skinned, banana-loving friend Rumple Buttercup/