The empty spot
The story began with a hard truth familiar to many working families: providing for the people you love can mean leaving the room when you most want to stay.
The story behind the story
A dad left for work. His love needed a way to stay.
Alex Rhodes wrote The Baker and The Bear after working nights and missing bedtime with his children. One daughter would reach for him in her sleep and find an empty spot. The family made small rituals to make the distance feel less lonely. Those rituals became a book.
The family rituals
A T-shirt that smelled like Dad. A heart drawn on the palm. A look at the moon. They did not erase the missing. They made it less lonely.
The illustrated world
Funti transformed those feelings into watercolor light, enormous worries, growing flowers, warm bread, and the glowing current that keeps Luna and Papa Bear connected.
Written by
Alex Rhodes
Alex is a father and night-shift worker who wrote the story he needed his children to feel: leaving for work never meant leaving them.
Illustrated by
Funti
Funti created the final characters and every finished illustration, giving the book its emotional visual language and its unmistakable world of moonlight, color, and warmth.