It was a spring morning, and a storm had just ended in the garden. The clouds had opened up, the sun was warming the wet grass, and there were puddles everywhere. Dash, Ziggy, Lily, and Skye had decided to have a running race all the way to the big apple tree at the end of the meadow.

"Ready, set, go!" shouted Dash, who was the fastest of them all.

Dash took off like a rocket, jumped over one puddle, jumped over another, and reached the apple tree before his friends had even taken three steps.

"I won, I won!" laughed Dash, running around the apple tree with his arms raised. "Nobody runs as fast as me!"

Lily came in second, as determined as ever, with her shoes full of mud. Ziggy came third, laughing. Skye came in last, calm and happy, and sat down on the grass with a big smile.

"You really are a lightning bolt, Dash," said Skye. "But next time, wait for us a little!"

Just then, in the clean sky after the rain, a giant rainbow appeared. It was the biggest one the children had ever seen: it looked like a bridge of colors that started at the apple tree and rose all the way up to the clouds.

"How wonderful!" whispered Lily.

And then, from far away, came a sound the children knew very well.

"CHUFF CHUFF!"

It was Toby the Magic Train, all shiny and colorful, puffing along happily right up the rainbow.

"Hello there, dear children, come climb up here,
we're off in a hurry, the rainbow is near!
I'll take you where everything's turned around,
where the fast one stays stuck to the ground!" said Toby the Magic Train.

The children looked at each other, a little confused but all happy.

"Where everything's turned around?" asked Dash. "And where the fast one stays stuck? What does that mean?"

"We'll find out!" said Lily, hopping onto the first car.

They all climbed aboard, and Toby set off along the bridge of colors, higher and higher, through clouds as soft as cream.

When the little train stopped, the children got off and stood there with their mouths wide open. They had arrived in a very strange place: the Upside-Down World of Topsyturvia. Here, instead of falling, the rain rose up toward the sky! The drops lifted off the grass and floated up like balloons. Some people walked calmly on the ceilings of the houses, upside down, waving hello.

"But everything's backwards!" laughed Ziggy.

Just then, right in front of them, a teeny-tiny little man appeared, made all of sugar. He had pink cheeks, a huge smile, and he smelled like cotton candy. He took one step, tripped, and rolled all the way to Skye's feet, leaving behind a trail of colorful sprinkles.

"Oops!" said the little man, getting up and laughing. "Welcome to Topsyturvia! You look a bit bewildered."

"Bewildered?" asked Dash, wrinkling his forehead. "What does bewildered mean?"

"It means a little confused, like when you arrive somewhere new and you don't quite know where to go," explained the little man. "My name is Zolletta! I'm a little sugar man. When it rains I melt a bit, but that's alright, I always laugh!"

"Nice to meet you, Zolletta!" said Skye, helping him dust himself off.

But Dash, Ziggy, and Lily gave him a funny look. He was so small, so clumsy, and he kept tripping.

"Listen," said Zolletta, growing serious, "there's a big problem here. See that? That's the Dream Carousel."

The children turned around. In the middle of the square stood a huge, beautiful carousel, with little horses and stars, but it was spinning all crooked and lopsided, creaking: "Creeeak, croooak, creeeak."

"The Dream Carousel sends the right dreams to all the children in the world," explained Zolletta. "But it has lost its golden bolt, and now all the dreams have gotten mixed up! There's a child who wanted to dream of flying and instead is dreaming of boiled vegetables! Another wanted to dream of dragons and is dreaming of socks!"

"What a disaster!" said Lily.

"And how do we fix it?" asked Ziggy, whose head was already full of ideas.

"The golden bolt can only be won at the Great Race of Topsyturvia," said Zolletta. "But you must hurry: if we don't put the carousel back together before dawn, the dreams will stay mixed up forever."

Dash smiled and stretched his legs. "A race? Then it's done! I'm the fastest in the world. I'll win in a flash!"

Zolletta was about to say something, but Dash had already run to the starting line.

The track of the Great Race was full of funny obstacles: bouncing cushions, slides that went upward, and a carpet of wobbly jelly.

"Ready, set, go!" rang the little bell.

Dash dashed off with all his might. He ran, and ran, and ran... but he didn't move a single step! He stayed right where he was, his legs spinning like the wheels of a toy car, while the other racers passed him by walking slowly, slowly.

"But... but... why am I not moving forward?" panted Dash, all red in the face.

Zolletta reached him, rolling and chuckling. "I wanted to tell you! Here in Topsyturvia everything is backwards. The harder you run, the more stuck you stay. To go fast, you have to go slow... and you have to laugh!"

"Laugh?" huffed Dash. "What nonsense! I run, and that's that!"

And he tried again. He ran as hard as he could. The result: he did a pirouette, slipped on the jelly carpet, and landed face-first in a bouncing cushion that launched him into the air. "AAAAH!" Then he fell into a puddle that, instead of getting him wet, shot him back up like a spring.

Ziggy, Lily, and Skye burst out laughing. Even Dash, all messy-haired, started to smile.

"See?" said Zolletta, clapping his little hands. "When you laugh, you move a little bit!"

Ziggy, who was the cleverest, looked closely and understood. "Zolletta is right! Look: when Dash laughs, he takes half a step forward! It's the laughter that makes him move!"

But Lily still didn't believe it. "I can do it my own way!" she said, and charged full speed at the first obstacle. The bouncing cushion pushed her back, and she ended up sitting in the jelly carpet, which made a very funny sound: "SPLOSH!"

"Now let me try, with a clever idea!" said Ziggy. He took a running start walking backwards, thinking he'd trick the backwards world. But the backwards world was cleverer than he was: it grabbed him by the feet and hung him upside down from a branch, dangling like a bat. "Hey! Get me down!" laughed Ziggy.

Meanwhile, far off, the sky was just beginning to grow lighter. Dawn was coming.

"Quick, there's no time!" said Zolletta, helping Ziggy down. "If we don't fix the carousel before the sun rises, the dreams will stay mixed up forever!"

"Then we have to trust Zolletta!" said Lily, with all her grit, pulling the jelly out of her hair.

But Dash crossed his arms. He was a little angry. He was the fastest, and now he had to be helped by the smallest, clumsiest little man of all?

Skye came over to him and put a hand on his shoulder. "Dash," she said gently, "Zolletta always trips, it's true. But that's exactly why he knows how to fall, how to roll, how to go slow better than anyone. He knows something we don't. Let's trust him."

Dash looked at Zolletta, so small, so sweet, with that smile that never went away. And he understood that Skye was right.

"Alright, Zolletta," said Dash. "You lead me."

Zolletta's sugar eyes sparkled. "Hooray! Now I'll teach you! First rule: walk slowly, slowly... no, super slowly. Second rule: laugh every time you fall. Third rule: when you see an obstacle, don't force your way over it. Wait, and it will help you."

So Dash started the race again, but this time he slowed down. He walked slowly, calmly, and every time he tripped, he laughed out loud. And, as if by magic, his body slid forward, farther and farther.

He reached the bouncing cushion. He didn't run. He waited. The cushion gently picked him up and set him farther ahead. He reached the upward slide. He didn't push. He sat down, laughing, and the slide carried him all the way to the top.

"You're doing it!" shouted Lily.

"Go slow, Dash, go super slow!" chuckled Zolletta, rolling along beside him.

On the jelly carpet, Zolletta slipped and fell with such a funny somersault that Dash burst out laughing. And that laughter pushed him straight past the last obstacle, all the way to the finish line!

"DING DING DING! Dash wins!" rang the little bell.

And there, hanging at the finish line, the golden bolt was shining.

"We did it!" they all shouted together, hugging. Dash scooped up Zolletta and twirled him in the air. "Thank you, Zolletta! Without you I never would have won. You're the real champion!"

They all ran to the Dream Carousel. Ziggy had the idea of how to put the bolt back in the right place, Lily tightened it hard, Skye blew away the dust, and Zolletta, with his teeny-tiny hands, snapped it into the perfect hole.

"CLICK!"

The carousel stopped creaking. It began to spin straight and smooth, and from every little horse came so many colorful dreams that flew up toward the sky: dreams of dragons, of castles, of stars, and of flying. The right dreams had come back to all the children in the world.

The giant rainbow lit up again, brighter than before. And when dawn broke, sparkling dew appeared on the grass of Topsyturvia: millions of tiny droplets glittering in the sun like little diamonds.

Just then, Toby the Magic Train arrived. "CHUFF CHUFF!"

"The smallest one has saved the day,
and lovely dreams are back to stay.
Whoever seems clumsy, whoever seems small,
still hides a champion's heart, after all!" said Toby the Magic Train.

The children said goodbye to Zolletta with a big hug, then climbed aboard the little train. As they rode back home along the rainbow, Dash watched the little droplets sparkle.

"You know what, Skye?" he said quietly. "I judged Zolletta just because he was small and clumsy. But he was the one who knew the most important thing."

Skye smiled. "Every creature, even the smallest, has something precious to give. That's why everyone deserves respect."

And as Toby the Magic Train carried them back to the garden, where the sun was now high, the four friends fell asleep happy, dreaming of a race you win by going slow.