Why Do You Draw Squirrels?
Another Ghost of School Visits Past
A few years ago a third grader in an afterschool program in Brooklyn asked me why I made books about squirrels. This question comes up pretty often for me but this student seemed especially skeptical. I could tell what she was really asking was why didn’t I write about any of the many problems a human girl has to navigate in this world. She didn’t trust these squirrels.
I gave her my standard answer. Squirrels can jump from tree to tree like a superhero and they are cute. I could tell she was not buying it. And of course I still think of this kid from time to time when I’m up at 1 AM jet lagging as I am this week.
One day while drawing a weekly 4-panel Norma and Belly comic for the old Sunday Haha I realized that I was just using animals in place of humans. They are more general and easier to project ourselves on to. They are squirrels but you can make them talk about anything you want.
The idea was clear in my head but it sat in there for a while. It seemed to obvious to mention to anyone. And then one day during a school visit, this time in Queens to a the entire school at one time. I felt compelled to state during the comics workshop portion of the presentation that you could make a comic about anything from your life just by replacing the humans with squirrels. Probably because the 4th and 5th grades were there and I try to incorporate more process into a presentation for older students. The gymnasium didn’t explode with cheers over the immense beauty of this concept and soon everyone filed out to lunch or the next class.
As I was packing up my stuff, the principal ushered in a fifth grader. The principal said she found the student in the hallway drawing a comic in her notebook and she wanted me to see it. It was about a squirrel asking her mother squirrel for a car. The mother squirrel said ok she just had to save money. The last panel was of the squirrel driving a car, having finally saved enough money. The caption on the panel said “One thousand years later”. I suggested she could make the squirrel look old by adding a long white beard. There it was. A real life problem expressed through comics.
Last week, I did a workshop in the ancient New York Society Library (if you want to feel like the step child of a wealthy steel magnate in the 1900s you should check it out). The four students in attendance were grades 3-6. They showed real stamina for and dedication to making comics. After an hour and a half after school on a Monday night they started on the final comic of the night, a 4-panel comic strip inspired by something from their day.
The sixth grade student decided right away to do one about two girls in her science lab who called out a boy for always making an “mmm” sound saying it was sus when really by calling it out they were being sus. The student went to work on her comic. As she was drawing she said was going to use stick figures because people would be too hard to draw.
By this time I was resting on the couch because of my jet lag. I said that (paraphrasing) Lynda Barry says you have to put meat on the stick bodies or they won’t have a soul. So just go back and pad the sticks after you draw them. Or just make the kids in the comic mice (she had already made a comic earlier that evening about a flying mouse).
The student like the mice idea and she added different hairdos on the mice to set them apart and was finished a few seconds later. We had just invented Babymouse! I felt like a wise comics sage dispensing cartoon gems from the couch. Now I would know what to say to that student in the Brooklyn after school program. She’s probably in middle school or fifth by now. Sometimes the easiest way to talk about real life problems is draw some squirrels. Also, I would tell her, that I am working on a new three-book series that is going to be all human characters.
NIGHT CHEF is a Kirkus Best Books of 2025 Middle Grade!
And an Amazon Best Books of 2025 ages 6-8!
Publishers Weekly Best Books of 2025!
Kid’s Indie Next List pick for Nov/Dec.!
Very wise! Love it! I am going to use the adding some padding on the stick figure idea with my students!
Incredibly wise indeed. Also I am cheering over the immense beauty of the concept ✨