Brand New Book, Brand New Assembly

Yesterday I presented assemblies at two different elementary schools in North Jersey, bringing to an end a very busy, fun, rewarding, and exhilarating “mini-tour” of sorts that I had arranged to take place over the past few weeks to celebrate the release of The Hidden Dominion of Geordie James. It has been incredible.

I love having a new book to share with younger readers, and I also love having a brand-new, more hands-on, and more interactive assembly presentation to engage them with as well.

One of the tasks I’m assigning to myself this Summer will be to update my Cartooning Lessons website to better reflect what my assemblies are currently like. My newest program is suitable for children as young as Kindergarten, all the way up to Eighth Grade. What I have managed to do now is create a program where kids have the chance to improvise their own cartoon scenarios, play around with the ways in which words change the meaning of their drawings, discuss editorial choices, and share their ideas with others. Over the past few weeks, I have felt a little bit like a comedian working out new material, figuring out what works best, what’s most engaging, and seeing what the kids will respond to the most. I feel so lucky for all of the opportunities, and grateful to have received such positive feedback. Here’s an excerpt from a note a librarian sent me after one of my most recent visits.

Another thing that has truly been great about the past few weeks, is finally getting to get more feedback from my target readership on The Hidden Dominion of Geordie James. This book does deal with some fairly complex and potentially challenging issues, including childhood anxiety, familial loss, animal welfare, the environment, as well as the aftermath of the Covid19 pandemic, and I have wondered a little bit how my target audience might respond to the story. My sense from entering the classrooms and schools where the students had read the book prior to my visit, is that this graphic novel is connecting with young readers. I felt a lot of enthusiasm for the narrative, a great deal of empathy and compassion for the pig(s) at the center of the story, mixed with genuine excitement about the colorful world of Dominion.

One school had been reading the book aloud in the classroom, with different students playing different characters from the story. I loved seeing this whiteboard listing who was performing who (the initials on the left are the characters, the names on the right are the students).

Additionally, there were some schools where the students had created artwork inspired by the book.

This was fascinating to me, because as I have perhaps talked about in the past, there’s quite a lot going on in this book, and it was very interesting to see which different bits of imagery and which parts of the story seemed to have connected with different kids.

One of the narrative catalysts in the book, is when Geordie James sees a story on the news about a pig that escapes from a nearby factory farm, possibly getting lost in the woods in which he has his secret fort. I saw a number of children had chosen to illustrate that scene, which makes me feel like they connect and can empathize with my character’s concern for the animal’s welfare. I imagine they share the concern themselves!

So, it’s really been wonderful, but also, I am glad that the most intensive part of my book release “tour” is over, as I am eager to get back to making comics (my other big task for the Summer, I have a whole new book to write!). I do have some additional events upcoming, including my first ever trip to the American Library Association Conference in Chicago at the end of June. If you’ll be there, I hope to see you!

Thanks for reading along,

Mike