Author Nick Bruel Teaches Bedford Village Students an Idea-Generating Exercise

“This presentation scares me,” said Nick Bruel, author and illustrator of the wildly popular emerging reader series, Bad Kitty. Bruel had presented to younger students at Bedford Village Elementary School already but felt he needed to switch things up for fourth and fifth graders, since many have moved on to higher reading levels. “I can’t do the same thing with you guys that I do with kindergarten and first graders — and I don’t do this often.”

Bruel started by speaking to students about the incredible opportunities being an author and illustrator has created for him — he’s been to 45 states!

“I have this amazing job where I get to write and illustrate books for kids like you,” Bruel said. “When the opportunity first arose to talk to kids your age, I thought I could talk to you about what I used to do. I was a cartoonist.”

Bruel told students about his idol, Ernie Bushmiller, a cartoonist who came up with a cartoon every day for 60 years.

“He had this legendary idea,” said Bruel. Bushmiller opened a Sears and Roebuck catalog — Bruel explained it to students as “if you took everything on Amazon, printed it out and put it together” — put his finger down and made a comic about whatever his finger landed on. It could be a shovel or a refrigerator. It didn’t matter. He would create a comic that incorporated it.

Since Sears and Roebuck catalogs are a thing of the past, Bruel has had to find a new method of finding a random topic. He worked through the exercise with students, who had come into the Village Room with clipboards and pencils.

“I’m going to call on someone,” Bruel said. “That person will share their name. Then, someone else will think of a job that starts with that letter. James led to “job giver,” which Bruel took and ran with.

He told students that what he does is try to create something that comes immediately to mind before he loses it. In this example, he drew a gorilla inside the office of a “job giver” who was saying “Tell me again about your qualifications as a banana tester.”

Students laughed with delight before he told them it was their turn. Without erasing, they had two minutes to draw something that included an entertainer. From there, he instructed students to think of an animal and write down the first one that came to mind. They then had 90 seconds to create a cartoon on the topic of the animal and entertainer.

“Oh yes. Yes, yes, yes! This is going to be good,” a student called out before scribbling ferociously.

When they were done, those who wanted to share were invited to. One of the many hilarious examples was a sloth sitting in a pool balancing a ball on its nose. Outside the pool, a seal was just hanging out, watching.

“The reason I’m having you do this cartooning exercise,” Bruel said, “is because it’s about that moment we all have when there’s a big blank page in front of us. Or maybe a blank computer screen. You might be saying, ‘I DON’T KNOW WHAT TO WRITE ABOUT!’”

After talking about writer’s block a bit, he told students that it was really about pride.

“We always have ideas,” he said. “With writer’s block, you’re telling yourself your idea isn’t good enough. You’re self-editing. When you force yourself and give a time limit, you can make it happen. You can take it and evolve it. Maybe it was a good idea, and you just have to give it a chance. There’s no reason why your ideas can’t be as unique and as different as you are.”

After the exercise, there was a question-and-answer session. Students were eager to participate.

“What’s your favorite kids’ book that you didn’t write?”

“Do you draw first, or do you write first?”

“Were there any books you were going to make that you didn’t?”

“Why did you pick Bad Kitty as a character?”

That last question related back to an exercise like the one they had just completed.

“I like to give my brain little exercises,” he said. “I like to think of a title first. I didn’t worry about great titles or terrible titles — I just listed them out. I started to ask questions about Bad Kitty and what it could mean.”

Students were enthralled throughout the presentation and were quick to rush to Bruel to show off their cartoons or ask to have books signed afterward.