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| Ben Clanton | |
Few series for young readers are as beloved as "authorstrator" Ben Clanton's Narwhal and Jelly books. Clanton debuted the odd-couple duo in 2016 with a tale of friendship, comics, and waffles, and has entertained chapter-book readers ever since. The Narwhal and Jelly series offers something for every young reader, including the original graphic novel series as well as picture book and board book spin-offs. The 10th book in the series, A Waffle Lot of Love!, is out now from Tundra Books.
The Narwhal and Jelly books focus on the power of imagination and friendship while occasionally giving real facts about sea creatures. How do you balance creativity and science when writing for young kids?
The real facts found their way into the books for two reasons, the first being that I'm obsessed with marine biology. I love animals in general (I'm a longtime vegetarian) but have a particular fascination with those in the sea.
The other reason is that when I first started working on the Narwhal and Jelly books, I found that a lot of people didn't know much about narwhals. Narwhals are such remarkable creatures! They seem almost too fantastic for this world. I have met oodles of people who thought they were a made-up creature. I might have been in that camp myself at one point. And yet they are real and a great reminder of how incredible this world can be. A funny thing is that it is always adults who are unaware of the actual existence of narwhals. Kids always seem well-informed about them. I love kids knowing what many adults do not.
I'm an enthusiast, but not a scientist. I'm not looking to write nonfiction, but I can't resist sharing fascinating tidbits. I hope those fun facts might inspire people to take a deeper dive and find out more! And, for me, those tidbits can often act as a springboard for my imagination. They help spark stories that are often outlandish but initially based on a bit of fact.
You're a pun master. How does one get good at puns?
I wish I punderstood! I went from being the kid who always seemed to not get the joke to being the dad who can't stop pun-ishing his kids with them. I guess what is true of both kid me and adult me is a love of play, and that is what puns essentially are, right? Wordplay! As a kid, I thought of words as being this very serious sort of thing, which they can be. But language is also this ever-changing medium that can be a place to have puns of fun, too. Once I began to realize that, the course was set, and what came next was punstoppable! These days I aspire to Lewis Carroll levels of wordplay!
Narwhal wears both mustaches and tutus, jokes about changing names for fun, and eventually Jelly uses they/them pronouns when talking about Narwhal. Pronouns are never used for Jelly. How did you decide to represent ideas of gender regarding your main characters? How have children responded?
I often get asked about Narwhal's gender at book events. Sometimes Jelly comes up too but usually Narwhal is the character that gets the question the most. When a kid asks me, "Is Narwhal a girl?" I'll usually respond with "What do you think?"
Honestly, I think Narwhal is a lot more interested in waffles than gender. Narwhal kind of goes with the flow! So, he/him, she/her, and they/them all work for Narwhal. I didn't have a gender in mind for Narwhal when I came up with the character--Narwhal was just Narwhal. I regret that when the first book came out in 2016, I used he/him by default for Narwhal at a couple points. I wasn't knowledgeable enough or brave enough to make a different choice at that time. A few years back I decided to start using they/them for Narwhal, since kids had a range of answers to that question of "What do you think?" For me, those pronouns were the most open, which is how I think Narwhal approaches life: open to and accepting of everyone.
You also asked about playing with name changes (which happens in the third book), and I should address that specifically. I was never aiming to explore deadnames as a topic in that book and that isn't a subject I would feel comfortable joking about. For Narwhal, it is less about joking around with names and more that Narwhal takes a playful approach to life and one not as restrained by norms and expectations. Changing names is part of Narwhal being Narwhal! Going with the flow and having fun!
What would you say to adults who don't consider graphic novels or comics "real" reading?
This conversation came up with my own mother. She didn't go so far as to claim it wasn't "real" reading, but she bemoaned seeing a kid she knows only reading graphic novels. I mentioned to her that there tend to be a higher amount of "reach words" in graphic novels, which, in general, have more advanced language than other books. Graphic novels boost reading confidence as well as increase comprehension of the text, and help with visual literacy, which is an increasingly important skill to have in our world that's now overflowing with misinformation. You know... to name just a few things that make graphic novels really great.
Even some adults who consider graphic novels and comics legitimate reading often view them as lesser than other works. The same thing happens with books for adults versus books for kids. Similarly, this is often seen in the way authors are viewed versus illustrators and cartoonists. I think we'll see more of a shift to accepting graphic novels and comics as not only legitimate reading but noteworthy when those who read them as kids grow up. It's hard to fully appreciate something that you haven't experienced. Often, the adults that deride the format unsurprisingly haven't read all that many graphic novels.
Will we ever get a spin-off series about the incredible Captain Sally Goodhart, the snail that sails the seven seas on a sea serpent?
At the very least, Captain Sally Goodhart needs to make an appearance in a future book, though I'm sure she does have stories that could fill many books. I need to spend some more time with her. Once she's back from her latest adventure, I should ask her to regale me with her tales! --Nicole Brinkley, bookseller and writer