“Making Friends” with Author Kristen Gudsnuk
The 5th Grade enjoyed a visit with popular graphic novelist Kristen Gudsnuk, author of the Making Friends series. Kristen shared her journey, from a kid who used to make her friends laugh with her doodles to a full-time graphic novelist with multiple book series to her name. She spoke to students about how she improved her drawing and writing skills over the years by simply having fun with it. As she put it, “if you love what you’re doing, you’re just going to want to practice more and more, and you’re going to keep getting better and better!”
There are a lot of aspiring writers in our 5th Grade and Kristen gave great advice about the literary side of comics and graphic novels. She told students how important it is to have their characters overcome problems with creative solutions and to have a strong theme in mind to guide them throughout their writing. Our students also had some practical questions about illustration, like “How do you make sure your characters look the same from page to page?” She advised them to “give characters distinguishing features like an original hairstyle, or make one really tall, or short — any kind of standout trait.” The 5th Graders were also excited to hear about Kristen’s Minecraft novel series and how she got to play video games for her art and work — “you know, for research!” Making Friends is available in the ISB Library in English, French, and Spanish.
