Lisa Yee and Dan Santat on Friendships, Middle School, and THE MISFITS

Lisa: Hey Dan, it’s Teen Librarian Toolbox Time!
Dan: Good! My brain could use a little tune-up!
Lisa: You know, we’ve been friends for a couple of decades, from before either of us was published.
Dan: We met at an SCBWI summer conference through our mutual editor back in 2002, which by my calculations means we’re going on 22 years. We should get gold watches or something for our dedication.
Lisa: You didn’t get one? I got mine.
Dan: The thing I really appreciate is that we were friends and lunch buddies before we became these fancy award winners.
Lisa: And we worked on the Bobby Ellis-Chan books, but that was lower elementary school. The Misfits: A Royal Conundrum is middle grade. What kind of middle schooler were you? I was a dork.
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Dan: I had a miserable time in middle school. I just tried to lay low until everyone (mostly the boys) stopped being completely insane (which was never achieved). It was like all the inmates were let loose and running the prison.
Lisa: Ironic since the Misfits is set in a former prison! Their school is for the “artistically adventurous.” Did you know you were destined to be an artist?
Dan: I knew I wanted to be an artist, but the thought of making it a profession was out of my realm of comprehension. My parents also wouldn’t allow me to study art because they wanted me to be a doctor. What about you?
Lisa: I wanted to be an author since I was nine or ten but was too chicken to even say that out loud, so instead I told everyone I was going to be a lawyer.
Dan: Right, but then you ditched law school and ran an ad agency writing commercials and wrote Disney TV entertainment specials. You were using your passionate skills and heading in the right direction.
It took an intervention from my college roommates after earning a microbiology degree to finally figure out that I should do art for a living.
Lisa: You should share your awards with your roommates. You were also drawing and winning awards for your art in middle school, too, I believe. There’s such a range of middle-grade books, like serious ones, funny ones, graphic novels, nonfiction, prose . . . where do you think the Misfits fits in?
Dan: I’m gonna say it’s a heavily illustrated novel that’s 70 percent detective/spy action with 30 percent comedy, which I feel is a slight departure from what you’re known for. I say “slight departure” because there were a number of years where you were writing superhero books for a big comic franchise that will go unnamed.
What do you like about writing these more adventure/action–style stories, and what’s your inspiration for the material?
Lisa: I loved writing the Misfits and creating a whole new world. I had just completed Maizy Chen’s Last Chance and wanted to do something completely different. So instead of realistic contemporary/historical fiction, I thought . . . Thriller! Mystery! Caper! Adventure! Awkwardness! It’s easy for me to slip into the middle-grade mindset. I peaked at that age, so I’m always going back there.
When you were drawing our main character, Olive Cobin Zang, and the rest of the Misfits, did you channel your middle-grade self for the illustrations?
Dan: I guess you could say that Olive is a girl version of me. Her personality was a lot like girls I knew in middle school who were hiding from all the insanity like I was.

Lisa: I love what you did with the illustrations, bringing the Misfits to life. The energy of your art is amazing. When I was writing the novel, I’d think, “Oh, Dan is going to have fun with this scene!”
It’s weird, because when I wrote it, I was sitting all alone at my desk spinning a world of crime and chaos, and friendships and fears, and outlandish adventures. Then I had to let go and release the book out into the world. Do you ever think about who’s going to be reading the Misfits?
Dan: I’ve been all over the country, like to Olney, Illinois, which is a little slice of America that’s two and a half hours from the nearest airport. The kids all wanted to ask me questions about life in Los Angeles and visiting big cities. The librarian who invited me was the sole keystone for bringing new reading material to the town. A story like the Misfits is about what lies outside of that tiny little town and something those kids crave to know and understand.
Lisa: So true. The book takes five kids who were isolated loners and then drops them into a world they never imagined existed. Along the way, they make the kind of friends that you make in middle school—and never forget.
I think we would have been preteen pals, and had we met earlier, we could have cheered each other on through our creative insecurities. Actually, that’s what we did early in our careers, and I love the journey we’ve taken together.
Meet the authors

Lisa Yee has taken a private-investigator course, and it’s slightly possible that she’s a secret undercover operative. She’s also a Newbery Honoree and a National Book Award finalist for Maizy Chen’s Last Chance. Some of her other twenty-one novels are the groundbreaking Millicent Min, Girl Genius; Stanford Wong Flunks Big-Time; and the DC Super Hero Girls series. A frequent contributor to NPR’s Books We Love, she divides her time between Western Massachusetts and Los Angeles.

Dan Santat is a #1 New York Times bestselling author and illustrator of over a hundred books. His picture book The Adventures of Beekle: The Unimaginary Friend received the Caldecott Medal. He also illustrated The Blur, Lift, and Drawn Together, both written by Minh Lê, which received critical acclaim. Dan is also the creator of the Disney animated hit The Replacements. He lives in Southern California with his family.
About The Misfits #1: A Royal Conundrum
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When a notorious thief is out for priceless treasure (gems! cats! general decorum!)—who’re you gonna call? An elite team of crime-fighting underdogs, that’s who! The Misfits are on the case in this hilarious illustrated series from Newbery Honoree Lisa Yee and Caldecott Medalist Dan Santat!
“For any kid who’s felt like a misfit, this crackling adventure packs a wallop!” —Lincoln Peirce, creator of Big Nate and Max & the Midknights
Olive Cobin Zang has . . . issues. And they mostly aren’t her fault. (No, really!) Though she often slips under the radar, problems have a knack for finding her. So, imagine her doubts when she’s suddenly dropped off at the strangest boarding school ever: a former castle turned prison that’s now a “reforming arts school”!
But nothing could’ve prepared Olive for RASCH (not “rash”). There, she’s lumped with a team of other kids who never quite fit in, and discovers that the academy isn’t what it seems—and neither is she. In fact, RASCH is a cover for an elite group of misfits who fight crime . . . and Olive has arrived just in time.
Turns out that RASCH is in danger of closing, unless Olive’s class can stop the heist of the century. And as Olive falls in love with this wacky school, she realizes it’s up to her new team to save the only home that’s ever welcomed them.
ISBN-13: 9781984830296
Publisher: Random House Children’s Books
Publication date: 01/02/2024
Series: The Misfits #1
Age Range: 8 – 12 Years
Filed under: Guest Post

About Amanda MacGregor
Amanda MacGregor works in an elementary library, loves dogs, and can be found on Twitter @CiteSomething.
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I read this book the day it came out. Great book! Lisa Yee and Dan Santat are really making a difference in Children’s Literature right now because their stories are relevant but FUNNY. I bet you had so much fun interviewing them together because the are natural storytellers.
I am really hoping to see Santat’s memoir, A First Time For Everything on the Newbery podium this year. I also think he would make a incredible National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature.