It’s a double celebration today for the NEW graphic novel The Secret Order of Librarians by Blake Harris, illus. Emily Oh (Genius Cat Books). Both creators have stopped by the blog to answer our questions!

About the Book:

A fast-paced adventure about librarians from a Secret Order? You read that correctly. What will happen if the villains from well-known books escape? This graphic novel will draw even the most reluctant readers in (no pun intended) with the minimal text and active illustrations, and then we’re off to root for our hero-not-a-hero Dewey Page to see if he can —NO SPOILERS.

A great read-together for Father’s Day –or any day.

About the Creators:

Blake Harris

In addition to writing middle grade novels, Blake Harris‘ screenwriting has been featured worldwide on Disney+, Netflix, Showtime, and Amazon. His projects include work for Disney, Warner Brothers, Cartoon Network, and Hasbro. Most recently he worked as a story writer on Disney’s Hocus Pocus 2, which debuted as the most watched streaming movie premiere ever. His animated short narrated and produced by Paul Rudd will debut next. He lives in southern California.

Emily Oh:

Emily is a Canadian story artist from London, Ontario, with a Bachelor’s of Animation from Sheridan College. She has contributed to shows for Netflix and Chick-fil-A, and has also worked as a Design Lead for Youth in STEM with Youth Culture.

Oh recalls growing up in the countryside with nothing but movie rentals from her parents convenience store, television, and imagination to keep her company. She would create her own stories of ‘what if’s’ and ‘spin-offs’, and as she puts it, “making characters and comics to put the film that was in my head on paper.”

Her work focuses on conveying emotion through whimsical yet grounded storytelling that resonates beyond what words can convey, highlighting underrepresented voices, and creating moments of connection for audiences of all ages.

Let’s ask some Questions:

Inspiration

Q 1. Blake, what was the inspiration for The Secret Order of Librarians?

Blake Harris: It actually goes all back to grade school and a quote…

“Books are worlds.”

It was a single sentence spoken inside the walls of a school library on a stormy afternoon that quietly shaped so much of my life. And of course, those words came from a librarian.

From then on, I believed. I discovered worlds. And somewhere along the way, I began to think of my school librarian as a hero.

Librarian Heroes

At the time, I didn’t fully understand everything librarians actually did. But I did know that if books were truly worlds… then someone had to be protecting them.

And naturally, I believed librarians were the ones secretly safe-keeping those worlds… from R.L. Stine to Judy Blume and many more.

In my imagination, when they weren’t helping kids discover their next favorite book, librarians were protecting reality from literary characters escaping their pages—armed with magical tools like gravity-erasing No. 2 pencils, a slow-motion “shhhh,” and ninja-level silence. All of it happening from a hidden underground library filled with rare first editions… where, naturally, the characters were most likely to escape.

Years later, those childhood imaginings found their way into this graphic novel called The Secret Order of Librarians—a story inspired by the quiet heroes who guard the worlds inside books. It’s true that a cardigan can be just as powerful as a cape.

In the beginning…

Q 2. Blake, since you work in film & TV, on projects such as Hocus Pocus 2, The Little Mermaid, and 12 Dates of Christmas, did this project come to you visually at first or as a pitch, a script or screenplay, or did you map it out?

Blake Harris: Great question, Erin. It actually began as a pitch. I’ve always been drawn to secret worlds like those in Men In Black, Night at the Museum, or National Treasure. And libraries just felt like such a fascinating place for a secretive universe.

I could see the world of it so clearly because it was one I wanted to fall into, and libraries themselves were always so aspirational to me and pretty much anyone who has ever stepped foot inside one. To have them serve as a secret headquarters for all the written worlds just felt cinematic because any local library (secretive or not) is truly a place where our imaginations conjure.

As I explored that pitch, I quickly realized that the foundation of this world of literary guardians among us had to be a book that could actually sit within a library. It’s how younger me would have truly wanted to say thanks.

Research

Q 3. Was there any research involved in this project? What was that like?

Blake Harris: Oh yes. For me, a lot of that came from rediscovering so many books that I had such fondness for in memory.

I took a very deep dive into the world of Poe’s Raven… which plays a big part within this story. It think it’s a tale that can relate in so many different ways depending on where you are in life, so in a way, it was sort of like discovering it for the first time. 

Emily Oh: There was definitely research involved, especially with looking at so many different library archetypes historically. It felt like a Frankenstein child, melding elements of different eras to set the scene and create the backgrounds of the story.

Discoveries

Q 4. What was one of the most surprising discoveries each of you made in creating this book?

Emily Oh: The most surprising discovery would be how much I came to adore and appreciate all different, practical designs for libraries. Now everytime I go into a library I think how cool each location is and envision it as a set where Dewey and company would endeavour to and what shenanigans they would be up to there.

Blake Harris: I think a really fun one was learning more about the actual history of America’s first lending library. Seeing the historical roots of that and its connection to Benjamin Franklin and a group he had formed was something I didn’t know as much about.

The graphic novel leans heavy into imagination and fantasy, but there’s a lot of magic realism in it that kind of grounds the story in a real way. Placing parts of it in real lore was a fun component of it. I hope that it inspires people to visit some of these very real historical places, like the incredibleLibrary Company of Philadelphia.

Digging deeper

Q 5. They say each of our books is a tiny bit autobiographical. Which character is the most like you?

          a. Dewey Page, aspiring graphic novelist

          b. Mildred or Erma, head librarians

          c. The Raven, nevermore…

          d. Harper, the young librarian

Blake Harris: I actually think I relate a lot to Harper. I’m fascinated by both the classic library experience (I never want that to change — the smell of an old book is magic), but also by how technology can play a role within that, bringing things to life in ways we’ve only begun to dream.

Emily Oh:  As an artist and storyteller I resonate with Dewey Page the most. We both have the same goals of conveying emotions and experiences onto paper and sharing that with others.

Favorites

Q 6. Do you have a favorite quote from the book? Here are some of mine:

  “In every villain, there can be a hero too.”

  “Words have power…be careful with them.”

   “Being a hero isn’t about being perfect. It’s about being present.

   The creed of the Librarians :

Blake Harris: Thank you for that, Erin. As a writer, yourself, whose work I so admire, that is very kind.

The Creed is the most fun and really resonates with me.

From a character quote point of view, I think it would be “Words have power… be careful with them.” It’s easy to forget just how much of an impact words have. So many of us grew up with the “sticks and stones” mantra, but the truth is words are as powerful as anything. We often see that when we say a kind thing to someone… that power becomes very real and very tangible.

Emily Oh: My favourite quote has to be “being a hero isn’t about being perfect… it’s about being present.”

Illustration Surprises

Q 7. Blake: What surprises did Emily Oh bring to this project?

Blake Harris: Emily is so talented. I think the most surprising part was how easily our imaginations seemed to align on this. I would describe a set-piece and then she would capture the world of that — for example, a beanstalk smashing through the stacks — so cinematically from the first take. It was amazing.

Challenges

Q 8. What was the biggest challenge you encountered in this project?

Blake Harris: This was my first graphic novel. I’m pretty accustomed to working with storyboards, books, scripts… things like that. But trying to tell a long-form story with limited words and through a set-amount of panels (that do not have the story convenience of moving) was a learning experience. Emily helped simplify large scenes into scaled panels that told the story as written, but without becoming 10,000 pages. 

Process: Graphic Novel vs Novel

Q 9. Blake, how was the process of making this graphic novel different from making your novel, Holiday High: We Witch you a Merry Christmas (Genius Cat Books)?

Blake Harris: They both sort of began as concepts for films. Holiday High was so fun to write because of all the different festive schools. It relies mostly on words to set the scene because it’s introducing a completely new kind of school, and you could just go on and on in describing the feelings that evokes because holidays are so much about those festive feelings.

Holiday High is the ultimate school I wanted to go to, but it’s a school made up of many distinct schools and campuses within it, such as Halloween, Christmas, Valentines, and Easter. Those have some similarities in terms of school spirit, but also very specific curriculums that define both them and the students chosen to enroll in them. Setting that world up took more brick-by-brick building in a traditional book sense.

With this graphic novel, the library experience is rooted in books that have already been masterfully told, so the idea here was to try and embrace that through the aspirational library experience and adding this secret visual layer over it. You don’t necessarily need a lot of words to understand a place that’s already made up of so many perfect words.

One quick look at a wondrous library with hidden compartments and the secret is built. Often times when you hear “dream library,” the visuals that are summoned have a whole lot in common from person to person because of the singularly shared experience we may have from library to library.

Take aways and Thank yous!

Q 10. What do you hope readers will take away from this story?

Emily Oh: I hope that readers can be inspired to create stories and express themself creatively. Although they should send their first edition copy to Head Librarians Mildred and Erma first 🙂

Blake Harris: Exactly what Emily said! I hope they will take away that an escape or an adventure can always be found in any library, and in any book. I also hope it might inspire some young readers out there to consider the librarian career track. It’s truly a job that rescues so many people every day.

ED Note: We love you Librarians!

Blake Harris: Yes! What Erin said!

So if you’re a librarian, thank you for being a hero. And if you’re not a librarian, take a moment to tell one just how super they truly are.

And of course, a big thank you to ever-talented Karen Kilpatrick and Genius Cat Books. Be sure to check out their collection of lovely stories, including Erin’s wonderful HALF BIRTHDAY BOOK!

ED Note: Thanks also to Blake Harris and Emily Oh for joining us on the blog today.

Everyone go CHECK OUT (See what I did there?) The Secret Order of Librarians.

To learn more about Blake Harris go to:

Blake Harris IMDb and blakebelieve.com

Insta: blakebelieve

(You will be hard pressed to find him on social media but you can try!)

To learn more about Emily Oh go to:

her website: ohemilyart

and follow her on Instagram: @scribblerpop

Up next on the blog: We switch things up and I answer SIX Questions with Mary Boone about Process, the timeline for Squirrel Draws BIG Feelings, and NEVER giving up.