Erin Dealey

Dude! It’s the Book Birthday of Dude.Be Nice. written by my friend and “agency sister“

Sarah Scheerger

–with Brent and Jamie Camalich, and art by debut Illus. Alex MacNaughton

(Flamingo Books / PRH).

Yayy! Let’s get this party started!

About Dude.Be Nice.

Inspired by the organization dude. be nice, founded by Brent and Jamie Camalich, whose mission is to encourage people “to treat themselves and others better,” Dude.Be Nice. is a book about a bear named Dude who means well… But sometimes the best intentions have not-so-good outcomes. You know?

And the world needs a whole lot more NICE.

Meet author Sarah Scheerger

Sarah Scheerger is an author and mental health clinician, and truly one of the nicest people in #kidlit! She provides school-based counseling services for “at promise” youth and helps them figure out who they are and who they want to be. Her books include Purple Up! We Salute Our Friends, Mitzvah Pizza, and a fabulous middle grade novel which earned multiple regional nominations, Operation Frog Effect.

Let’s ask some questions!

Q 1. When and how did you become aware of the inspiration for this book, the dude. be nice. organization founded by Brent and Jamie Camalich?

Sarah Scheerger: I came across a dude.be nice video filmed at a local elementary school. I watched it, felt inspired, cried a little, and thought it was a such a cool concept. The dude. be nice company sets up celebrations for local unsung heroes, like school custodians or lunch ladies or local police officers. They film the celebrations as a surprise.

I love the idea of honoring the people who are already doing good things in our communities. So much of what we see on the news is negative and upsetting and sometimes violent. I was touched by content entirely focused on uplifting and highlighting people out there who are doing good. This was the inspiration for the book.

I kept visualizing a character with the backwards hat on a skateboard. Here is the video that I first came upon. CLICK HERE.

Sarah Scheerger: As my idea materialized, I reached out to get to know the owners of the DBN company. Shortly after, we began discussing the idea of creating a picture book character named Dude.

Q 2. Creating a fun story around an established brand can’t be easy. Did you always know “Dude” would be a loveable-but-possibly-misunderstood bear? Was Fizz always a penguin? Can you share how your early drafts/story ideas grew into this version?

Sarah Scheerger: This story took many versions before I landed on the right one. In fact, I have YOU to thank for some of the iterations of this story. Erin, you are always so generous with your support to other authors, and you helped and supported several of the versions of this manuscript. (Especially during an early version when I was trying to rhyme!)

Basically, I had my idea for the character Dude, a guy who tried to do kind things for others, but the format and tone of the story changed many times. At first, I wanted a rhyming, simple story with surprises at every page turn. I played with that for a long time.

Later, I tried versions with a voicey narrator who spoke directly to the Dude (an example of a text like this is Dragons Love Tacos.) And the version I ended up with is one with deadpan humor. No rhymes, and with Dude getting his “kindness” all wrong. Dude in this final version is ego-centric, as many young children are. He’s seeing the world only through his own eyes and not thinking of the perspectives of others.

Sarah Scheerger: Originally, Dude was going to be a penguin instead of a Bear. So, Fizz took penguin form because we wanted to keep a penguin in the story somehow.

Q 3. How did your career as a mental health clinician, and school-based counselor for “at-promise” youth, influence or inform the messages from Dude. Be Nice? 

Sarah Scheerger: I think so much of the conflict and angst in this world is based on people seeing things through only their own eyes. While comical, that is the essence of Dude. He thinks he’s being helpful but he’s simply not aware that other characters are perceiving his actions differently.

Dude is purposely, youthfully ego-centric — like a preschool-aged child who thinks a perfect present for their parent or grandparent is a toy car or a Legos or a doll, because that’s what THEY’D like.

Note from Sarah: It’s still a nice thought and gesture. As parents, we would love any of those gifts because of the intention behind them. And we don’t expect young children to know what would feel “nice” to an adult. I loved having an innocently ego-centric character like Dude to explore such well-intentioned ideas.

A Conversation Starter

Sarah Scheerger: In addition to being a nonjudgmental “listener,” a part of my job is helping kids be aware of their impact on others and considering that someone else’s perspective might be different from their own. I wanted Dude’s story to be a jumping off point for deep classroom discussions on these topics.

Q 4. What do you hope readers will take away from this book?

Sarah Scheerger: I hope my young readers will laugh and delight in Dude’s mistakes. I hope they will also go deeper and begin to consider the concept of perspectives.

Dude’s story is meant to be both light/funny and have some deeper layers of meaning.

I’m hoping kids will walk away repeating some of the repeating phrases, like. . .

“He’s out to be nice and nice he’ll be.”

“There. That was nice of me.”

“I’ll help with that!”

I hope that adult readers (parents, grandparents, teachers) will use Dude’s character as a launch point for deeper discussions about empathy, friendship, perspective, growth mindset, active listening, and many more topics.

Did we mention a Bonus —Educator Guide?

Sarah Scheerger: I loved combining my mental health role + children’s author role to create this SEL curriculum so that teachers and care-givers can have something ready-made to use as an extension of our book.

Thank you, Teachers!

Sarah Scheerger: Educators around the world are working tirelessly in their classrooms, and I love the idea of pairing a read-aloud with an SEL activity. It’s time-efficient and organic. After reading, teachers can select an SEL topic they feel is relevant for their students and utilize my material for a classroom activity and discussion.

And thank you, Sarah Scheerger for joining us on the blog today.

Happy Book Birthday to Dude. Be Nice.

To learn more about Sarah Scheerger and her books, check out these links:

Website:                  www.sarahlynnbooks.com

X/Twitter                  https://twitter.com/sarahscheerger

Facebook    https://www.facebook.com/sarahlynnscheergerbooks

Insta                  https://www.instagram.com/sarahscheerger/

Youtube:                  Scheerger Sarah – YouTube   @scheergersarah2095

Next up on the blog:

We celebrate the Book Birthday of

Ruby Maps Her World

written by Jane Yolen

llustrated by Dow Phumiruk

(Christy Ottaviano Books)

Happy BOOKtober!