Middle Gate Elementary School students gave author and illustrator Nick Bruel a big, warm welcome when he visited their school on Tuesday, April 7.

The school split the author visit into three presentations held from late morning until the end of the school day. Teachers brought their students into the library, where they excitedly sat and listened to Bruel talk about writing, the creative process, and the importance of asking questions.

Bruel is a New York Times bestselling author and illustrator who is well-known for the children's book series Bad Kitty. It focuses on Kitty, a very particular house cat who wreaks havoc on her owner's home when she is in a bad mood. Life only gets more complicated for Kitty when her owner gets Puppy, a chipper, happy-go-lucky dog who eventually becomes her best friend.

For Middle Gate students, the author visit was a special treat for many reasons, one being that Bruel read the newest book in the Bad Kitty series, Bad Kitty: Party Animal.

Before he did anything else, Bruel wanted to talk about why this book is special. He said it is not special because of what is inside the book, but more because of when it came out.

The book released in early 2025 and marked the 20th anniversary of the Bad Kitty series.

"That means this cat's been around for 20 years," Bruel told the students. "That's two decades; that's a long time for any cat."

Given the recent milestone, Bruel thought he should talk about what can change and stay the same over 20 years.

He started by talking about the series' titular chaotic cat, Kitty, and her design. Bruel told everyone that she has a simple design: a black cat with yellow eyes, pink ears, a red nose, and tuft of white fur on her chest.

Then Bruel showed the students what she looked like on the first Bad Kitty cover 20 years ago. While Kitty had the same iconic features back then as she does now, students could tell she looked a little different.

"Same design, looks different, right?" Bruel asked while pointing to her smaller eyes.

For fun, he showed everyone what he looked like 20 years ago, amusingly repeating, "See? Same design, looks different."

Bruel said this idea of a design changing over time is very common for children's characters, such as Garfield and Snoopy. He showed everyone what each of the iconic comic strip characters looked like around their debuts, pointing out they had the same design drawn in a slightly different way.

While talking about Snoopy, Bruel said he started looking like a puppy, but then looked as though he was growing up decade after decade.

The artists who designed Snoopy and Garfield did not do this on purpose, according to Bruel.

"And I know because, speaking from personal experience, I didn't do this on purpose," Bruel said while pointing to Kitty. "This is what happens when you draw the same character day after day, week after week, year after year."

He continued by saying these little changes take place in the way someone draws the character. Sometimes these changes stick, and it is as if these characters change all by themselves without their creator's influence.

Bruel said artists do not even notice it until they start looking back on how they drew the characters years beforehand.

The Art Of Storytelling

To that end, Bruel wondered what he should do to celebrate 20 years since the release of the first Bad Kitty book. Although, it did not take very long to come up with a good idea.

As Bruel said, "If you're going to have a 20th anniversary, you've gotta have a party."

This created the theme for the book. However, in classic Bad Kitty fashion, it may not be the party Kitty thinks it is going to be.

Bruel then read everyone an excerpt from Bad Kitty: Party Animal. He specifically read chapter two because "chapter two is where the action begins."

The kids in the audience listened, giggled, and laughed as Kitty started wreaking havoc on Puppy's birthday.

Once he finished reading, Bruel said his job gives him the opportunity to visit schools like Middle Gate and talk to the kids he writes for.

He said that, during these visits, somebody at some point always asks how he gets the ideas for his books.

Bruel noted that he thinks of the titles first.

"Before I think of even the story, characters, plot, anything, I think of the title first ... that's just the way my brain works," Bruel explained.

He told students that, if they have ever sat down to write a story, they might find it kind of difficult. However, he said writing a title can be very simple because the title can be one or two words.

This was the case over 20 years ago, when Bruel was sitting at his desk with a big, blank sheet of paper in front of him. Instead of writing a story, Bruel decided to just write down titles; ones he had never seen before, ones he did not even know existed.

Bruel did not worry if they were great or bad titles, he just kept writing until he saw a two-word title that he really liked: Bad Kitty.

Bruel loved that title and started asking himself questions such as, "What is my story going to be about?" or, "What does she do that's so bad?"

He continued, "That was when I came up with so many ideas ... Arguably, that was how this entire Bad Kitty empire was born, purely from my sitting at my table 20 years ago and contemplating those two little words."

Building off of this experience, Bruel led a different exercise for each session. When it came to kindergarten and first grade, Bruel said he wanted to set an example with how to put a story to a title.

He started with a one-word title that he wrote for them, something simple like Roar, and asked what it would be about.

For second and fourth graders, Bruel split the crowd into two groups. He asked one half to think of an animal and the other half to think of a feeling.

After some brainstorming, the group came up with what they felt was a perfect name: Sad Donkey. Bruel helped them write a story about this donkey, and how he got to steal a load of mints from the mint factory.

He then told them all the goofy story in a somewhat dramatic fashion, and was congratulated with a round of applause.

Bruel said what they did, putting two words together and connecting it to a story, was incredibly special.

He then wanted everyone to remember something long after he left Middle Gate: that it was the students, not him, who made up every single spectacular detail of this story.

Bruel said the one thing he did was ask questions. However, he believes this is a very important part of the writing process.

"The secret to writing stories is: always ask yourself questions," Bruel said. "That's the secret to what I do."

Afterwards, Bruel had the audience repeat the phrase several times over. He added that the more questions he asks himself, the more interesting his story becomes.

Drawing, Lasting Impact

Then it came time for Bruel to draw Kitty. The thing that challenges Bruel more than anything else, every single time he draws Kitty, is giving her feelings.

He said every character in every story needs their feelings to seem real. However, the problem is that Bruel created a character who does not talk.

This means that the only way for a kid to know what she is thinking or feeling is by seeing the expressions on her face.

Bruel showed everyone how he meets that challenge each time he draws Kitty, starting with her blocky nose, followed by her two big eyes, and so on.

However, Bruel called what he drew "blank face" Kitty. He said she did not have an expression yet, so it was up to them to change that. Through a single stroke of his marker, Bruel showed everyone how to turn the expressionless Kitty into annoyed Kitty, thanks to two furrowed eyebrows.

"Even the smallest detail can make a huge difference. Knowing where to put that? That is my challenge," Bruel said.

A lot has surprised him through the creative process. Something Bruel did not anticipate is that he gets e-mails at least once a month from kids and their caretakers on the autistic spectrum. He said the Bad Kitty books, and Kitty as a character, have hit the right nerve with that community.

Some felt Kitty herself was autistic due to certain character traits, namely that she does not like change and, when something disrupts her environment, she has to find her way through it and back to what she perceives is normal.

The other reason is that they really like her facial expressions. Bruel said this is because her facial expressions are usually quite extreme and, thus, very easy to interpret.

"I would meet so many people who work with those kids and they say, 'These are the books that they really embrace,’" Bruel said.

It is for this reason and many more that Bruel said he genuinely loves what he does. He loves his job so much to the point that he foresees himself creating stories even after he retires.

"I mean if you tell me, 'You're going to spend the next month just locked away in your office writing and drawing stories,' I'd say, 'Great.' I can't imagine a better way to spend that time," Bruel said.

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Reporter Jenna Visca can be reached at jenna@thebee.com.