An Interview with The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl: Squirrel Meets World Authors Dean and Shannon Hale

Doreen Green, a.k.a. The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl, is a fourteen year old girl who has been given the dubious (but ultimately amazing) gift of…squirrel powers. The star of comic book writer Ryan North’s graphic novel series, Squirrel Girl is making her middle grade novel debut in the The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl: Squirrel Meets World, written by acclaimed authors Shannon and Dean Hale. The B&N Kids’ Blog got the chance to interview the authors (who will be going on tour at B&N stores across the country this week—details below!) about what it was like bringing Squirrel Girl to a new dimension.
Were you both Doreen Green fans before writing this book?
DH: Absolutely! We’re huge fans of Ryan North and Erica Henderson’s comic, and I’ve been a big fan of the character ever since she appeared in Avengers comics as Luke Cage and Jessica Jones’ nanny. She has a great fight with Wolverine in that one. AND WINS.
SH: Dean first introduced me to Squirrel Girl because he knew I would love her instantly. And of course I did. But then again, who doesn’t?
Can you talk a little bit about the importance of this character to kids and teens, in your views? What’s made Squirrel Girl such a breakout character?
SH: She has both powers of squirrel AND powers of girl! One of the many things I love about her is she doesn’t look anything like the super skinny, super busty underwear models that many think of as comic book super heroines. She’s not tall, she’s thick-thighed and big-bootied, she has longer front teeth and a squirrel tail, and she’ll kick your butt blindfolded.
DH: I also think there’s something to be said for the alternative tone of the character—I feel like she subverts expectations by showing you can be unbeatable without having to give up playfulness.
SH: Humor and optimism and fun are powerful!

…and is there something about this particular moment in time that we’re seeing a zippy, optimistic girl (with a diverse supporting cast) gain a following?
SH: Perhaps there’s a fatigue of the dark, angsty superhero stories. And I love superhero movies, but of the dozens made so far, every single one gives top billing to white men. Given that white men make up less than 30% of the US, this feels unnatural. A lot of people are eager for something fresh.
DH: I think people love to be able to empathize with their heroes, and for as often as I totally understand The Hulk, I also feel like Doreen sometimes, and the people around me feel like the people around Doreen. It’s nice to see that reflected.
SH: We have four high energy kids. You can probably imagine Dean on occasion retreating with a plaintive “Why can’t people just leave Hulk alone?”
Were there any particular challenges in adapting a comic book character to prose?
DH: As someone who really loves the character, there’s a chronic fear of “getting it wrong.” That’s probably true of any creative work, but we had an opportunity in the novel to go deeper into what makes Squirrel Girl tick. I didn’t want to do poorly by Doreen. She deserves to be treated with respect.

SH: Oh yeah. We owe it to all her fans to get her right, fingers crossed. Also in comics, you can express action and tone through the illustrations. In a novel your only tool is the words. To help keep some of the same fun of the comics we have Doreen read the book along with the reader and offer her thoughts in the footnotes. There are also lots of text messages between Squirrel Girl and other superheroes. These are some of my favorite parts of the book.
You’ve worked on existing characters, like Squirrel Girl, but also your own original creations. Can you talk a little bit about the differences?
SH: There’s certainly more freedom in writing my own characters. But the fun of writing a Marvel character is getting to play in that sandbox. We had an absolute blast writing dialog for Thor, Rocket Raccoon, Black Widow, and others. Also it’s a great excuse to do “research.” When else can you say “I have to read all these comics. For my job.”
DH: What she said. There’s a slightly different set of creative joys and anxieties and for each. But I love both.
Was it super-fun to write? It seems like it would have been super-fun to write.
SH: I’ve learned that you can’t always tell from final product what the process was like for the writer. But in this particular case I can confirm: It was super-fun to write.
DH: So awesome. Not only did I get to write *about* a super-funny kick-butt woman, I got to write *with* one!
SH: Awww! (He’s taken, ladies!) We both felt like, we’ve been preparing our entire lives for this book! Because Dean’s been a Marvel reader and fan his whole life. And I, you know, have the proportional strength, speed, and agility of a squirrel.
Is the world running out of squirrel-related puns? Each new SG work seems to use up a few more, and I’m becoming concerned about a possible shortage.

DH: The punpool is deep. Though I worry they could become more a-corny over time. We may need to squirrel away a few for the winter. Truly, though, as long as musicians keep making songs with “girl” in the title, we’re golden.
SH: They asked us to come up with some pun-y possible book titles, and we had to stop ourselves at about 50.
What’s next for you both? Any future dives into Doreen’s world?
SH: I guess we can announce here for the first time that—YES! We’re writing a second Squirrel Girl novel! And very excited about it.
DH: More Squirrel Girl means more human joy! Also more Princess in Black books. We’ll keep writing those as long as they let us.
The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl: Squirrel Meets World is on B&N bookshelves now.