LOST IN THE MIDDLE
Back in 2020, Anomaly helped the New York Life Foundation launch a trilogy of children’s books centered around a little boy named Kai who learns how to navigate the profound loss of his dad. Each book acts as a creative tool to help children and families process their grief.
In 2022, we recognized an opportunity to build on this series as we faced a new reality: over 200,000 kids in the U.S. lost a parent or caregiver to COVID.
So we evolved Kai’s Journey and created a 200-page graphic novel in english and spanish for middle schoolers to help them cope with losses, big and small.
CW: Kelsey Lundstrom
AD: Paola Delgado
CD’s: Edward Miller & Katy Moseley
Producer: Jordan Spielman
AE: Katie Hildebrandt
Strategy: Madeline Stefan
Client: The New York Life Foundation
Lost in the Middle in english
Lost in the Middle in spanish
THE TRAILER
QR CODE VIDEOS
Before we could get it into the hands of those that needed it most, there was a year and a half of hard work. We could never possibly summarize every single long night or bottle up all the passion behind this project, but here’s a glimpse into the process.
We held focus groups with 11-13 year olds to peek inside their minds and understand their likes, dislikes, hobbies, lingo. We also partnered with grief professionals to ensure the story was rooted in clinically backed research, making sure LITM would actually help kids dealing with loss.
Each character in the story experiences a different degree of loss — from Cam who just moved to town and is missing his old life, to Alex who recently lost her older brother.
Then, we developed the cast of main and supporting characters. This included everything from their names and ethnicities, to storylines, personalities and TOV.
MANUSCRIPT
Our final manuscript was 54 pages of narration text, character dialogue, text messages, dream sequences, flashbacks, social media posts, and of course, visual descriptions for every single scene.
This all translated into our final 200-page graphic novel.
ILLUSTRATION PROCESS
We then turned the manuscript over to Barcelona-based Genie Espinosa and her team for the illustration phase. This was a fluid and collaborative process with rounds of sketches, line drawings, and then eventually, pages in full color.
PRINTING
The book is available to download for free, in both English and Spanish, but we also printed 1,000+ copies for schools and relevant events.
We went to the printing factory in Atlanta to supervise the process and we captured some pics about it.
PROMOTION
The theme of loss is central to graphic novel storytelling. From Spider-Man to Batman and beyond, the “grief arc” has inspired some of the most famous comic franchises of all time.
So we decided to launch our new graphic novel, Lost in the Middle, at the biggest event in comic culture: New York Comic Con.
OUR BOOTH
Attendees could literally step inside the graphic novel and interact with different
elements from the story.
LOCKER NOTES
In the book, one of the characters asks the reader for some advice and tells them, “maybe you can slip it in my locker later.”
We brought these lockers to life and gave people a chance to write a note to a middle schooler who could use some encouragement. We received over 1,000 notes!
PANEL DISCUSSION
To cap off the weekend, we hosted a panel discussion on the topic of “How Books & Graphic Novels Can Help Children on Their Grief Journeys.” The panel was hosted by Will Reeve, son of the late “Superman” actor Christopher Reeve, and other graphic novelists and YA authors.
