by Julie Gowel ·
Friday, May 8, 2026
Award-winning author Dan Santat visits Hildreth Elementary School. (Photo by Jen Manell)
Dan Santat, Caldecott award--winning and New York Times bestselling children’s author and illustrator, paid a visit to the Hildreth Elementary School on Friday, May 1, to talk to third- to fifth-grade students and educators about his passion for re-inspiring a love of reading in today’s youth.
Santat is on tour to promote his new six-book graphic novel series, “Sashimi,” featuring the adventures of a sea creature trying to blend in at a middle school in a town on the hunt for a sea creature cryptid. While his main stop on the tour was the Children’s Graphic Novel Festival held at the Silver Unicorn Book Store in Acton, Santat made time to visit two local schools in the hope of igniting students’ love of reading.
“It’s important for me to bring back the fun in reading, because I think we kind of got lost in this world where we feel like books have to teach some kind of lesson,” said Santat in an interview with the Press. “I think we all saw that recent study where the statistics were that reading for fun has gone down 40% in the last 20 years. I want to try to push it back up.”
Santat was referring to the 2025 study conducted jointly by the University of Florida and University College London and published in the journal iScience that showed a steady 3% decline every year in the amount of time children spend reading for entertainment.
Santat spoke about his love for drawing and how he decided to turn it into a career through a nontraditional path. He joked about his Asian parents encouraging him to become a doctor. “I got accepted into dental school, and my college roommates at the time said, ‘Bro, do not be a dentist. We’ve seen your grades. You are gonna kill hundreds of people.
Maybe you should do something a little less harmful, like making books for children.’ And now here I am today talking to you about my books rather than cavities.”
Santat was first published in 2004 and has since gone on to write more than 120 children’s books. In 2015, he won the Caldecott Medal for “The Adventures of Beekle: The Unimaginary Friend.” He won the National Book Award in 2023 for his graphic memoir, “A First Time For Everything.”
Santat complained, tongue-in-cheek, to the audience about part of his cover illustrations being concealed by the stickers indicating the distinctions. Oprah Winfrey presented Santat with the National Book Award at a ceremony, and he joked, “I said, ‘Nay, Oprah, you yet again sully one of my [book] covers. Couldn’t I get a car instead?’ ‘No,’ she said. ‘This is a national award. Grow up.’”
Santat read excerpts from his newest book, “A Fish Boy Named Sashimi,” which is the first in the series, published on April 14. Students were given the opportunity in the weeks leading up to the event to purchase a signed copy distributed on the day of the talk. Santat explained how he is contracted to produce a new book every six to eight months and even gave students a sneak peek at the second book in the series, “Sashimi and the Field Trip of Doom,” which will be released in September 2026.
Santat walked students through his production process and took them through a lesson on how to make simple illustrations using things they already know how to draw, such as clouds and the letters of the alphabet.
“I think there’s this stigma that graphic novels are kind of like junk food,” said Santat. “[I] had reading comprehension issues, and having the marriage of images and texts made [reading] inviting. The important part is that you have a gateway of finding the love of reading, and you build that into your life. You get a book into a kid’s hands and then just let the book do the rest.”
Santat’s humor had the adults in the gymnasium laughing harder than the kids at times. “I think we all really enjoyed Mr. Santat’s sense of humor balanced with his incredible work ethic,” said Rebecca Katsh-Singer, principal of HES. “The message about hard work and perseverance really resonated with students.”
“I like to make the kids laugh, but I also think it’s important to have the teachers and librarians laugh as well,” Santat said. “They’re greatly underappreciated. If I can just come to town and bring smiles to their faces and laugh a little bit, then I’ve done my job. It’s a thank-you for their love and support.”