Don’t you love it when a funny book gets an equally funny sequel? I do!

You may remember Lauren Glattly visiting my blog last year for the first PROPER BADGER WOULD NEVER book. She is a children’s book author and humor writer who likes telling silly stories, dressing up for parties, and laughing a lot. Proper Badger Would Never! is her debut children’s book. Lauren lives in New York with her husband. You can learn more about her at her website.

PROPER BADGER WOULD NEVER TRASH THE CLASSROOM is just what it sounds like: a badger run amuck in the classroom. I think I’ve lived this experience! LOL! This is a comedy of errors at its best: a badger who thinks he’s doing the right things, but really doing the badger things, creates all sorts of chaos. I was laughing the entire time I read this. It’s the perfect sequel and I hope we get to see many proper badger books to come.

Welcome back Lauren!

Me: I love that there’s a Proper Badger sequel and you placed it in the classroom! The title alone made me laugh. What gave you the idea to use this setting next? 

Lauren: I’m so happy to hear that and so excited to be back chatting all things badger today! I’m thrilled that Proper Badger was lucky enough to get a sequel. I actually had many ideas for settings for this second book, and on my own I think I would have been stumped as to which one was the best choice. But I sent my list of possible titles to my wonderful editor, Claire Tattersfield, at Flamingo Books, and the Flamingo team loved the idea of a back-to-school book. As always, I’m so grateful for their wisdom and guidance, because they were right—the classroom setting is perfect for Proper Badger’s second misadventure. I love that the book turned out as a sort of upside-down guide on how not to properly behave at school, and hope that teachers and students will find it fun and useful, and love it as much as I do!

Me: This is the second book with Proper Badger. Did you sell the first book together with this one? Or was the first book so successful that it just had to have a sequel? How did a second title come about?

Lauren: Great question! The Proper Badger books were sold together as a two-book deal to Flamingo, which was extra exciting for me as a debut author, and felt like a wonderful vote of confidence from my editor. We didn’t have the title for the second book decided at the time, but it meant that I was looking forward to writing it from the time my agent and I sold the first book back in 2022.

Me: You said before that the first book was a bit of a gift from the muse and wrote itself. So with this being a second book with the same character and a similar framework, was it easier to write or harder? Were there any new challenges? Did it go through a lot of revisions?

Lauren: The second book was definitely a little harder to write than the first book, which as you’ve mentioned came about so spontaneously. But Proper Badger is such a delightful character to write that it always feels way more fun than hard. I think the main challenge with this book was wanting the story to feel fresh and surprising and funny, while maintaining the story structure and flawed but loveable badger character that readers loved about the first book. The first draft of the manuscript went through a few rounds of revisions with my editor as we honed in on both the best classroom activities to explore and the ways in which Badger could make a mess of them with his badger-ness. 

Me: I should’ve asked this in our first interview, but I love how badger-like Proper Badger continues to be: hoarding food, tunneling and digging, etc. How much research did you originally do on actual badger behavior to help figure out some of his actions? Or is this all just born out of humor and your imagination?

Lauren: I did actually do some reading on badger behavior for these books! For the first book, it was in retrospect to confirm that the actions I had come up with from imagining what a real badger would do at a birthday party were, in fact, feasible badger behaviors. And for the second book, I did more research on badger homes, eating, and social habits to help me come up with new antics that would work with the classroom setting. As I think we discussed in the last interview, it’s important to me that readers understand that Proper Badger isn’t a jerk who likes messing things up, his mischief-making stems from the fact that he is genuinely just a badger in a bow tie. So I try to make sure that all of his antics are rooted in real badger behavior, whether that’s digging and tunneling to make a den, gathering bedding material, hoarding food for later, or being attracted to foods a badger would forage as part of their natural diet.

It was also important to me that the classroom setting feel relatable to young students, so I spent some time thinking back to my preschool and kindergarten years and what activities I enjoyed or found challenging. My hope is that any young readers who may be heading off to school for the first time this fall and feel a little nervous about how to behave during different class activities can look at how Proper Badger handles them and feel reassured, “well at least I know I’m not going to do THAT.”

I think for students struggling with anxiety, there’s maybe also something a little freeing in watching Proper Badger trash the classroom. Yes, he behaves badly, and yes, he makes a mess. But the world doesn’t end. It keeps going. I was painfully shy as a young student, and often anxious about how to act at school. I have a vivid memory of being in preschool at snack time and drinking from my cup of juice before I was supposed to. When I realized my mistake, I panicked and dropped my cup, spilling juice everywhere. I remember feeling absolutely mortified, close to tears—an outsized reaction for my small mistake. Because is some spilled juice really that big of a deal? Any mess can be cleaned up. Even today I still sometimes feel anxious about how to act or what to say in certain social situations. Proper Badger is never anxious about how to act—he’s absolutely certain that he’s always behaving in exactly the right way even when he isn’t, and at the end of the day he’s just being himself and doing his best as a badger. So I think there’s something cathartic for me in writing this character.

Me: What is one thing that surprised you in writing this story?

Lauren: That apparently no one outside of my family knows what a nose flute is! In my first draft of the manuscript, on the spread where Proper Badger accidentally glues a whistle to his snout thinking he’s caught a snail, I originally had him gluing a nose flute to his snout thinking he’d caught a butterfly. When this was met with confusion, I explained, “you know, that little butterfly-shaped plastic flute thing you play with your nose that everyone gets as their first musical instrument when they are kids.” When this was met with more confusion, I ran it by my parents and they were like, “yes, yes of course.” But then I polled Claire, Rob, and my husband, and they were all like, “yeah, no, we don’t know what you’re talking about.” So we changed it to a whistle!

Me: How interesting! I’ve never heard of a nose flute either. But, once again, the illustrations by Rob Sayegh Jr. are perfect for this story.  I laughed at the special “hat” he was wearing when he got off the bus, among so many other things! Were there any illustration surprises for you?  Any favorites?

Lauren: I think every single spread was a delightful surprise for me when I got to see the art for the first time! The way Rob envisions Proper Badger’s world and brings it to life is simply genius. Did you know he created a tiny 3D model of the classroom to help him visualize the character positions and perspectives? How incredible is that! I love the way that Rob places little art teasers for what’s to come, like the little slug peeking out of the bag of apples or Badger leaning out the school bus window to see the butterfly. My favorite spread would have to be the slug show-and-tell, because we can’t see Badger’s presumably delighted face, just the disgust on the students’ faces. And the finger paint camouflage series made me laugh out loud!

Me: I agree! So many things to laugh over and love. I adore this Proper Badger and how much potential there is with him for telling more stories. As this is the second book in the series, can we hope for more Proper Badger books (please say yes!)? Do you have any other future projects that we can look forward to?

Lauren: I certainly hope so! There are no official plans for a third book yet, but I have many more ideas for proper places where Badger can make good mischief, and lots left to explore with him. Will he spoil a sleepover? Upset the opera? Lick all the library books? Will he finally learn a lesson, get some manners, and clean up after himself? Probably not. But maybe. Who knows what the future holds for Proper Badger! In the meantime, I’m working on the first book in an early reader graphic novel series coming out with Simon & Schuster in 2027, and I am SO excited about that project!

But Proper Badger will always hold the nearest and dearest spot in my heart, and I so appreciate having the chance to chat about him with you today, Jena!

Thank you so much for stopping by my blog again today Lauren. It was a delight to talk about your proper badger. 

Dear readers, this book was published in July but now is the time to start thinking about back to school stories. I know I’m definitely going to add this book to my classroom collection. I’m sure I have plenty of little badgers who will enjoy this hilarious story of mayhem. Trust me when I say, you won’t want to miss it!