Absolutely Nat

by Maria Scrivan

In Maria Scrivan’s graphic novel Absolutely Nat, Natalie faces the unfamiliar world of summer camp, where new activities and social challenges put her confidence to the test. Through expressive cartoons, humor, and conversations, the story explores friendship, fear, and the courage to try. Although listed here as a picture book, this is a graphic novel; the full text is best suited to upper-elementary readers, with selected excerpts and visual support for younger students.

Big Idea

Courage does not require feeling confident first: it can begin with one small attempt. Scrivan’s combination of words and pictures also shows how a storyteller can speed up an event or slow down an important feeling.

Discussion Questions

1.What makes summer camp challenging for Nat, and how do her expectations affect what she notices there?
2.Choose a moment when Nat’s expression or posture tells you something her words do not. How does the picture deepen your understanding?
3.How do Nat’s experiences with other people affect the way she sees herself? Which interactions seem especially important?
4.Where does the story make you read quickly, and where does it invite you to pause? What choices in the words or pictures cause that change?
5.How does Nat’s story complicate the idea that being brave means not being afraid?

Lesson Plan

⏱ 45–50 minutes; use selected excerpts rather than reading the entire book during this lesson📦 A copy of Absolutely Nat, teacher-selected excerpts, paper or comic-panel templates, pencils, erasers, crayons or colored pencils, and a board or document camera

Learning Goals

Explain how Nat’s responses to unfamiliar camp experiences reveal her feelings and character.
Use evidence from both words and illustrations to discuss a graphic-novel scene.
Create a clear comic sequence with a challenge, a choice, and a response.
Revise panel structure, dialogue, or visual details to change narrative pacing.
Describe a supportive response to someone who feels unsure about trying something new.

Activity Steps

1.Read and examine a short, teacher-selected camp sequence from Absolutely Nat. Identify what Nat wants, what makes the moment difficult, and what the pictures reveal about her feelings.
2.Model pacing by sketching an invented camp moment in two panels, then expanding it to four panels. Add a close-up, a silent pause, or a short exchange without changing the central event.
3.Have students choose a low-stakes challenge, such as introducing themselves to a camp group or joining an unfamiliar activity. Plan a beginning, a moment of hesitation, and a next step.
4.Students draw a quick two-panel version and a slower four- to six-panel version. Ask them to make at least two deliberate pacing choices and include one visual clue to the character’s feelings.
5.Partners read both versions and explain where their reading slowed down or sped up. Creators revise one panel using the feedback.
6.Invite a brief share-out and collect an exit response: “I changed the pace by ___ so readers would ___.” For K–2, use oral storytelling, teacher scribing, and two- versus three-panel templates.

Standards Connections

ELA: CCSS RL.3.3 — Describe characters and explain how their actions contribute to the sequence of events.
ELA: CCSS RL.3.7 — Explain how specific aspects of illustrations contribute to what the words convey.
ELA: CCSS W.3.3 — Develop narratives using event sequences, dialogue, and descriptions of actions, thoughts, and feelings.
ELA: CCSS SL.3.1 — Participate effectively in collaborative discussions and build on others’ ideas.
SEL: Self-awareness, self-management, and relationship skills — Recognize uncertainty, consider manageable next steps, and practice supportive peer feedback. The listed ELA codes are grade-three anchors; adjust expectations for other grades.

Pace-Write-Read Study with Pace-Write It!

Absolutely Nat offers a useful pacing study because Nat’s summer-camp experiences involve both outward events and inward reactions. A camp activity may move forward while Nat’s worries make a single instant feel much longer. Ask students to track these two kinds of time: what happens in the story and how long the storytelling asks us to spend experiencing it. As a graphic novelist, Maria Scrivan can distribute a moment across panels, let a facial expression carry meaning, or pair a brief line of dialogue with a revealing image. Students can investigate how these choices shape humor, anticipation, and empathy. Rather than treating every panel as an equal unit of time, encourage readers to explain why one panel feels like a quick beat and another feels like a pause. The Pace-Write-Read cycle turns those observations into craft practice: notice a choice in the book, try a related choice in an original comic, and read the result aloud or with a partner. Use short, verified excerpts from your edition and distinguish techniques actually present on those pages from techniques students are experimenting with. For younger children, focus on picture sequencing and oral explanation; older students can analyze how words and images work together.

Element	How to notice or teach it in the novel
1. Pacing	Compare a camp sequence with several actions to a moment centered on Nat’s reaction. Ask how panel count, dialogue, and visual attention change the reader’s sense of speed.
2. Plot	Track a camp challenge through its setup, Nat’s response, and its consequence. Discuss how her choices, rather than the setting alone, move the story forward.
3. Prosody	Read a short exchange aloud, using the characters’ expressions and the lettering as evidence for tone. Try two deliveries and discuss which better fits Nat’s feelings in that scene.
4. Word	Choose one word from Nat’s dialogue or narration that strongly conveys uncertainty or confidence. Test a replacement and discuss how it changes the voice or reading speed.
5. Concept	Frame the story’s central concept as a question: Can someone take a brave step while still feeling unsure? Have students connect their answers to a specific camp moment.
6. Voice & Worldview	Notice how Nat interprets unfamiliar situations, especially when her expectations shape her reaction. Discuss how Scrivan’s humor allows readers to understand Nat without dismissing her worries.
7. Point of View	Identify whose feelings and interpretations guide a selected sequence. Ask what another camper might notice differently, distinguishing visible evidence from what readers infer.
8. Setting & Place	Examine how the camp environment creates unfamiliar routines and opportunities for interaction. Ask which parts of Nat’s experience would change if the scene occurred at home.
9. Original Characters	Study the combination of appearance, expression, action, and speech that makes Nat recognizable. Students can create a new camper with a distinct goal and response to uncertainty rather than copying Nat.
10. Dialogue	Select an exchange involving Nat and consider what each speaker wants. Ask which information comes from the speech balloons and which comes only from the drawings.
11. Details	Find a small visual detail that helps readers understand a camp scene or Nat’s emotional state. Discuss what would be lost if that detail disappeared.
12. Descriptions	Use a panel to show how a graphic novel can describe through images rather than extended prose. Invite students to write a brief description of the panel, then compare how quickly each form communicates.
13. Firsts	Locate a moment when Nat encounters something unfamiliar at camp. Explore how the storytelling makes readers feel the uncertainty of a first experience.
14. Immediacy & Engagement	Choose a panel that places readers close to Nat’s reaction. Discuss how framing and expression make her experience feel immediate instead of distant.
15. Story Scenes, Summaries & Structures	Compare a moment developed through successive actions and dialogue with any passage that moves more quickly across events. Ask why an author might spend more space on a choice than on a transition.
16. Tension / Suspense / Surprise	Pause before Nat responds to a challenge and ask what readers are waiting to discover. Separate uncertainty about an outcome from a humorous or unexpected reveal.
17. Flashback, Flash-Forward, Cliffhanger	Check selected pages for an actual time shift or an unresolved ending before labeling either technique. If none appears, use Nat’s camp experience to invent a clearly marked alternative flashback or cliffhanger and discuss its effect.
18. Page Turns and Chapter Breaks	Inspect what appears immediately before and after a page turn or section break in your edition. Ask whether the break delays an answer, reveals a reaction, or shifts to a new camp moment.
19. Pace & Creativity	Have students redraw a Nat-inspired moment with a different number of panels. Discuss how a creative pacing choice can make the same event feel awkward, funny, or encouraging.
20. Play	Investigate how Scrivan’s cartoon storytelling makes difficult feelings approachable. Let students play with an exaggerated expression or imagined reaction while keeping the character’s concern believable.
21. Performance	Turn a short camp exchange into readers’ theater, with one student describing important visual information. Compare the timing of the performance with the timing suggested by the printed panels.
22. Personality	Collect evidence of Nat’s personality from what she says, does, and notices. Ask how these patterns help a reader anticipate her response without making every response predictable.
23. Humor	Choose a humorous sequence and identify its setup and payoff. Discuss whether the humor depends on an expression, a contrast, a delayed response, or the relationship between words and pictures.
24. Pause	Look for a moment when an expression or quiet beat asks readers to linger. Students can add a silent reaction panel to their own camp comic and test whether it changes the emotional impact.
25. Poetry / Poetic Devices	Treat this as a comics study rather than assuming the book uses verse. Search a chosen excerpt for sound play, figurative language, or repeated phrasing; if none appears, discuss how visual pattern can still create a poetic effect.
26. Repetition	Look for a repeated expression, concern, phrase, or visual arrangement across Nat’s experiences. Ask whether its meaning changes as her circumstances change.
27. Rhythm	Trace the alternation of speech, action, and reaction in a short sequence. Read it with a steady beat, then notice where the layout or content calls for a different tempo.
28. Punctuation	Examine punctuation in an actual exchange and connect it to the characters’ expressions. Test how a changed mark would alter the delivery without assuming punctuation alone determines emotion.
29. Questions	Identify a question Nat asks or a question the scene raises for readers. Discuss how unanswered questions encourage reading and how answers can change the pace.
30. Compare-Contrast	Compare Nat’s response to an earlier camp challenge with her response to a later one. Use specific visual and verbal evidence to consider both change and continuing uncertainty.
31. Objects	Choose an object visible in a camp scene and explain its practical role. Ask whether its placement also focuses attention, supports an action, or reveals something about a character.
32. Threes	Check whether a selected sequence uses three beats, such as setup, hesitation, and response, rather than assuming the book consistently follows that pattern. Students can experiment with a three-panel Nat-inspired scene.
33. Lists	If a list appears in the chosen excerpt, examine how it compresses information or shapes humor. Otherwise, have students create an explicitly original list of a fictional camper’s worries and turn one item into a full scene.
34. White Space & Negative Space	Examine the spaces between panels and the uncluttered areas within them. Discuss how these spaces separate moments, direct attention, or leave room for readers to infer what happens between images.
35. Art & Graphics	Study how Scrivan’s cartoon expressions and body positions communicate Nat’s feelings. Cover the words briefly, infer meaning from the art, and then check how the text confirms or complicates that interpretation.
36. Interactives & Gamification	Use a prediction pause before a camp-scene reveal and have students support predictions with evidence. This is a classroom reading game, not a claim that the book contains interactive features.
37. Placement	Trace the reading order of panels, balloons, and important visual details on one page. Ask how their placement determines when readers encounter a reaction or a humorous reveal.
38. Form	Discuss why the graphic-novel form suits a story about feelings that may differ from spoken words. Compare one selected sequence with a brief prose retelling to identify what each form emphasizes.
39. Dummy	Explain that a dummy is a rough model used to plan a book’s sequence and page turns. Students can fold a miniature booklet for an original camp story, using Absolutely Nat as a mentor for distributing action and reaction across pages.
40. Passion	Ask which concerns seem to matter most to Nat, using her choices as evidence. Encourage students to build their own comic around a feeling or question they genuinely care about, without speculating about Scrivan’s private intentions.

Pace-Write It!

20-minute Pace-Write-It! task: “The Beat Before Trying.” Minutes 0–4: Revisit a teacher-selected sequence in Absolutely Nat where Nat faces uncertainty at camp. Identify the outward action, the visual evidence of her feelings, and the moment the storytelling emphasizes. Minutes 4–6: Students invent a different camper facing a manageable challenge, such as greeting a group or joining an unfamiliar game; they plan a hesitation and a next step, not necessarily complete success. Minutes 6–13: Draw a four-panel comic: establish the situation, show the hesitation, hold a silent close-up or reaction, and show the next step. Use at least one speech balloon and make the silent panel meaningful through expression or posture. Minutes 13–17: Partners read the comics and point to where they slowed down, explaining which words or images caused the pause. Minutes 17–20: Students revise one panel and finish the sentence, “Like Scrivan’s storytelling about Nat, my comic helps readers understand a feeling by ___.” Younger students may dictate dialogue or use three panels; older students can test whether removing the pause changes the effect.

Classroom Activities

One Brave Moment, Two Speeds

Students create two short comic versions of the same small, camp-inspired challenge: one that moves quickly and another that slows down the moment before a brave choice. Drawing on Nat’s experiences of uncertainty at summer camp, students use panel size, expressions, dialogue, and silent space to show how pacing changes a reader’s understanding. Students may invent a character rather than share a personal fear.

One Brave Moment, Two Speeds