South Dakota collaborators create children’s book that kids ‘can’t get enough of’

Porter is a snappy little girl with blond hair tied up in pigtails and a quick wit. She loves collecting things but has a problem: what to save and what to toss.

“She can’t decide what’s good and what’s gross,” author Sean Covel said. “She loves everything equally, and she tends to hoard.”

But Porter the Hoarder also is willing to accept help from others. In a series of books that are designed to involve children and adult readers such as parents, she learns what should be kept and what can be released, like flatulent fish and fossilized deer doo-doo.

The character teaches empathy through her happy and sad reactions. She gives teachers assistance in the classroom and parents a reason to gather with their children in their free time. And, often, she gives kids the first book they’ve ever owned, one they can keep forever.

“Every single time we go into schools, I meet a kid who will never have taken home a book before,” said Rebecca Swift, who illustrates the Porter the Hoarder books. “They look at me in disbelief when I tell them it’s their book. Parents reach out and send pictures. Someone at a Hy-Vee bakery made a Porter the Hoarder birthday cake. We hear the kids can’t get enough of it. It affirms we’re doing a good job.”

Porter is more than a book. It’s dedicated to getting “bigs” — not just parents — to read with “littles.”

First distributed through the United Way of the Black Hills and Black Hills Reads, it now has spread into schools across South Dakota and elsewhere. In this state, the South Dakota Statewide Family Engagement Center this year has put Porter the Hoarder books into the hands — and backpacks and bookshelves — of almost 9,000 first-graders.

“It’s a fun and engaging book,” said Morgan VonHaden, SFEC project director. “We’re getting kids and families excited about reading. The partnership with Sean and Rebecca helps schools that are hungry to meet authors and illustrators. And kids are so excited to have a free book.”

Covel and Swift first met about 10 years ago. He is a native of Edgemont who received his graduate degree in filmmaking from the University of Southern California. After 15 years in Los Angeles, where among other projects he served as producer for the surprise hit movie “Napoleon Dynamite,” he made Deadwood his base for four years. Covel now lives in Boulder, Colorado.

Swift lived in Tennessee and Ohio until she was 8 and her family moved to South Dakota. She now lives in Bridgewater, close enough to commute to Sioux Falls for her work in makeup artistry. Swift also has painted landscapes and portraits, competed on “American Idol” and became known on social media for a “100 Days of Makeup” challenge that drew national attention.

Covel and Swift met on a film project near Rapid City. He was a producer; she was an actor. Swift told him about the idea she had about a little girl who collects items to excess. It was based on one of her daughters, a fastidious child who nevertheless had filled a drawer to bursting with candy and wrappers and toys.

“He was like: ‘This is great! Can I write the books?’” Swift said.

From the beginning, Covel knew his text would have a strong education component. He also knew, based on books like “Don’t Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus,” how important it would be to make them interactive.

He was attending a television interview for a charity project called “12 Days of Pizza” when Covel met Jamie Toennies, executive director of the United Way of the Black Hills. She shared the United Way’s child wellness initiative, which includes food security and early childhood education. Covel wanted to be part of this effort to improve children’s lives, and Porter the Hoarder was the answer.

Black Hills Reads distributed 2,400 Porter the Hoarder books to first-graders across the region. Response was enthusiastic: 96 percent of the teachers said it was successful and encouraged reading at home. VonHaden’s group became involved and increased the distribution from 50 schools in the Black Hills to statewide in two years.

Using quantitative and qualitive data, author and illustrator make sure the books solve the issues of time to read, finding a book that kids are excited to read, knowing how to read to the child and cost, Covel said. It takes less than 10 minutes to read each book, classroom activities get the kids excited to read the book, “littles” involve “bigs” in reading to them through homework assignments, and the books are distributed at no cost.

Before the pandemic limited activities, Covel and Swift took part in a statewide tour to schools where he read the books and she showed students how to draw Porter.

“She’s a simple design,” Swift said. “I have a big whiteboard, and I use shapes and food as a reference, like bananas become her hair. We have hundreds of drawings that kids have sent to us of their Porter the Hoarder.”

Said Covel, “Our creative edict is to never draw anything that a first-grader can’t draw herself.”

Since the pandemic, they have relied on virtual events to get their message across to students. They use Skype or Zoom themselves to meet when they begin planning the next book in the series, and then Covel writes the text before Swift illustrates the books.

Porter, a child who is loud and sweet and messy and headstrong and exciting, as Swift describes her, appeals to both girls and boys who see those same characteristics in themselves.

“Her personality is so big,” Swift said. “She likes to get into the dirt and collect gross things. At the Mitchell Elementary School, there’s a long line of kids who want to check out the book next. And it’s not just Mitchell. It’s everywhere. The boys even more than the girls. You don’t often see that where you have a lead female character, and the boys can’t get enough of it.”

VonHaden’s children have their own personal Porter the Hoarder favorites among the seven in the series. “The Nature Explorer” is one of the most popular, along with one set in a pizzeria, “Pappy’s Perfect Pizza Party.”

“They’re so silly, they get super excited and engaged,” VonHaden said.

Covel and Swift have plans for Porter the Hoarder. She’s now available in a plush figure, and “Porter will be on lots of different screens someday,” Covel said. Sixty-four books are planned in the series.

When Covel first moved to California, he felt insecure about his background, coming from a small town in South Dakota and the University of Nebraska at Kearney. He since has learned that his experience in small towns could be viewed as his superpower.

“That’s where ‘Napoleon Dynamite’ came from,” he said of the movie that featured a listless teenager who is led to greatness by a sudden enthusiasm to help a fellow student. “I could write Porter in Los Angeles, but the idea of creating an educational system around it, I wouldn’t know how to do that in LA. It happened because I was in Rapid City. We built something and quickly spread the word about it. I deeply appreciate that about my South Dakota roots.”

It has allowed Porter the Hoarder to take giant steps in a short time.

“Considering we started in 2019, holy cow, we’re off to the races,” Covel said.