Wilmette native infuses North Shore spirit into debut graphic novel ‘The Endless Game’

From Skokie Lagoons to Gilson Beach and beyond, Wilmette native J.D. Amato incorporated echoes of his upbringing into every page of his debut middle-grade graphic novel

“The Endless Game” is set to be released on Tuesday, April 28, by Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers.

Although he is now a resident of New York, Amato will be celebrating his novel’s debut close to home at Winnetka’s The Book Stall, 811 Elm St., from 6:30-7:30 p.m. on Tuesday, April 28, when writer and librarian Betsy Bird will join him for a discussion, also including a Q&A, book signing, reading and “some other little surprises,” as teased by Amato.

“It’ll be a really fun, full circle moment for me to be able to do an event at The Book Stall, which was a place that had its own magical quality to me as a kid growing up, and [to] be able to come back there with a book that will be on the shelves there is really, really special,” Amato told The Record of the upcoming experience.

His story follows Fred, a new kid who ends up playing a decadeslong game of capture the flag across the made-up town of Lakeside, Illinois — a plotline, though fictional, that is deeply rooted in Amato’s real-life experiences.

Amato’s parents grew up in the North Shore, and now with a family, they settled in Wilmette in the ‘90s after a bout of hopping from state to state. At the time, Amato was in kindergarten and relied heavily on his two older sisters for companionship.

“When we landed in Wilmette, it was the first time I ever was able to have friends, and I think it was also an age at which I was starting to be able to do that, too,” Amato said of building community. “And it was really, to me, a magical experience to also be somewhere that, not only did I have friends, but it was friends that I could play outside and go on these adventures with.”

One night in particular, not long after moving to Wilmette, Amato said a group of children rang his door bell and asked if Amato and his siblings wanted to play a game, perhaps capture the flag or kick the can.

“I remember … my mom looking at us and ushering us to the door being like, ‘Here’s a bunch of kids to go play with,’ and my sister and I walking out to the door into this group of kids that just sort of accepted us into their world,” he said. “It was the ’90s in Wilmette where we could go, you know, play outside and wander around the neighborhood until the street lights came on, and those kids ended up being lifelong friends, and that was our little community.”

The graphic novel is designed to emanate exactly that: the feeling of being welcomed and absorbed into kids’ universes — something Amato describes as a “universal feeling” when kids meet their peers and start figuring out their identities through adventures and exploration.

Thematically, Amato wanted to tell a story in which the main character isn’t necessarily a hero and, in fact, no single character is the hero. Each character is “part of the fabric of the story,” he said, and given the space to flesh out their own identities, interests and expertises.

“I think sometimes in stories, there can be too much emphasis on a singular character being a hero or being the one who saves the day, and I think, in real life, everybody has a part of themselves that they can add to the collective experience,” Amato explained. “So, I wanted to tell a story that was about a group of kids figuring out who they were and figuring out how to work together and how to overcome stuff and it not being any one person saving the day, and everyone is a part of the puzzle of all this stuff.”

Amato worked in close collaboration with illustrator Sophie Morse, sending her reference photos of the spaces from his childhood, such as trees across the North Shore.

According to Amato, among the locales that “coalesced into the visual themes of the book” are: Skokie Lagoons (Glencoe, Winnetka), Gillson Beach (Wilmette), the forests around Wilmette, Mallinckrodt Center (Wilmette) and Harley Clarke Mansion (Evanston), among others.

At the time of Amato’s upbringing, Harley Clarke Mansion housed the Evanston Art Center. Not only did it possess a “magical aesthetic,” he said, but it was one of the first places in which he was exposed to the arts.

For Amato, who is now deeply embedded in the creative world as a comedy writer, producer and showrunner, creating a graphic novel felt like the perfect fit. He revealed that he was a “reluctant reader” as a child and would have loved the genre.

Across Amato’s creative endeavors, he also uncovered a constant through-line.

“All storytelling is ultimately about communicating a feeling to the audience, and I think no matter what the work is, you’re honing that muscle of trying to figure out how to help people feel the same things that you feel,” he said. “So, for a book like this, even though it’s middle grade and a lot of the stuff that I’ve worked on is more geared towards adults, it’s honing that ability to try to connect with people and take the thoughts and feelings that are inside my head and put those on paper in some way.”

The book deals with themes that resonate with adults as well, Amato shared, tapping into a valuable lesson he’s discovered along his career journey: “The best way to talk to children and tell them stories is to be honest and real with them and deal with real adult emotions and things that as as an adult you’re also coping with,” he said.

Amato revealed that he and Morse have already discussed the stories they can explore next, whether it be a “next summer” or “next phase of life” for the kids in “The Endless Game.”

After all, Amato’s debut graphic novel ends with a cliffhanger. Not all is resolved, and it’s clear that there’s more that the fictional land of Lakeside, Illinois, can offer.

More North Shore inspiration is left for the pages to breathe in and more of the “magical feelings,” as Amato said he experienced growing up in a place like Wilmette in the ‘90s, to express.

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