SJS News

View Charlie's Rules for Life on Amazon.

Saint James alumnus Ryan Scott ’22 and Father Dunnan teamed up to write and illustrate a children’s book based on the SJS-famous chapel talk, Charlie’s Rules for Life. Charlie, Father Dunnan’s cairn terrier, will turn 16 on February 2, and Father Dunnan has perfected this chapel talk over those years based on life lessons that could apply to both Charlie and our students.

Ryan, who is a junior at Rhode Island School of Design (RISD), first developed an illustrated Charlie, called Marching Charlie, during his sixth form year at Saint James. That Marching Charlie graphic has become an unofficial SJS mascot with merchandise available in the SJS School Store. The idea for Ryan to use his artistic talents to illustrate a version of the Charlie’s Rules sermon came up around that same time.

“After he created Marching Charlie, I asked if he would be interested in illustrating the Charlie's Rules for Life talk that I have developed over 15 years in chapel. Happily, he agreed,” said Father Dunnan. “And when we saw his drawings, we knew immediately that we needed to publish this.”

When Ryan made the trip from RISD to Boston to attend an SJS alumni reception in November 2023, the discussion about creating the book began in earnest. They planned out their timeline, went over ideas for how to visually depict each rule, made simple sketches, and then he worked on the illustrations over the summer. Ryan said he considered creating the illustrations the traditional way with color pencil but opted for digital illustrations because he knew they would be easier to edit.

“Father Dunnan trusted me to find my own vision because he’d seen my work at Saint James and knew I could put in the effort to make it look good,” said Ryan. “It started with very simple pencil sketches that then became very simple digital sketches, and each time I would send him those PDFs and he would look over them and offer feedback. The text was laid out and settled on very early, so that helped me structure the whole thing. From there it was just figuring out how the different scenes would play together.”

Ryan has been focused on graphic design projects at RISD, and enjoys editorial and publication design as well as brand identity work. He said he enjoyed the opportunity to illustrate a children’s book.

“Now that the book is published, I'll be able to put this in my portfolio, and it will be something I'm very proud of in years to come,” he said. 

The book is a gift to the School from Ryan and Father Dunnan as they will be donating all proceeds to the Saint James Scholarship Fund.

Charlie’s Rules for Life is available on Amazon and other online retailers.

Read the Charlie's Rules chapel talk.