Slug drawing by kid

This great rendition of Alex and Slug was created by a 2nd grader from Long Island.

If you have any drawings, I would love to see them. They can be
emailed to me via props@studiojjk.com or mailed to:
Jarrett J. Krosoczka
PO Box 60155
Florence, MA 01062

Sketchbook Saturday

The Someday Cafe was a great indie coffee house in the heart of Davis Sq in Somerville. It was a spot I would often frequent in my early post-college days in Boston. I would hunker down here with my sketchbook and dream of what it might be like to someday get published. And when I did get published, I sketched out the plans for some of my early books here. Unfortunately the Someday Cafe is gone, but it still holds the title of coolest-name-for-a-coffee-house-ever.

Dinosaur Ralph

Yes, Halloween was quite a few months ago, but Ralph likes to celebrate all year long.

PF on orange

Here's another fun drawing from a young artist:



I would love to see drawings from kids. You may even see some pop up here on the 'ol blog! I receive mail at:
Jarrett J. Krosoczka
PO Box 60155
Florence, MA 01062

TLA-mazing

TLA was an absolute blast. I saw a lot of familiar Texan librarian faces and a lot of familiar author faces. And of course - I met a ton of great new friends as well.

The break out session with the librarians of Round Rock & Abilene was a rousing success. We had a full house! (That's not an easy thing to do at these conferences, there is a lot going on!) Much should be attributed to these crazy ladies who welcomed people as they walked in.

A big thanks to my peeps of Abilene and Round Rock for having me on board!

Here are some of the other people that I got to hang out with:



Here I am with Eric Carle. You may know him from a little book called The Hungry Caterpillar. Wait a minute...that's not E-Carle. WHAT?! Oh - that's Tomie dePaola. I was wondering why he kept talking about Strega Nona...


That's me on the right and Matt Holm on the left. Matt is the illustrator of the most awesome Baby Mouse series.


This is how Libba Bray and I roll.


Adam Rex and I take our giant cats very seriously.

But not always.


Kevin Henkes is as awesome as you would think. This was my first time meeting Mr. Henkes, and I can't wait to run into him again. That is assuming his restraining order doesn't go through...


Matt and I are going to retire from illustrating and start our own cruise ship for librarians where we entertain as lounge singers. Who's in?



Heather Jankowski is a world class librarian. She won't tell you this, but look at the airplane scene in Punk Farm on Tour and tell me if you recognize anyone wearing a "Hancok Hawk" T-shirt.



Here I am with Thelma and Louise...



My signing at TLA was unlike anything I have ever experienced. The conference officials had to shut down my line at the Random House booth and move it to the "Author's Corral". It was all so very U2 rooftop concert, cops trying to hold us down kind of thing.







A big THANK YOU again to y'all who came out to support me and I hope to see you at TLA again one of these years!

Sketchbook Saturday

I had a great time at TLA and will be posting about it soon. In the meantime, please enjoy this sketch of people waiting at the airport.

1,000

1,000 1-3rd graders. I was up for the challenge when it was first thrown out there by Sandi Rainwater. I had two days in Abilene and 18 schools to get to. I would visit 3 schools individually, but the rest would be bussed into the local high school and in two sessions I would present and read to an auditorium filled with 1-3rd graders. In auditorium that seats 1,000.

After all, these kids awarded me with the Mockingbird Award. And since I'm a visual person, I put together this little video to show them how excited I was to have revceived the award:



Reading to 1,000 kids is a pretty amazing experience. I highly suggest you try it someday. The energy in the room was unlike anything I have ever experienced. I'm speaking at TLA this morning and I put together this video on my experience with reading in Abilene.

A HUGE thank you to Sandi and the Abilene gang for pulling this off!

stadium status

A brief update - today I will be in Texas reading to kids in the Abilene school district. They are the kids who awarded me with the uber cool Mockingbird Award for Punk Farm. Since I am in town ahead of TLA and we all wanted to get as many kids involved as possible, the schools are busing the kids to the local high school's auditorium.

It seats 1,000. Two sessions of 1,000 1-3 graders.

Stay tuned...

South Carolina

I swept through the great state of South Carolina last week, hitting schools around Columbia. Lots of crazy librarians those South Carolinian librarians. I was met with lots of enthusiasm and even MC Hammer and Vanilla Ice. Well, not the actual rappers, but their music. D'Etta of Pleasant Hill wanted to make me feel at home - in a 1991 kind of way. She even gifted me a Frogger video game to thank me for making the trip. Between those acts of kindness, the kids who danced the running man and the Bagheads...it was the start of a fantastic trip. I even got to make the rounds of the morning news shows - each school broadcasts live from the library. I wish my elementary school had had their own TV show. A big thank you to Valerie and the gang for making the trip possible!

Sketchbook Saturday

Union Sq / NYC / Spring

Frog Belly puppet show

Speaking of Frog Belly Rat Bone, how cool is this puppet show?!

drawings from kids

Annie Was Warned

Send your drawings to:
Jarrett J. Krosoczka
PO Box 60155
Florence, MA 01062

Ralph Macchio Outfit of the Day

(I wish I had thought up this design. G found this T-shirt in our travels.)

Boston

The week before last week I had a great few days in my old stomping grounds. I spoke at great schools in Cambridge, had a great time with the good people at the Foundation for Children's Books and had a blast turning the Cambridge Public Library upside down. For those of you who are in Boston, definitely stay tuned to the Foundation for Children's Book's schedule. I wish I had known about this great program when I was in Boston. To hear a few clips of Pat Keough's insightful interview with me, listen here and here. It's just a snippet I recorded on my laptop. It's not the highest audio quality, but you'll get the idea of how cool their programs are.

When I spoke at the Cambridge Public Library, two literary superstars turned up. Amy Walrod and Timothy Basil Ering. They are both good pals whose work I admire very deeply. And when I came across their books for the first time years ago, I stopped dead in my tracks both times. That to me is the sign of a good picture book, I could do nothing more but ogle over the beautiful illustrations.

And while I still found no word of Little Joe Cook's whereabouts, when Daryl Mark librarian-super-srtar and I sat down for a bite to eat, his music played on the cafe's stereo.

Enjoy these pics of my mini-Boston tour.

This is how thorough Pat Keough was in her interview. Post-it notes throughout all of my books. I walked away knowing more about my work than I did going in!

The crowd at CPL.

w/ Daryl Mark

w/ Mr. TBE

A lesson in looking tough.

One of the coolest welcome signs ever.

Sketchbook Saturday

People waiting.

Gallery update

I've updated the Gallery so that you can now click on the images and enlarge them in a new window. www.studiojjk.com/gallery.html

Fine Art Prints @ Gallery jjk

It's been a while in the making, but Gallery jjk has opened its doors! Well, its virtual doors. I now have limited edition fine art giclee prints available. I'm starting with works from Punk Farm and Punk Farm on Tour. Taken from the original paintings, each print has vivid color and the detail is stellar - you can see each little brush stroke. The prints are fully archival and are printed on Breathing Color Elegance Velvet Platinum paper. In other words, pretty fancy paper.

Please visit www.studiojjk.com/gallery.html to browse the editions.

New school visit materials for download

For those of you out there who are having me for a school visit, have had me at your school, or for those of you that are contemplating putting something together --- I hope to have made your life a little easier.

I streamlined my school visit section, made it easier to navigate, added more organization and overall simplified! Now you can go to www.studiojjk.com/schoolvisits.html directly and skip all of the flash animation at studiojjk.com. I have a ton of new material in the "helpful downloads" section. You can download a modifiable book order form to send home with students, a modifiable letter to teachers and a spiffy new school visit brochure to print and pass around at PTA meetings.

I hope that all of this helps to make a more enjoyable and stress-free time when I come to your school!


(Many thanks to Texas super-star Heather Jankowski with her help on the downloadable templates!!!)



PS - We plan to add curriculum projects that I've seen at various schools over the years. If you have anything that you'd like to contribute, ideas you've had or projects you've implemented - we'd love to see them! And we thank you in advance for sharing them! (They can be emailed to gina at studiojjk dot com.)

Easily one of the coolest drawings from a kid...

This is the ultimate. Not only did this kid take the time to draw a picture of my characters, but he took the time to put them ALL in a band.

And the dudes and dudettes of Punk Farm are wearing Bagheads. Classic!


I love hearing what kids have to say and I love seeing what they draw. I receive mail at:
Jarrett J. Krosoczka
PO Box 60155
Florence, MA 01062