Happy Halloween 07!

From our pumpkins to yours, we hope that you

have a safe, spooky and candy-filled Halloween!

-JJK & G

New addition to our family...

Introducing.....

Ralph Macchio! Our little pug puppy was born a few days after our wedding and G and I got to visit him yesterday. (We still need to wait a whole month before we can take him home.) He is named after G's first crush.... I'm hoping we get to name a pet Punky Brewster someday.

And yes, we will be training him to respond to the phrases - "Sweep the leg!" and "Paint the fence!"

Organic Punk Farm

Alison Morris from Wellesley Bookmith wrote up an article on last week's event at the organic farm. To read her account (which is far more detailed than mine) check out her blog, Shelf Talker, over at the Publishers Weekly website. There are also fun pictures like this one:

Go Sox!!!

(from Boston.com)

Wow. A sweep? Looks like the Sox also said, "Peace out, Colorado!"

Inquiry on WICN

Last month I stopped by the WICN studios to pay my old friend Mark Lynch a visit. Mark was a teacher of mine at the Worcester Art Museum when I was a high school kid and has had me on his radio show every year since I was first published.

This can mean only one thing - mayhem.

Listen to this year's show here. We discuss what makes a deer emo and a flamingo thrift-store cool, dissect the making of Punk Farm on Tour and Mark presses me for info on the future of Punk Farm.

Punk Farm on Blog Tour

If you were poking around the Blogernet yesterday, you may have noticed a few of Punk Farm's interviews. The gang sat down to chat with Jules & Eisha over at 7-Impossible Things Before Breakfast, Little Willow over at Bildungsroman and Betsy Bird over at Fuse#8.

I can't be held responsible for what they say, I'm their manager and publicist, but not truly the boss of them...

a first

A few nights ago, I was loading groceries into my car when something caught my eye in the parked car next to me. Now, I wasn't spying, but it really stuck out to me - it was a copy of Punk Farm in the backseat!

Worcester revelation & Natick livestock

A big thank you to everyone who made it out to my readings in Worcester & Natick! Both went very well. Worcester is always a great stop for me. Although this year was shocking. My mother's first cousin, Jenny, was in line with her daughters and their kids. They always come out to support me every year and as I was signing their books, my buddy Marty (Mahty) refers to the little ones as his cousins. Now, I've known Marty since I was 15 and as it turns out, Marty's cousin married my mother's cousin's daughter. Who knew?!

And the Natick event was on a farm. They had huge pigs and loud turkeys, what could be better? It was a completely out-of-the-box event and it was incredible. A great setting, fortunately great weather and great crowds. A big thank you to Alison Morris from the Wellesley Booksmith and Jane Harvey from the Natick Community Organic Farm for pulling it off.

I didn't have my camera with me, but Alison took some pics and they will be shared later. As an FYI: Pigs make for a very attentive audience.

Slug Van!

Last spring, ReadBoston was given a grant to buy a new Storymobile. And get this - they decided that the van should be decorated with Slug! How cool is that?!

If you're around Beantown, keep your eyes on the lookout for it!

Let's hope that the Slug van doesn't park anywhere near Fenway Park this week. It's going to be nuts! Though, I hear there should be plenty of parking spaces around Jacobs Field.....

Society

I had a great time in NYC last week at the Society of Illustrators Original Art Show. It's always great to hang out with fellow authors and illustrators and there were so many in attendance at the show, that I felt as though I saw everyone, but didn't get enough time with anyone. Quite the conundrum!

The evening started at a swanky reception hosted by the good people at Random House. There, I got to hang out pals Meghan McCarthy, Dan Yaccarino, Dan Santat and Michael Townsend.

Random House recently designated a wall that their illustrators can draw on when they're in the office. I drew this last year (my editor mysteriously had asked me to bring in my paints). Dan Santat added on to what I started by drawing Walter Kitty jamming out with Punk Farm. Dan Yaccarino harassed me again for bringing in my paints.

(all of the above photos were all taken from Dan Santat's blog, my new camera is terrible...)

The lot of us, including a handful of Randomers, walked over to the very crowded Society show. Once there, I had the opportunity to occasionally glance at all of the tremendous art. At the show, I met up with pals Chad Beckerman, Alvina Ling, Peter Brown, Mo Willems, David Ezra Stein and Scott Magoon and got to meet email pals Sean Qualls, Selina Alko and Adam Rex in person, who I guess would all now be my regular pals. Ashley Bryan gave a moving speech to accept his lifetime achievement award. I wanted to shake his hand and congratulate him, but there was a wall of people constantly surrounding him. I had the pleasure of meeting Mr. Bryan at the New Art exhibit last spring and if any of you out there have also had the opportunity, you know that he is beyond deserving of the award he was in town to accept.
The night ended with a gathering at a local watering hole, co-hosted by agent extraordinaire Rebecca Sherman and the Queen of all Kid-Lit bloggers, Betsy Bird (AKA Fuse#8). A big thank you to all of the artists who donated something to the impromptu Robert's Snow raffle (mostly those artists listed above!).

Oh and here is my piece from the show. It was hung next to old classmate Meghan McCarthy's piece. What are the odds?

The Punk Farm on Tour Tour

Punk Farm on Tour is in stores now, but the book tour starts next week! Come on out and get yourself a signed copy of Punk Farm on Tour! Also, be prepared to yell and scream, my readings are very interactive. If it's not loud enough, we'll start right from the top. Seriously, I'm not kidding.

The Punk Farm on Tour Tour

Worcester, MA
Oct. 23 - 6PM
Barnes & Noble - 541 Lincoln St

Natick, MA
Nov. 25 - 1 PM / 3:30 PM
Natick Community Organic Farm event through Wellsley Booksmith

Dover, DE
Nov. 3 - 11:30 AM
Delaware Book Festival - First State Heritage Park

McLean, VA
Nov. 5 - 3 PM
Tree Top Kids - 1382 Chain Bridge Road

Washington DC
Nov 6. - 10:30 AM
Politics & Prose - 5015 Connecticut Avenue, N.W.

McLean, VA
Nov. 6 - 6 PM
Barnes & Noble - Tysons Corner Center

Wynewood, PA
Nov. 7 - 7 PM
Borders - 80 East Wynnewood Road

Carmel, IN
Nov. 10 - 11 AM
Barnes & Noble - 14709 US Hwy 31 North

Chicago, IL
Nov. 17 - 11 AM
Chicago Public Library's Bookamania - 400 South State Street

Printable author bio sheet

Attention teachers and librarians:

Random House designed a spiffy bio sheet on my books to hand out at conferences and now - you can download it from their site and print as many as you need. If you'd like to use it in your classroom or library, it can be downloaded here - www.randomhouse.com/kids/pdf/AuthorBioJKrosoczka.pdf

Scholastic Parent and Child Magazine

Word on the street is that Scholastic Parent and Child has a sweet review of Punk Farm on Tour. I haven't seen it yet, but be on the lookout!

Society of Illustrators

The Original Art Show at the Society of Illustrators is up!

The opening reception is tomorrow night, Thursday, Oct 18 @ 5:30-8pm (You need a ticket to get in, which is $30 if you're not in the show.)

If you can't make it to the opening, try to swing by whenever you can - Exhibition dates: Oct 17 - Nov 21
gallery hours: Tues 10 AM-8 PM; Wed - Fri 10 AM-5 PM; Saturdays noon-4 PM
FREE admittance.

News Flash: Pig receives children's literature's highest honor

ATTN: FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

Pig, the famed guitarist for the popular band Punk Fam, has been honored with one of children's literature's highest honors.

Fuse#8 has christened him as the inaugural "Hot Pig of Children's Literature".

When asked for comment, he replied, "I'm not surprised. I'm one hot pig."

Typical.

See the article here.

In case you missed it...

In case you missed them, here are a few interviews that published last week...
Just One More Book
Curled Up With A Good Kid's Book

Happy Birthday, River!

Hearing about birthday parties just makes me happy - I love cake. But when I hear about a birthday party where the theme was based on one of my books I get really excited - that is the ultimate honor! River just turned 3 and he wanted his big day to have a Punk Farm theme. It looks like the party was a blast!

Here's River tuning his guitar backstage.

See- cake = delicious!

Looks like the scene was effectively set to rock with downloaded PF posters.

This shot was taken right after River blew the roof off the place.
(Cameras were prohibited during the actual performance.)

Looks like everyone enjoyed River's party. If they were lucky enough to get past this kid. He was the bouncer, collecting tickets and stamping hands on the way in. Anyone with a real ID was thrown out of the club.

Happy Birthday, River!

Happy Man

On September 29th, Gina made me the happiest man alive by becoming my wife! Our wedding was unbelievable. The weather was perfect and family and friends came from near and far to celebrate with us. Our wedding photographer was Steve DePino, who is incredibly talented and an old friend from art school. He's posted some pictures of our wedding on his blog here and posted a slide show on his website. He's a full service photographer, there were even photos of the ceremony looped on his laptop at the bar the night of the reception.

We've just now returned from our honeymoon in Hawaii (which was unbelievable and much needed) and studio life will soon pick up again. Thank you for all of your well wishes!