Tuesday, April 26, 2011

My Children's Book Week Schedule


It'll be a busy week. Well, if you consider LA, NYC, Chicago and Maryland busy. Here is my schedule:

April 30th at 4:20PM
Los Angeles Times Festival of Books. I'll be on the Target Stage. Please note the fest is at the USC campus.

May 2 
I'll be stopping by Random House Children's Books as a part of their in-house lecture series, Perspectives on Publishing. Hmmm. Just everyone who is integral to my career. No biggie. (My internal monologue will be repeating this phrase, "Don't. Mess. This. UP!")

I'll be hosting the Children's Choice Book Awards Gala in New York City. It'll be a fanschy schmancy event with tiny food and I will be charged with keeping the ceremony moving along. Check out the Gala website and take a look at all the presenters. I have to introduce these people. All legends! A little intimidating . . .

May 5
I'll be flying out to Chicago to support Reading is Fundamental as they celebrate their new sponsors, Buddig. Luncheon meat + Lunch Lady X RIF = Awesome.

May 7 at 11:30 AM

I'll be in Haggerstown, MD for Washington County Reading Day. This event is organized by the Washington County Library system and hosted at the Valley Mall. Eat your heart out, Tiffany.

Monday, April 25, 2011

What happens on Twitter

Every now and again I'll shoot out offers for give-aways on Twitter. (If you're not following me, please do - @studiojjk.) I recently had a bunch of extra cover proofs for Lunch Lady and the Field Trip Fiasco, which won't be out until September 13th and tweeted out that I would send them to the first few people who tweeted back.

Mr. Lewis was one of those who was mailed a cover proof for LL6. He videotaped his students' reactions. Check it out:


And don't be jealous Facebook friends, I'll be giving away things to you, too. (Friend me here, like me here.)

Friday, April 22, 2011

1 week left to vote for Lunch Lady in the Children's Choice Book Awards

Voting ends Friday April 29th! If you've been procrastinating, now is the time to cast your vote and have your voice heard!




Wednesday, April 20, 2011

What was one of the best days of my professional life

Hamilton Elementary completely blew me away with what they called "JJK Day". I have visited so many wonderful schools so far in 2011 and would blog about each of them if I was more organized and if deadlines didn't sometimes get the best of me. But I'd be remiss if I didn't share some pictures and videos of what Jennifer Lucas did over at Hamilton El in Houston, TX. She created "JJK Day", which was an end of the year celebration and classrooms needed to win their way into the presentations. Kids worked together to make the most amazing videos! And Jennifer and her library aide even donned their Lunch Lady and Betty costumes for the day!


Check out the decorations put up around the school:

 



And the craziest part of the day—it almost didn't happen! It was scheduled for February 4th. I was in Houston for the week, but with the impending "snow storm", school had been canceled preemptively. Luckily, it all worked out with schedules for me to return to Houston for this awesome day!

Here are some of the videos that were made for the contest:

Check out all of my characters moshing to Punk Farm!

A dramatic retelling of Annie Was Warned:

A Lunch Lady play:

A Punk Farm / Baghead puppet show:

And there are more! Check out all of them at my YouTube channel: www.youtube.com/studiojjk

Thursday, April 14, 2011

Monday, April 11, 2011

On Sirius XM Kids Place Live on TUESDAY


Tune in at around 4:30 PM for the Absolutely Mindy Show. I'll be interviewed by a young cartoonist for a segment called "I Want to Be Like You When I Grow Up." Not sure if you can call in, but the number is  1-866-328-2345.

I'll also be helping push the Children's Choice Book Awards to a half-million votes for 2011! Have your kids voted yet?

Sunday, April 10, 2011

Kid Quote

     This one is from my own two-year-old. Last night we were eating dinner and she was singing "Old MacDonald". Then she said, "Who sings that song?" She answered her own question with, "Punk Farm!" Then she asked, "Dadda, you write that book?"
    "I did write that book," I responded.
     "God job, dadda."


It doesn't get much better than that! Although, she may think that her father actually wrote that song . . .

Saturday, April 09, 2011

Sketchbook Saturday

I'll be honest, I'm dropping the ball here. This week's sketch is an old one. I spent this week plugging away on a manuscript, visiting schools and wrapping up sketches for a book. All left little time for leisurely sketching.

Here's a sketch from my Boston days of riding the T.

Friday, April 08, 2011

Spare the Rock radio chat


I sat down with Bill Childs and his fabulous co-hosts/offspring for a radio chat on Spare the Rock, Spoil the Child. We covered new books, Meltdown '11 (&'12) and the Children's Choice Book Awards.

Bill does many amazing things. He hosts this radio show, he programs so many great events around town--most notably Meltdown. It has been beyond fun to work with him on making that event an annual one. But I like to sum Bill up by saying he's like the Dick Clark of hip, indie and GOOD kids' music.

You can listen to the radio interview here:
http://sparetherock.com/wordpress/?p=843


Speaking of Meltdown, PW had a nice mention of the event in their weekly kids' book newsletter. Check it out!

Tuesday, April 05, 2011

Kid Quote

KID: You're not the author.
ME: I am.
KID: Your name tag says "Larry". We're waiting for Jarrett!
ME: Oh, my tag actually says "Library".