This Friday-an event with the Chesterfield County Public Library (Just outside Richmond, VA)

There is no doubt that I will have a BLAST on Friday with the librarians of Chesterfield County Library. Look at that cool flyer they made! And look at all of the super-fun tweets that they have been sending! If you live nearby, I hope to see you on Friday at 7 p.m.!

Here is the event page on their website:
http://ccpl-catalog.chesterfield.gov/record=g1003046&searchscope=0&SORT2=R

Come meet the creator of Lunch Lady Jarrett Krosoczka, Fri, 3/13, 7p, Career Tech Center@Hull pic.twitter.com/6xBHTcbzXq
— Chesterfield Library (@CCPLVA) March 9, 2015

This Lunch Lady fan is ready for Fri. night when she gets to see @StudioJJK live and on stage! http://t.co/gj78JWWkBN pic.twitter.com/wWW9sttsPF
— Chesterfield Library (@CCPLVA) March 9, 2015

@StudioJJK & @CCPDVa bring you Platypus Police Squad live on stage after Lunch Lady! http://t.co/gj78JWWkBN pic.twitter.com/n5KChaqnH8
— Chesterfield Library (@CCPLVA) March 6, 2015

J.G. Hening cafeteria staff joins forces with the Lunch Lady. Jarrett Krosoczka, Fri, March 13 pic.twitter.com/CppImq86JN

— Chesterfield Library (@CCPLVA) March 10, 2015

An embarrassment of riches this Halloween!

I received an embarrassment of riches this Halloween. Some wonderful photos of folks dressed as my characters came through over social media. It's just beyond anything I could have ever imagined. I am so honored that folks took the time to put together these fantastic costumes!

Check out the awesomeness below!


Not only does Kairi make a fierce Lunch Lady, but she also has the creativity of Betty -- when she couldn't find a yellow apron, she made one! Color me impressed!

Spotted on Martha's Vineyard -- a Punk Farm scarecrow! I love it!!!

Public librarian Laura Lintz donned a yellow apron for Halloween, but nothing could top Ulysses the Pug's performance as Betty. I can certify that this is the first canine interpretation of one of my characters! My pug is jealous that he didn't think of that! (He has no shame, and will do anything for extra treats.)

Detectives Corey O'Malley and Rick Zengo turned up at the HarperCollins Halloween party. And just in case things got out of hand, Sergeant Plazinski was on hand to ensure that the Platypus Police Squad stayed in line. (The attention to detail here is mind-boggling!)

School librarian Cyndi Shinn has been a big supporter of the Lunch Lady books out in Nebraska. And on Halloween, she took it to the next level!

Check out Stella and her sister, Rosie! They are just adorable! (And the littlest lunch ladies that I ever did see!) I also appreciate their parents' dedication to theme by painting their walls yellow...

Andrew kept his neighborhood streets safe by serving justice and serving lunch in the Sunshine State! I love this costume!

Check out these INCREDIBLE story pumpkins!



4th grader Liam made this incredibly creative Lunch Lady pumpkin. I love the use of a mop head for the hair!

This Platypus Police Squad pumpkin looks so much like Detective Rick Zengo! Made by a 2nd grader at Sterling Community School, it is a perfectly shaped pumpkin for this character!

This was sent in by Mattea in Arizona. Mattea did a fantastic job on her pumpkin book report! I love it! Thank you so much, Mattea!

If you dressed up as one of my characters, or themed a story pumpkin around one of my books, I'd love to see photos!

Family literacy nights and Punk Farm performances!

I have just had the pleasure of visiting with schools in upstate New York. Smith School and Canisteo-Greenwood School both hosted family literacy nights while I was in town, and what a great way for the schools to bring their community together in celebration of the book! I spoke at both events and the students loved having that extra time with the author. They introduced me to their parents as if we were old friends!

And BOTH schools put on Punk Farm skits! The kids were psyched, as was I! I love watching creative (and brave) teachers put on performances of my books. A true honor.

Here is a photo of the players at Canisteo-Greenwood:

And a video of the performance at Smith:





Also throughout the night, kids made bookmarks and other bookish crafts. There were also prizes to be won! Raffle tickets were given just for showing up and the prize baskets were all book theemed. For example, a copy of Bubble Bath Pirates! was given away with bath toys and a copy of Punk Farm was given away with a basket of instruments. And the homerooms with the most students in attendance won a set of books for their classrooms! Brilliant, right?!

Thank you to all of the superb educators and parent volunteers who pulled these nights together!

photo by www.strinnistudio.com 

photo by www.strinnistudio.com 

Note all the kids dressed as cowboys/girls and pirates!
photo by www.strinnistudio.com 

Happy Halloween! Skelton flamingos and Lunch Lady pumpkins

We are feeling incredibly grateful here in the Krosoczka house to be celebrating Halloween this evening. The hurricane's fury avoided us completely. Our hearts go out to all of the folks in the affected areas. And I feel lucky to even be home. I had been in Austin for the Texas Book Festival. I had already canceled Sunday's appearances, but was scheduled on a flight out on Sunday morning. On Saturday afternoon, while signing books with Dav Pilkey, Lisa McMann and Mac Barnett, I glanced at my phone and saw that Massachusetts was in a state of emergency. I took off to pack my bags and head to the airport and got on the last flight of the evening. Sadly, many of my Northeast author friends are still stuck in Austin. Not a bad city to be stuck in, but I would far rather be home with my kids. Not only to shelter them from the storm, but to decorate pumpkins like this:

My three year old drew this. So proud!

And with the storm behind us, the yard decorations are back out on display:

Not only to I feel fortunate to have my house in order, I feel so lucky that folks like my work enough to use my characters as inspiration for their Halloween celebrations. Check out the awesome Nash family below! I had to pick myself up off the floor when I saw how they decked themselves out for their Halloween shenanigans.

And remember Lunch Lady super fan who drew this awesome comic? Her librarian sent in this photo of her storytime pumpkin!

And this morning, third grade teacher Kerry Ciccone tweeted this photo to me:

And that's not to mention that her son made this awesome project for his literacy parade project!

If you are celebrating Halloween and using any of my characters, I am so incredibly honored! And I would love to see your creativity in action! Please email them to me (props at studiojjk.com) or Tweet or Facebook them to me!

UPDATED!

Laura Lintz, who shares the same initials as Lunch Lady, sent in this awesome picture from the Arlington Library!

Flashes of LL yellow in New Hampshire

I had a great week of school visits in Merrimack, NH visiting with the students at Reeds Ferry, Mastricola and Thorntons Ferry Schools. Everyone went all out! Check out the Bagheads that arrived at my presentations:





The lunch ladies at all of the schools were gifted yellow aprons from the reading teachers. They certainly had fun playing with the kids' perceptions of them. They fastened Spork Phones to their visors, and even provided dinner theater, chasing teachers and librarians through the cafeteria at lunchtime!











Kids invented their own super-creative gadgets. Their brilliant ideas were posted at each school for all to see!

















Every detail of the trip was so well-considered!





Thank you to everyone who made these school visits a reality!

Full-circle Baghead

For Read Across America Day, Maryn Shilale dressed as Baghead. Check it out:

The extra cool part about Maryn dressing up as Baghead? Her gandfather was my high school art teacher back at Holy Name Central Catholic High School in Worcester, MA. Here's a picture of me in Mr. Shilale's art room back when I was 14:

And it was around that time when he assigned us a homework project where we were to draw a still-life of a paper bag, using only brown paper, white chalk and black Conte crayon. Being one who preferred his art to have a narrative, I cut a face into my paper bag and drew this:

And years later, that still-life assignment would inspire me to draw this:

And now his granddaughter has dressed up as Baghead! It doesn't get much cooler than that!

PF in NJ

I had a great few days down in River Edge, NJ last week visiting with the kids at Roosevelt and Cherry Hill. Kids made awesome art projects, wrote great stories and even punked themselves out in anticipation of my arrival.

Check out these guys:

They rule the school!

And check out this great article on Patch.com!

LL6 contest winners!

Lunch ladies and gentlemen, it is time to announce the winners of the Lunch Lady Field Trip Photo Contest!

Our celebrity judges this year include. . .

Dan "Sidekicks" Santat

Jenni "Babymouse" Holm

and Chad "Wimpy Kid Art Director" Beckerman

Without further adieu, the judges have weighed in and the winners are. . .

In the category of Grand Prize Winner, Kid Edition, we have:

Ethan and Zayden, who traveled to New Brunswick!

This is what our judges had to say:

"True Lunch Ladies only use the freshest ingredients for their fish sticks."—Dan Santat

"Would you like tartar sauce or cocktail sauce with your lobster tail?"—Jenni Holm

In the category of Grand Prize Winner, Grown-up Edition, we have:

Sher, who time traveled and visited the Tribe Woden Thor Medieval Feast And Tourney!

 

This is what our judges had to say:

"Serving lunch ... on trenchers!"—Jenni Holm

"Today's special is mutton" —Dan Santat

And here's a bonus shot of Lunch Lady tied up in the stocks!

The grand-prize winners will be receiving some Lunch Lady and the Field Trip Fiasco art!

But there were a few other stand-outs that deserved some shout-outs.

"Lunch Lady" Kathy visited CNN headquarters!

"Lunch Lady" Donna is prepping for a very busy lunch!

These ladies in yellow will be receiving a special Lunch Lady sketch in the mail!


Thank you all for playing along! I hope that you enjoy the latest installment in the Lunch Lady series, available today!

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!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lgd51qfCo7Q

A dramatic retelling of Annie Was Warned:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h3QDo4P4qKk

A Lunch Lady play:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lB8Ej3Ag3sw

A Punk Farm / Baghead puppet show:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6-rYgwN8aso

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