Dahl tribute pieces to benefit First Book - Manhattan!

With the blessing of the Roald Dahl Estate, I created these tribute pieces. They were displayed on stage at the First Book Manhattan benefit as the actors read from Dahl's works, and they're up for auction through Friday afternoon! Help First Book Manhattan get brand-new books into the hands of young readers! BID! http://firstbooknyc.wordpress.com/

I had a remarkable time hosting the event, and reading along with the grand finale performance of James and the Giant Peach! Check out more photos on Symphony Space's Facebook page here!

From left to right: Paul Giamatti, Amy Ryan, Luke Kelly, Jenny Powers, James Naughton, Cavenaugh, Mara Wilsom and me! Photo ©2013 Rahav Segev / Photopass.com

UPDATED: More photos on First Book NYC's Facebook page as well!

Summer Flashback: The American Library Association's annual conference

Thank you to everyone in the League of Librarians who came out to hear us yuck it up at our panel: Krosoczka! Telgemeir! TenNapel! Comics Your Kids Love By Names You Can't Pronounce, Moderated by Jon Scieszka. It was standing room only and Raina, Doug, Jon and I had a very engaging discussion on comics, consonants and hilarity.

And of course a special thank you to those who used the official hashtag: #ScieszkaKrosoczkaTelgemeierandTenNapeltalkcomics. (Seriously, check the link, people used that hashtag!)

Here are some photos from the panel:

And of course, a big thank you to all who came to get signatures and sketches in their Lunch Lady and Platypus Police Squad books!

Also, it was great to see everyone at the Newbury/Caldecott Awards Banquet. You all clean up very well. Here I am with Knopf Publisher Nancy Hinkel and Newbery medalists Patricia McLaughlin and Cynthia Voigt. 

Meltdown ● March 30th ● Who will take the stage in 2013?

The 2013 Meltdown shall soon be upon us!

My better half and me.

It's hard to believe that this March 30th will be the 5th year for The River's Music Meltdown and Book Bash. Or, as it's known for short—MELTDOWN! When my wife Gina and I moved to the Pioneer Valley, we knew we wanted to get involved with our new community and we wasted no time doing so. We always loved the events that I had attended for Punk Farm, where music was incorporated into readings, and saw a big hole in our author-saturated town of Northampton: NO book festival! We floated the idea for a day where authors and kids' musicians would swap stage time to our new friends Bill Childs and Monte Belmonte, DJs at the local radio station. Next thing you knew, we were teaming up and the first Meltdown was staged in 2009!

Since its inception, we have brought Grace Lin, Jon Scieszka, Jeanne Birdsall, Jeff Mack, Jef Czekaj, Diane deGroat, Mo Willems, Timothy Basil Ering, Anna Alter, Jane Yolen, Heidi Stemple, Scott Fischer, John Bemelmans Marciano, Eric Wight and Lisa Yee to the stage! We love that the kids in our neighborhood have had the opportunity to see all of these authors!

And now that we're in our 5th year, our oldest daughter is four and will truly enjoy this year's Meltdown! She was all of three months during the first staging of this event!

Our girls helped us make a display for our local library!

Much credit needs to go to WRSI The River. They do all of the heavy lifting to make Meltdown something that can happen. There are a lot of finances that go behind an event like this and their hard work allows Gina and I to program the author side without worrying about permits, etc.

So who do we have line up this year? Here's who you will see on Saturday, March 30th!

Please note that Meltdown is moving this year! We've outgrown our previous space and will now be at Smith Vocational High School, located at 80 Locust St!

10:40 AM

This guy.

We really had to pull some strings for this one. But seriously, we kind of did. My publisher will be releasing LL #9 a few weeks early exclusively for Meltdown 2013. So if you want to read LL and the Video Game Villain before the rest of the country, this is your chance!

11:40 am

Angela DiTerlizzi!

Our copy of Ang's Say What? is already dog-eared. We can never read it just once, as the girls insist on repeated readings. Which is fine by us, this book ROCKS!

12:40 pm

Matthew McElligott!

Matthew's books are a huge hit with our girls. (Do you see a theme here? Our daughters seem to be running the show...) Even Aliens Need Snacks is a sequel to Matt's equally hilarious Even Monsters Need Haircuts. 

1:40 pm

Judy Schachner!

Skippyjon Jones, everyone's favorite kitty-boy who thinks he's a Chihuahua, will be represented at Meltdown 2013! These books are crazy popular, and crazy fun, as is Judy!  Our daughter runs around the house dressed as Skippyjon. Esta un cabeza de loco. My Spanish is rusty. I need to go read more Sippyjon Jones books... 

2:40 pm

Tony DiTerlizzi

But wait! There's more DiTerlizzi to be had! Tony's books range from picture books (G is for One Gzonk gets our girls giggling) to chapter books (T's new WandLa series will keep you at the edge of your seats and inspire your imaginations!). We can't wait to see what T will conjure up on the Meltdown stage!

Not only do all of these authors write superlative books, but they also put on fantastic shows. That's a big part of what we look for in Meltdown authors—stage presence! You'll never be disappointed by who we invite to read, they're all stahs!

And of course, Bill Childs has another fantastic line up of musicians. Be sure to check the official Meltdown page for more info! www.rivermeltdown.com

Watch Jeanne Birdsall's TEDx Talk

Jeanne Birdsall reveals her cheerleader past, recounts her first broken heart and shares beautiful insight to finding that inner child. Whether or not you have read The Penderwicks, you will find this talk absolutely intriguing. But if you have read the books, you will only fall deeper in love with them.

This TEDx Talk is a must watch!

I'm very proud of my surrogate auntie!

Peter Brown on The Book Report with JJK today at 5:40 pm EST

Tune in to SiriusXM channel 78 and listen for a new episode of The Book Report with JJK on Kids Place Live! My old buddy, Peter Brown, will be the guest! Pete is the very talented author/illustrator of picture books like The Curious Garden, You Will Be My Friend and so many more!

lucky me in Lucky and Squash!

I do believe I failed to blog about this earlier in the year. But my dear friends and neighbors Jeanne Birdsall and Jane Dyer teamed up on an amazing book called Lucky and Squash.

During the making of the book, Jane called Jeanne. She needed photo reference of a man holding a dog. As luck would have it, Jeanne had a drawer full of just that! Huh?  You see, Jeanne took a series of author photos of me holding Ralph. She passed them on to Jane. So if you are reading Lucky and Squash to your kids, and you think you see me, you're not going crazy. That is indeed me in the book playing the part of Mr. Bernard!

Here is a photo of the talented duo reading from the book at last spring's launch at nearby Broadside Bookshop!

blog time machine: Children's Choice Book Awards recap

It seems like ages ago, but I can't let such a monumental evening go unblogged. I was honored to return as host for the 5th annual Children's Choice Book Awards. It was a fantastic evening, filled with literati, heartfelt acceptance speeches and for me—some full-circle moments. 

I arrived early to rehearse a few bits.

The show opened with a video I cooked up with Scieszka and some other kid lit pals:

Check out more photos and video below.

The Annual Running of the Illustrators

This Sunday at 4:30 p.m., hordes of children's book illustrators will descend upon the R. Michelson Galleries for the annual Children's Illustration Exhibit . Hopefully nobody will be gored. See you there!

RISD's XYZ Magazine

I'm honored to have been featured in a special book-themed issue of RISD's alumni magazine along with Brian Selznick and David Wiesner. You can read the article below! You can also flip through the entire issue to read about RISD alum doing great work on the printed page. (Just a head's up, not all of the subject matter in the other articles is kid-friendly.)

Open publication - Free publishing - More 2011

the story of Tomie and us

Tomie's newest Strega Nona book is now on bookshelves.

In the summer of 2006, I started dating a girl who captured my heart. (SPOILER ALERT: She’s now my wife.) In the first few weeks of our dating life, Gina and I didn’t talk about work. We didn’t allow our vocations to define who we were to one another. But when Gina made me dinner one night and I told her that I was a children’s book author and illustrator, she sprang up and ran to her room. She emerged with her childhood copy of Strega Nona. The book was her childhood favorite and she had brought her dog-eared copy with her on every single move since leaving home for college. “Have you met this guy?” she asked. “No,” I responded. “I’ve never met Tomie dePaola.”

Just a few months later, I found myself in Los Angeles at the SCBWI annual conference as a faculty member alongside Tomie himself. What were the odds? What an honor to teach alongside a man whose work and career I admired so deeply. And more importantly—with someone who held such a special place in my girlfriend’s heart. Strega Nona represented Gina’s childhood. Over the course of the conference, Tomie and I became fast friends. He's an easy person to laugh uproariously with—a trait I find paramount. One day, Gina was having an incredibly difficult day at work, so I asked Tomie to leave her a voicemail. He obliged and Gina held on to that voicemail for years. At the end of the conference, there was an autographing party. I bought Tomie’s art book, Tomie dePaola: His Art & His Stories. It’s a hefty volume. At that point, I knew that this girl back home was the one. And when I asked Tomie to sign it, I asked him to sign it to “Gina and Jarrett”. I know, a big commitment. Even my friends looked at me sideways. I did just start dating this girl.

But by December of that year, I proposed marriage and Gina and I bought a house in Northampton. The first piece of art that I bought for our home was a piece by Tomie—a scene from a Strega Nona book. I presented Gina with the artwork on Valentine’s Day.

Since then, Tomie has become such a dear, dear friend to our family. He has welcomed us into his home and we have welcomed him into ours. We’ve enjoyed many dinners out with he and his assistant, Bob, where we continue to laugh uproariously. And of course, we were there to cheer him on at the Carle Museum of Picture Book Art when they mounted a massive showing of his work.

A few months back, Tomie presented us with the newest Strega Nona book, Strega Nona’s Gift. It’s a Christmas book and Gina loves Christmas. I mean loves the holiday. Every February, she looks at me as though I’m the Grinch when I pull out the red and green storage bins. Tomie sides with Gina on this. And when Tomie helped us celebrate Gina’s birthday, he showered her with Christmas decorations. (Either to make her happy or to spite me, not sure...) So anyhow—we were so excited to see a Strega Nona Christmas book. Then we opened the book.

And wow! Imagine how astronomically amazing it was for us to see our names in the book. To have any book by Tomie dedicated to us would be an honor. But a Strega Nona book? There are no words!


So thank you, Tomie! Thank you for being our dear friend. Thank you for laughing uproariously. And thank you for the book dedication!

And of course, thank you for this:

Zen Master Tomie from Jarrett Krosoczka on Vimeo.

 Listen in to a thank you Zoe sent to Tomie when we received the book:

photos from last week's National Book Festival

Last week, G and I traveled to Washington, D.C. for the National Book Festival. We had never been and I was so delighted by the invitation to read, draw and sign books on the National Mall. There were approximately one-hundred-gazillion people in attendance, many of them with an ISBN. Here are some pictures from the weekend:

On Friday afternoon, I helped plug the National Book Festival on Sirius XM's Kids Place Live. Poor Mindy lost her voice so Calef Brown and I interviewed each other! It was so much fun. And no pressure, but my first time "hosting" a radio show was live and on satellite radio.

Friday night was the Gala reception at the Library of Congress. You know a place is fancy when this is the hallway to the Men's Room.

It was so fancy, I was afraid the Joker and his goons were going to crash the party and snatch up everyone's jewelry. 

They let us authors climb the librarian's command center. That's Tom Angleberger, George O'Connor, Loren Long, Lisa Yee, myself, John Bemelmans Marciano and Eric Wight. 

This is the Reading Room, which is closed off to tourists. Grandeur to the highest level!

Otis and Ollie's fathers at the Library of Congress.

On Saturday morning, I jumped in a cab with Loren and Lisa and we headed to the author's breakfast at the Washington Post. 

There, we saw even more authors! Here is Brian Selznick, John Bemelmans Marciano, myself, Gordon Korman, Lisa Yee, Allen Say, Jon J Muth, and Loren Long. 

Later that morning, we made it over to the festival and hung out backstage with the likes of Tomie dePaola and Matthew Reinhart. . .

And Hoda! Here is G and her cousin with the Today Show co-host. 

It was a great pleasure to meet William Joyce. I've admired his work for as long as I can remember.

Brian signed our copy of Wonderstruck and scoffed at the difficulty of writing out our last name. Whatever, Selznick!

That's John Rocco and Mac Barnett chilling in-between stage times. Snappy dressers, right? 

Here's Jack Gantos working the crowd. Watching Jack give a speech is like watching a prize fighter in the ring!

Finally it was stage time for me!

I did my Lunch Lady thing. I was astounded by how many kids knew the ins and outs of the LL books. They were shouting out the various gadgets. It was amazing and very special for me.

And I met another Jarrett! This Jarrett is only the 6th Jarrett I've met in my entire life!
Photo by @LitChat

I introduced Ollie and read it aloud publicly for the first time. 

I didn't have time to read the full book and the groans from the audience, when I left them hanging at a pivotal point in the story, was all the affirmation I needed for my new book!

Check out Tomie's book signing line! Astounding!  I loved seeing people clutching their copies of Strega Nona.