Free eBook — Thank You Wisconsin: The Punk Farm Sketchbooks

A free eBook in honor of Punk Farm's 10th anniversary and next month's paperback release of Punk Farm on Tour!

It will be a trip down memory lane as you dig through my archives.

Best viewed on a tablet.

Download Thank You, Wisconsin: The Punk Farm Sketchbooks here:
http://studiojjk.com/makingof.html

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!

Summer Flashback: Nantucket Book Festival

Thank you to everyone at the Nantucket Book Festival for an excellent weekend!

Photo from the NBF FB page.

Nantucket - a small island with two power indie bookstores!

The ‪Nantucket‬ Book Fest had a party for the authors at the Great Harbor Yacht Club, so I wore my pirate/sailor socks. Because, you know - that's what one wears to a yacht club, right?

Summer Flashback: The Houston Public Library

Everyone at the Houston Public Library were so awesome. They even made giant Fish Stick Nunchucks!

I landed at IAH a day ahead of my event at the Houston Public Library and was greeted by a familiar face...

It was an unbelievable day at the Houston Public Library. These librarians went all out! Just crazy over the top! They decorated their hallways to look like the back alley of a ‪PunkFarm‬ concert.

Lost Elephant posters at the Houston Library! Listed on the tear-aways: call numbers to books about elephants!

At the Houston Library - kids could be any Lunch Lady villain they wanted to be!

Honey, I shrunk the Lunch Lady. Giant LL gadgets at the Houston Library.

The librarians feted art contest entrants with lunch and free books inside lunch boxes!

Dress up and rock with Punk Farm or visit the actual animals in the petting zoo!

The kids of the Houston Library will grow up to fill our libraries and rule our world!

Thank you Houston Library librarians and patrons for an incredible day!

Check out more of the awesomeness on the Houston Public Library's Flickr page!

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 

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!

PF in the Horn Book

The January/February edition of The Horn Book has a nice article entitled, "What Makes a Good Rock-and-Roll Book?". It's a great round-up of all things that literally rock. Get it? LITERALLY? Because it's about books . . .

Anyhow, they have some very kind words about Punk Farm and Punk Farm on Tour:

Punk Farm and Punk Farm on Tour truly capture the rock experience in all its ragged glory, from band-mate camaraderie and songwriting to live performance and audience participation.

Read the full article here. And thank you to my friends over at The Horn Book!

Sketchbook Saturday

Here's a spread from Monkey Boy to Lunch Lady of the creative process I took when writing Punk Farm.

Monkey Boy to Lunch Lady is filled with information like this on each book in my bibliography. When you purchase my sketchbook, 100% of the proceeds will be connecting Worcester area youth with art education. Buy the book here.

best present ever

This Sunday, my first book turns ten years old. HappyBirthdayAuthor.com unknowingly has given me the most amazing anniversary present ever. Check out "The JJK Reading Experience".

And check out the awesome postcards sent from Mrs. VanRaepenbusch's 2nd graders. They made 50 postcards for me in honor of the postcards I sent to publishers when I was trying to break into publishing. (This is a part of the author study found in the above link.)

PF - MGM - OMG!

 

Variety has broken the latest Punk Farm movie news! There's a legendary studio! A Simpsons director! A new screen writer on the team!

Read all about it!

 

Our Lady of Lunch

Today I had a first. I presented in a chapel! I can now check that off my bucket list. I had a great time visiting with the kids at River Oaks Baptist school!

ePF

Punk Farm and Punk Farm on Tour are now available as eBooks! They are available on all devices, wherever eBooks are sold. (Click on the titles for more information.) 

Did you know that your local indie bookstore may be selling eBooks, too? Click here for a full list of indies that sell eBooks.

LA Times Festival of Books - Target stage recap

Last week at the LA Times Book Fest, I had a blast reading on the Target sage. And what a stage it was! It has a jumbo-tron screen that allowed attendees to see the action on stage from a distance and a super-nifty easel that looked like framed art.

I loved yucking it up with readers and the other authors in attendance. Here are some of the people I hung out with that day:

Lisa Yee mistook me for the bellhop at the hotel. These aren't her bags, they're Peep's.

That's Josh Lewis and Super Chicken Nugget Boy!

Backstage with Lisa, we had a chuckle about the whole luggage misunderstanding...

Lisa introduced me to THE Megan MacDonald of JUDY MOODY fame. Imagine MY surprise when she geeked out over Lunch Lady. HELLO?! JUDY. MOODY! 

Justin Roberts was charged with the duty of introducing me. Poor guy. He has performed on the Today Show and in the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, but the thought of saying "Krosoczka" in front of a crowd had his heart racing. How'd he do? He pronounced "Krosoczka" flawlessly. But poor guy, I will now bust his chops for all time for calling me Gerald. (That's a member of his band.)

Check out the crowd for RL Stine! Got to meet Bob backstage, just a few days before I'd be introducing him at the Children's Choice Book Awards Gala.

Ran into old pal Marc Brown. (And in case you're wondering, I do pinch myself every time I refer to Marc as an old pal. He's one of my heroes.)

For the first time, met Twitter pal and fellow GNist Kazu Kibuishi in person. Amulet=awesome!

This is what it looks like backstage in the control center.

Lunch Lady, come in Lunch Lady... this is Betty!

Check out this video that Twitter pal AlyB took. If you couldn't be at the Fest, here's a little peak at my set:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0B5JmfkqZiQ

And finally, saw four of these stellar billboards around town advertising the Fest. WOW!

With all of the highlights of the day, the biggest WOW moment came to me when a young reader was such a fan of the Lunch Lady books that she brought every copy from home and also bought a set to donate to her library. What a cool thing to do! I am beyond honored!


Thanks to all of my friends at Target for an AWESOME day! You guys are doing such wonderful things to promote literacy! Thanks for all of your hard work!