Get your Lunch Lady on!

Want to be stylish like Lunch Lady? Then get your Lunch Lady on at the new LL store!

The first person to post a picture (on the LL FB fan page) of their lunch lady in some Lunch Lady gear will get a sketch of LL from me!

Sketchbook Saturday

Tweetering

I don't Twitter or Tweet. But Lunch Lady does. So if you are a Tweeter, please follow Mizz Lady Lunch at www.twitter.com/lunchladycomics

She'll tell you how her day is going.

Dear Boston

Hey there Bostonians --

If you are in town this Saturday, come on out to the Boston Public Library for the official close of Children's Book Week. Here is the official announcement from the Children's Book Council:

In partnership with the Massachusetts Center for the Book and Boston Public Library, Children's Book Week will officially conclude in Copley Square, Boston, at the main branch of the BPL. Activities will also be held in the neighborhood branch locations on this day in celebration of Book Week. Participating authors are Paul Carrick (Charlesbridge), Kate Feiffer (Simon & Schuster), Jarrett J. Krosoczka (Knopf), Megan McDonald (Candlewick), Sara Pennypacker (Disney), Michael Rex (Penguin), Greg Tang (Scholastic), Linda Urban (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt), and Alan Witschonke (Mikaya Press).
Join the fun from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. just outside the Rey Children's Room on the main floor.

 See you there!

Sketchbook Saturday

LL 1 and 2

I think every author would agree that the best part of creating a book is getting to hold the finished product in your hands for the first time. And today I had that experience . . . times two! My wonderful editor overnighted me a package with copies of the finished Lunch Lady #1 and #2 books! And as an added bonus, there were also some LL posters that Random House produced to hand out at BookExpo and upcoming conferences.

Here's a sneak peak at Lunch Lady and the Cyborg Substitute and Lunch Lady and the League of Librarians, which are both due to be on book shelves on July 28th!


Woo-HOO!

BOOK BY BOOK: deleted scenes and outtakes

Enjoy these last tidbits from the BOOK BY BOOK video.

BOOK BY BOOK: deleted scenes and outtakes from Jarrett Krosoczka on Vimeo.

a star-studded book by a talented young artist

I've received many great renditions of my characters over the years, but never a whole book where they all made an appearance! Enjoy this excerpt from this talented young artist's creation below.





Do you have a note or a drawing that you'd like to share? I would love to see them!
They can be emailed to me via props@studiojjk.com or mailed to:
Jarrett J. Krosoczka
PO Box 60155
Florence, MA 01062

Sketchbook Saturday

Thank you, Mr. Santat

A BIG thank you to my pal Dan Santat, who not only included Ralph in the endpapers for an upcoming book written by Lisa Yee, but also gave us the original artwork!

This piece will be framed and placed in a spot of honor in our home. Thank you, Dan!!!

Oh - and Ralph is honored.

LA Times Festival of Books wrap-up

G, Z and I had a great time in LA. We did some sightseeing and Zoe had her first big Hollywood meeting with her daddy's film/tv rights manager -- Eddie Gamarra of the Gotham Group. But of course our primary objective was to rock out at the LA Times Festival of Books. Target had a stellar line up for Saturday's children's stage. David Shannon, Meghan McDonald, Anna Dewdney, Yo Gabba Gabba -- the list goes on and on! Backstage we met Brooke Shields, Yeardley Smith and Eric Carle. If only Zoe knew what was going on. Although, she may now know the word "Krosoczka". Because apparently when I was being introduced, every time the  MC (Debi Derryberry, voice of Jimmy Neutron) said my name, Zoe was backstage raising her arms to the word "Krosoczka".

The biggest highlight had to be meeting Eric Carle. I had met him in passing a few times back when the Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art first opened, but he had left for warmer southern climates by the time I moved to Northampton. I've always been a fan of his and respected his work, but now that I have been reading his work to my little girl -- I am in awe. He is truly a brilliant man. I'll gladly read The Very Hungry Caterpillar dozens of times in a row . . . and have and loved every minute of it. 

The weather was perfect and the audience was awesome! Here's what it looked like backstage from wife and daughter's perspective.

Avid reader Yukari posted some pics and a video on her Flickr page. Yukari also gave Zoe an awesome handmade tag blanket. Check out her stuff. 

And of course what's a book related trip to LA without meeting the town's most high profile literary character. Here I am with Peep and his (her?) friend Lisa Yee.

Target had a jam-packed day on Sunday as well. Unfortunately, we had to fly home. But I did see some pals in passing at the hotel -- like Jennifer and Matthew Holm, Peter Brown and Jon Scieszka.

Hope all who attended had a great weekend!  

3 months from today

Lunch Lady and the Cyborg Substitute and Lunch Lady and the League of Librarians will both be out three months from today! Stay tuned for exciting excitement . . .

And just yesterday, Publishers Weekly listed LL#1 as a Children's Galleys to Grab in their BookExpo America issue.

Sketchbook Saturday

Dear Los Angeles

Dear Los Angeles --

I'm a comin' your way! If you live in the city of Angels, then come to the UCLA campus this weekend for the LA Times Festival of Books! On Saturday, I will be taking the Target stage at 12:20 PM and signing books afterward. Also taking the stage on Saturday are David Shannon, Megan McDonald, Robin Preiss Glasser, Anna Dewdney, Eric Carle, Playhouse Disney’s “Choo-Choo Soul”, Yo Gabba Gabba, Justin Roberts & the Not Ready for Naptime Players, Yeardley Smith (the voice of Lisa Simpson!) and Brooke Shields. Pretty nuts, huh? And then there is Sunday where you can catch another stellar line up (Peter Brown, Jon Scieszka, Jenni & Matthew Holm).

Check out the full schedule here.

All in all there will be 450 authors there on all sorts of stages. You can peruse that list here.

Just One More Book stops by Studio JJK part 2

The Just One More Book folk stick around Studio JJK long enough to hear about my upcoming Lunch Lady graphic novel series. Hope you enjoy this sneak preview and behind-the-scenes look at the books.

Sketchbook Saturday

Independent Film Channel blog shout-out

I referenced my friend's band in Punk Farm on Tour and about a year later he noticed. And now the singer from his band has blogged about it on the Independent Film Channel's Indie Ear blog.

Check it out.

Just One More Book stops by Studio JJK

The Just One More Book folk soldier on in their Rock Stars of Reading tour and stop by Studio JJK. I take out my brushes and paints and put them to work. They call it picture-book-boot-camp.

Rock Stars of Reading

The Just One More Book folk continue on their road trip and stop by Jeanne Birdsall's house in the latest Rock Stars of Reading episode. Jane Dyer, David Ezra Stein and I sit down with Jeanne at her table and we discuss the business that we are in and how we got into it in the first place.

You can listen to a thirty minute podcast, of what was a wonderful two hour discussion, here.

Sketchbook Saturday

you can't keep a good pug down

When we were renovating this old detached garage to be my art studio, we built French doors into it, to get all the natural light possible. Then Ralph came along. And he is very territorial. Someone driving by on a bike? He barks. Squirrel? He barks. A house guest who leaves the house? He barks once he sees them out the window.

So the French doors are covered by Roman shades. But Ralph seems to have made adjustments to them accordingly, in order to bark at the neighborhood cat.

Sketchbook Saturday

Texas cowboys

On a recent visit to Texas, I was greeted by these doors to the library at Sivells Elementary.


So incredibly cool. The wonderful people of Sivells El also put together cool displays like these:

I should also note that on way to the school, I saw a man riding a horse -- off the highway -- talking on his cell phone. You would think Texas would have a hands-free law!

Just One More Book - video series

My friends Mark and Andrea over at Just One More Book made a trip to the Northampton area last fall with their daughters Lucy and Bayla. They visited with authors and took photos, audio and video -- all to put together what will be an amazing video series. Interested in taking a peak into the lives of children's book authors? Check out their first video and stay tuned for future episodes here!

Meltdown a success!

The Meltdown was a massive success! The River must have packed in a thousand people, if not twice that, on Saturday. The place was rockin'! To see pics from the entire day, check out the River's website here.

Since G and I headed up the author side of things, here are some pics of the authors who presented.

Anna Alter

Timothy Basil Ering

Jane Yolen

Some sketchy guy with an unpronounceable last name
(photo by Jeanne Birdsall)

Sketchbook Saturday

River Radio Interview

I sat down with Monte Belmonte yesterday in support of my appearance at Meltdown. You can listen to that interview here. We talk about Punk Farm, Lunch Lady and he tries to get the dirt on the divide between authors and author/illustrators. He also covers my involvement with the Shepard Fairey exhibit and asks me to weigh in on the copyright issues of the Obama Hope poster. You can listen to that segment here.

event at Shepard Fairey exhibit

This Saturday morning, I will be reading Punk Farm and talking about it's inception at the Institute of Contemporary Art in Boston in conjunction with their Shepard Fairey exhibit. "Supply and Demand" is the first major museum retrospective of Shepard's work. As you may know, I reference Shep's Obey campaign in both Punk Farm books and even made a Pig sticker that paid homage to the Obey stickers. Shepard is a good friend and his star has continued to rise over the years with each new project. I am honored to play a small part in this exhibit.

Check out the full information here. My presentation begins at 10 AM and families can spend the rest of the day viewing the exhibition and making Punk Farm themed art with the museum staff.



(Also this Saturday for those of you who live in Western Massachusetts, I will be taking the stage at Meltdown, the River's family music and book bash in the afternoon.)

Where the Wild Things Are movie trailer

Prepare to have your minds blown...

CLICK HERE TO WATCH THE 'WHERE THE WILD THINGS ARE' MOVIE TRAILER!



You may be thinking to yourself, "Wow, Jarrett is really on top of this Where the Wild Things Are movie thing." Well, as it turns out, it really is just my good friend Galen who finds these things and sends them to me because he knows I am as obsessed as he is. And I once referred to Galen as my pal on this blog and he got all huffy, so I will instead say that I found this trailer through one of my life's greatest friends, Galen — who is featured in my book Annie Was Warned as the kid in the yellow hat dressed as the sea monster.

Where the Wild Things Are poster

*faints*

Sketchbook Saturday

Ralph and Ramona

Meltdown!

Back when G and I were first moving out here to Northampton, we thought in the back of our minds that we would like to get involved with our new community. We quickly realized that our skill set would lie somewhere within the realm of children's books. Naturally, right? But what would it be? We thought back to all of our favorite events that I have had with my books and most of them had some sort of live musical component. (I've seen many cool things because of the Punk Farm books.) I had been becoming friendly with two radio DJs over at WRSI The River - Bill Childs (kids' music guru) and Monte Belmonte (morning show super-star), who both had me on their programs. I knew that if I were to mention something to them, they would be into it. Not only were they into it, turns out that Bill had been planning something similar and Monte and the River had been hoping to put some sort of family event together. And there you have it. The gears began whirling at warp speed and now there is:

MELTDOWN The River's Family Music and Book Bash

It all goes down on Saturday, March 28th from 10 AM to 4 PM at JFK Middle School in Florence, MA. There will be rock, there will be readings, there will be so many activities for your young one it will blow your mind!

Check out The River's website for a full list of bands, authors and vendors. It's going to be a trip and G and I are so proud to be involved.

Roundtable radio

Hey radio fans - My radio spot with Jane Yolen, Jeanne Birdsall and Nick Clark has been posted on The Roundtable's website. You can listen to it here. Also click through to hear great segments with the Carle Museum's administrative staff, as well as Mo Willems and Norton Juster. It was a great day for those who could be at the museum and now makes for great listening wherever you may be!

Photo taken from The Roundtable's Flickr page. Sorry to blow up their spot, but the table was actually rectangle.

Sketchbook Saturday

WAMC Roundtable Broadcast from The Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art

Tune in to WAMC, Albany, NY's NPR affiliate on Friday morning. Host John Donahue will set up shop in the Great Hall of the Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art. I will join friends and literary neighbors Jeanne Birdsall, Norton Juster, Mo Willems, and Jane Yolen.

You can also listen on the web at www.wamc.org/prog-roundtable.html or come by the Carle Museum and see it in person!

Monkey Boys for a Monday

Check out these nifty drawings of Monkey Boy!






Do you have a note or a drawing that you'd like to share? I would love to see them!
They can be emailed to me via props@studiojjk.com or mailed to:
Jarrett J. Krosoczka
PO Box 60155
Florence, MA 01062

Sketchbook Saturday

Boston subway.

Rockin' in Rye

Yesterday I had a great visit with the students and teachers of Rye Elementary School up in New Hampshire. Today I received this great picture in my email inbox! The school is celebrating Read Across America Day and the students dressed up as their favorite book characters. Looking good, Holly!

a note from a young reader

Thanks, Jacob! That's awfully kind of you to say. I like shopping at the mall, too!

Do you have a note or a drawing? I would love to see them!
They can be emailed to me via props@studiojjk.com or mailed to:
Jarrett J. Krosoczka
PO Box 60155
Florence, MA 01062

interview in The Salem News

I was interviewed by The Salem News last week ahead of my gallery talk at the Montserrat College of Art. You can read it here.