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I think I have now fully come down from the momentous high that was hosting the Children's Choice Book Awards. What a night! It could not have gone better. Which is a relief, because I'd been thinking about the night since I was invited to host back in November! That's six months of thinking, planning and pitching jokes to my my poor wife. My monologue went off without a hitch and if you were there and thought it was funny—thank my wife. Because there were plenty of jokes that I would throw out there and she'd look at me and say, "Please don't tell that joke." We watch a lot of "Modern Family" in our house and the episode where Phil Dunphy was invited to host the Southern California Realtors Banquet hit especially close to home.
But thankfully, I listen to my wife, scrapped the lame jokes and it was such a wildly successful night for all involved. Huge props to the Children's Book Council and Every Child a Reader for throwing such a fabulous party. It seems just about everyone with an ISBN was there that evening. Here are a few photographic highlights:
In the weeks leading up to the CCBA gala, I threw lots of stuff out on the social networks, mostly in jest. One week, I posted that I would demand only yellow M&Ms backstage and asked if people could give me more suggestions for my hosting contract. Imagine my surprise then, when before the program began, the CBC crew presented me with this gift for hosting the festivities.
This brings the diva level to a whole new level—that's my face!
First rule as host, coordinate your outfit with the set.
Just before the ceremony began, I ran into Jeff Kinney's editor, Charlie. "Hey what do you think Jeff would think of this joke?" I asked. "You have to do it!" he responded. It made me a little nervous, because I don't know Jeff personally. But poor guy has been nominated for "Author of the Year" three times running now and hasn't won. So I called him the Suzan Lucci of children's books and told him he wasn't the only guy in town with a fancy balloon. I met Jeff after the event and he not only appreciated the jokes, but told me his kids liked my books. What?! That hardly seems to make sense.
It was such a thrill to not only get to meet so many amazingly talented legends of the field, but to get to introduce them, too. I was star struck with all the presenters, which included Hilary Knight, R.L. Stine, Walter Dean Myers, Laurie Halse Anderson, Erin E. Stead, Clare Vanderpool and Katherine Paterson. Here I am chatting with Madame Ambassador before the awards presentation began:
By the time rehearsals rolled around, I still had no idea if I had won or not. In fact I didn't until seconds before it was announced. But in rehearsals, RL Stine looked down the list of nominees, looked at me and said, "Oh you're not going to win, look at all of these nominated books." I responded, "I know, I don't expect to." Turns out he was ribbing me. Who knew he could be as funny as he can be scary! Seriously one of the funniest people I've ever met.
But just in case, I gave away cash to the fine youngsters who assisted with the presentation.
When it came time for me to introduce this year's Newbery and Caldecott medalists, Snooki stormed the stage. She always seems to be turning up where those award winners are . . .
Snooki was, of course, Jon Scieszka. Now Jon gets a lot of credit for getting dulled up like this, but his wife Jeri made him look like this and his daughter Casey lived through this. How did this happen, you might ask? Well when Snooki was on the Today Show back in January, I knew this would be ripe for lampooning. And I knew Scieszka was the man for the job. So right before he took the Meltdown stage back in March, I made sure to ask him in front of his wife. He wasn't so sure, his wife thought it was hysterical. And there you go . . .
Another fake social media update that I threw out there was that I was planning a musical number. And The Flannery Brothers responded with, "Let us know what you need!" Little did they know . . .
. . . that LeVar Burton would be attending. And wouldn't it be cool to lead the crew in a rendition of the Reading Rainbow theme song?
LeVar was every bit as awesome as one would hope he'd be. More so! In rehearsals, he asked, "What tone are you singing in?" I replied, "Tone deaf." Afterwards, LeVar pulled me aside and told me my voice was better than I was giving myself credit for. Wow - if LeVar can make me feel better about my voice, he really is the nicest person in the world. (Hear my voice for yourself in the video below.) What a thrill for me though—I grew up with Reading Rainbow. As a kid, when I saw the Reading Rainbow logo on a book, I knew that book was for me!
Congratulations to all of the winners. Here's a full list:
Author of the Year
Rick Riordan for The Lost Hero (The Heroes of Olympus, Book 1) (Disney-Hyperion)
Illustrator of the Year
David Wiesner for Art & Max (Clarion/Houghton Mifflin Harcourt)
Kindergarten to Second Grade Book of the Year
Little Pink Pupby Johanna Kerby (Putnam/Penguin)
Third Grade to Fourth Grade Book of the Year
Lunch Lady and the Summer Camp Shakedownby Jarrett J. Krosoczka (Knopf/Random
House)
Fifth Grade to Sixth Grade Book of the Year
The Red Pyramid (The Kane Chronicles, Book 1)by Rick Riordan (Disney-Hyperion)
Teen Choice Book of the Year
Will Grayson, Will Graysonby John Green and David Levithan (Dutton/Penguin)
A few videos did surface on the Internets. I will warn you ahead of time, I do not have a good singing voice. And this seriously was a huge act of bravery on my part to sing in front of people, but here I am singing the Reading Rainbow theme song:
And excuse me as I brush my shoulders off, but as you read Ms. Birdsall's latest, see if you can spot the references to the Krosoczka family she hid in the book. You'll find a reference to my wife, Gina, and me, a reference to our daughter, Zoe, and a reference to Pig of Punk Farm.
Imagine our surprise when Jeanne dropped off an advanced copy a few months back. She's a sneaky one, as she's known about this for months and months and saved the surprise for the printed page. We were and are beyond honored, beyond thrilled and beyond stunned to have a place amongst the Penderwick sisters.
Sketchbook Saturday has been dark for the last few weeks. With deadlines and preparation for all that was Children's Book Week, I had no time for free sketching. No time for posting old sketches either!
I'm proud to be back on track. Here's a sketch drawn while waiting to take off from Chicago to Baltimore.
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:
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!
I've been traveling since Monday's Children's Choice Book Awards Gala and want to write a recap on the whole evening, but I would be remiss if I didn't take a moment to thank you, dear reader. Thank YOU (and you and you and you) for voting LUNCH LADY AND THE SUMMER CAMP SHAKEDOWN as the "Third to Fourth Grade Book of the Year"! I did not think I would take home a trophy, especially not with the contenders in the nominee pool.
But WOW! With the night being such a crazy night for me as host, it wasn't until I was driving home from New York that I realized my readers gave me this award two years in a row. I am forever grateful for the ardent supporters I have out there. You mean the world! You keep reading, I'll keep writing.
And come June, LL4 will be splashed up on the Toys 'R Us jumbotron screen in Times Sq, along with the other winning titles!
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 theChildren'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.
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.)
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!
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?
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 . . .
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.
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.
