BOOK BY BOOK: the making of a monkey man

I just delivered my SCBWI opening keynote. It went very well. I showed this video. People seemed to like it. I hope you do, too!


BOOK BY BOOK: the making of a monkey man from Jarrett Krosoczka on Vimeo.

Shia Baghead

On Thursday morning, Shia had an idea.
A very BIG idea.
A very BROWN idea.
A very BIG, BROWN, BAG idea.

Shia thought it was a good idea.
The gossip bloggers did not.


Shia LaBeouf is a big fan of the ol' Baghead book. He's been campaigning for the part of Josh in the big-screen adaptation and just yesterday took to the streets in full costume. That's method acting for ya!

Mr. Gina

Gina's high school girlfriend, Jess, recently sent G this message:

I thought you would appreciate this, tonight as I am putting Matt to bed, he has me read "Slug" as he calls it... then Jarrett's picture is at the end so I say "Matt, do you know who that is"... "No Mommy"..."Matt, that's Jarrett"..."HUH"..."No Mommy, that's Mr. Gina!" :) I thought you would get a kick out of that!

further evidence of my childhood Smurf obsession

I recently discovered a box of forgotten photos. In this box was a photo that provides further proof of my childhood Smurf obsession.

I present to you my Smurf Big Wheels.


This is Christmas day in what I believe is 1981 or 1982.

ATTN: SCBWI conference goers

Are you attending the SCBWI mid-winter conference in NYC? If so, please watch this video (if you haven't already).

Consider this pre-work for my opening keynote. If I were to....maybe have a sequel to this movie...you wouldn't want to be lost.

http://studiojjk.com/pagebypage.html

calendar boy

When I first mentioned to a friend way back when that I would be featured in a 2009 calendar as Mr. November, her initial thought went to Fuse #8 and her "Hot Men of Children's Literature" series. NO - it's not that kind of calendar. It's Perma-Bound's Author & Illustrator Birthday Calendar. They invited me to illustrate the cover. And yes, they did feature me in the month of November.

I am now officially a calendar boy.

Check out the full calendar here.

(And in case you were wondering, my birthday is on December 22nd, never thought I'd see that printed in a calendar!)

sleep?

What is this sleep you speak of?

Wait. I think I remember. I have a vague memory. Closing your eyes and shutting your mind off for 8 consecutive hours.

Yeah, infants have no respect for that concept. No respect at all.

Zoe is 1 month today and we're just starting to, on occasion, get chunks of consecutive hours of sleep.

The other night we slept for 7 hours. We'll take it when we can get it!

cool animation

Enjoy this animation created with 300,000 candles. (I found this video via Drawn.ca)

Happy 2009!

Happy New Year

We're wishing everyone a happy and healthy New Year. Here's to 2009!

Zoe Marie Krosoczka

On December 13th at 4:54 AM, the world stood still and time stopped. G and I welcomed our first child into this world. Zoe Marie is a beautiful, healthy and happy baby girl. Both baby and mommy are doing extraordinarily well. There are no words to fully communicate the joy, the pride and the sense of awe I have for the whole experience.

I can only imagine the affect that young Zoe will have on my work. I'll have a front row seat to the wonderment of experiencing the world for the first time.

For those of you who are curious how Ralph is adjusting, he is also doing very well. The doctors gave us some articles of Zoe's for him to sniff before we introduced the two. Ralph is already very protective of his little sister and has taken to kissing her little toes.

I hope that everyone enjoys the holiday season. I know I will, sleep deprived and all! I'll be signing off now to focus on my young family and will see you in two thousand and nine. Thank you to all who help me make this dream of book making a continued reality. And thank you to everyone who has sent an email, a voice mail, a text message, a Facebook wall post, a fax or a carrier pigeon with your well wishes for our Zoe.

Happy Holidays!
-Jarrett

It's the Holiday season...

Ralph is patiently awaiting the arrival of St. Nicholas...

speaking of adaptations

Speaking of adaptations -- are you excited to see the movie version of The Tale of Despereaux? It arrives in theaters next week. I cannot wait!



I also encourage you to check out the deluxe version of the book, which was handsomely illustrated in full color by Timothy Basil Ering.

two links of interest

I always check in to Drawn.ca for a good dose of visual inspiration. The site is fantastic.

Recently, they posted two links that deal with two author/illustrators. Both artists are incredibly talented and I have great admiration for their work.

Check out a video of Shaun Tan and get a great sneak peak at the adaptation that he's working on here.

And check out some stills from Oliver Jeffer's Lost and Found adaptation here.
(While you're there, click on the 'films' section and check out Studio aka's other fun projects.)

Party in Miami

A mother-son book club in Miami just shared these great photos of their book club meeting with Punk Farm. They read the book, listened to the Punk Farm music, discussed the story and then made their own instruments and had band practice!

Check out these great pictures:






Thank you to Danielle Joseph for sharing all of this info. Not only does she put together way cool book club meetings, she's also a writer and is expecting her first YA novel to be published in May '09. Congratulations, Danielle! Check out her website here.

and now Slug with an important message...

Librarian D'Etta Broam of Lexington, SC shared this great picture with me. Mrs. Mahoney's 3rd graders used Slug as their inspiration for their "Red Ribbon Week" door.

Very, very cool. And I couldn't agree more!

Where the Wild Things Are

My pal Galen recently sent me a link to an interview with Spike Jonze on Ain't it Cool News. As you may know, Mr. Jonze is directing a Dave Edgars penned script adaptation of Where the Wild Things Are. The pairing of these two creative geniuses for such a classic book makes me just giddy. And every time a new still from the film gets released, I get only giddier.

How cool does this look?!

a drawing from TJ

TJ is an incredibly talented young artist from Woodstock, VA. His mother was kind enough to e-mail this drawing he made of Punk Farm.

Great work, TJ!


If you have any drawings, 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

drawings from kids

It's been quite some time since I posted drawings sent in from kids. (Book deadlines sure have kept me busy these days.) Just the other day, though, a large envelope came in the mail with some great drawings by the 3rd graders at Pomfret Community School in Pomfret, CT. I wish I could scan them ALL and post them here, but here is a great sampling of what they sent in.








If you have any drawings, 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

WGBY Bookfair video

A few weeks back, I had the honor of helping WGBY with their Book Fair at Barnes and Noble. When shoppers picked up books, a percentage of their purchases went to help fund the good work that WGBY does in bringing PBS to Western New England. Now that the Book Fair has come and gone, WGBY produced this nifty video to thank their patrons.

I'll certainly be back to help in 2009!

Northern Virginia Daily

The Northern Virginia Daily gave a very nice write up of a local school visit stop.

Check it out here.