Monday, November 26, 2007

Interrogation from Nebraskan 5th grader

5th grader Jessica asks some hard hitting questions in the Lincoln School podcast. Mark and Andrea ... watch out, Jessica is gunning for your jobs! You can listen to Jessica's extensive interview here. (It has added sound effects, how cool is that?)

What should I ask Dan Zanes?


This Saturday, I will be spending the morning on Spare the Rock, Spoil the Child (103.3 FM in the Northampton, MA area). Dan Zanes is phoning in for an interview and Bill wants me to help interview him! What should I ask him? Any ideas?

For those of you who may not be familiar with Dan Zanes, he's the biggest thing in kids music these days, especially cool kids music.

Ralph Macchio

Our little pug comes home in 3 days!!! We're dying with excitement over here. Though, I am sure soon after I will be dying with sleepless nights when the dog needs to hit the backyard at 3 AM...


Wednesday, November 21, 2007

Robert's Snow - let the bidding begin!

Bidding is underway over at Robert's Snow. Why not place a few bids and help raise money for cancer research?

My snowflake will be on auction starting December 3rd (the week after next). Here it is again:

The Nashville Zoo ROCKS

Robin from the Nashville Zoo rocked story hour last week with some Punk Farm. She made these really cool name tags for the kids and then the little ones jammed out on inflatable instruments. Thank you to Jules from 7-Imp who reported from the scene!



Drawings from kids - PF van edition

Big ups to my friends in Nebraska!!!







You can send drawings to me here:

Jarrett J. Krosoczka
PO Box 60155
Florence, MA 01062

Bookamania

A big thanks to everyone who made Bookamania what it was! An incredible event in one of the country's most incredible libraries. Who turned up? Well, lots of people did - about 2,500 or so, but here are some highlights:


Do you recognize that photo I'm holding? It's the baby room that Todd and Amy created for their newborn daughter. And that's her - the girl who lives in the Punk Farm room!!! It was great to finally meet them,


Here we are with one wild and crazy monster. And that's Stanley on the left.


And Mayor Daley stopped by. Who knew we'd end up meeting the mayor?! Everyone greeted him like a celebrity. Which is no surprise, because I understand he is a HUGE advocate for the libraries in Chi-city.

Thursday, November 15, 2007

Bright Horizons' Virtual Book Fair

While you are out celebrating Children's Book Week, cruise over to the Bright Horizon's Virtual Book Fair and listen to podcasts with Karen Beaumont, Kate DiCamillo, Leonard Marcus, Peggy Rathmann, Pam Munoz Ryan, and Vera B. Williams. And if that doesn't fill up enough of your time and you haven't heard me blab enough, there is a podcast there with myself as well.

Goodreads.com

Are you on Goodreads.com? If so, would you be my Goodreads.com friend? I'm new to it. My profile is here.

The "Get This Book" Series - geeking out edition


I've been waiting very patiently, but the 4th volume in the Scott Pilgrim series has just been published. If you just read that and said, "What's Scott Pilgrim?" Man - you are missing out! Written and illustrated by Bryan Lee O'malley and published by Oni Press, the Scott Pilgrim books are nothing short of brilliant. 23 year old Scott live in Toronto, is a bit of slacker and is in a band. He falls for a girl named Ramona and that's when things start to shake up. In order to date her, he needs to battle her 7 evil X-boyfriends. It's a comedy, drama, action-adventure story, video game, music video all in a comic book. If you're a fan of comics and all things awesome, I couldn't recomend this book series enough. Bryan has an extensive preview section here.

(Just an FYI - if you're a librarian serving the very young, these books have mature themes.)

The "Get This Book" Series

Hey gang- it's been a while since I posted any book recommendations here. I've been meaning to, time has just escaped me! Wedding, book touring, etc - you know the everyday things that just mount up.

There's been a picture book that I've been intending to post about because the illustrations are just awesome. If you haven't read The Secret Life of Walter Kitty by Barbara Jean Hicks (words) and Dan Santat (pictures) you just need to. Dan Santat is the man - in both skills and heart. I first came across Dan's work at a Society of Illustrators show years ago when his book The Guild of Geniuses was on display. And I thought "Oh man - this stuff is cool!" Then a few years later I got to meet Dan while in LA. And I thought - "Oh man - this guy is cool!" All of us East coasters wished he lived on this side of the states.

Now, I have to admit, I'm not much of a cat person. But Walter Kitty has won me over. He's helped me look at the world from a cat's perspective - and if cats can be pirates, explorers, astronauts and superheroes, they're cool with me.

If you don't trust me, trust the editors at Amazon, because Walter Kitty was just put on their list of the best picture books of '07 - coming in at #2!!! Congratulations to Barbara and Dan!

PS - If you need any further proof of the coolness of Santat - the dude's got his own show on the Disney Channel (The Replacements) and he illustrated the '06 Macy's Day Parade poster!

Wednesday, November 14, 2007

lots and lots of books


Last Friday I had the most unique opportunity. I traveled to Crawfordsville, IN to visit the Random House Children's Books warehouse. This is where all of the distribution happens, all of the stock is stored. It was completely mind boggling. And it was no surprise to see how efficiently everything ran, as librarians and book dealers constantly tell me how easy it is to order stock from Random House. After touring the facility, I had the chance to speak to all of the employees, in both the day and night shifts. And if you are one of those aforementioned librarians or book dealers, I thanked them all for you. They are a terrific group of individuals.

When we found where copies of Punk Farm were stored, I couldn't help but notice the book that was stored on the shelf just below it. It was The Salamander Room, one of the two books that I saw as a senior in high school that made me want to get into picture books in the first place. Who knew that I'd someday end up with the same publishing company as that book's, let alone have my book be its neighbor at the warehouse...

The day was definitely one of the highlights of my publishing career and a big thanks to everyone in Crawfordsville for helping make it possible.

Monday, November 12, 2007

Hey Chi-town!

To all of my friends in the Windy City, I'll be reading at the Chicago Bookamania at the Chicago Public Library this Saturday. Kids can make their own rock star sunglasses and I will be giving drawing demonstrations as well. Oh - and I'll be signing copies of PFoT and anything else that has my name on the cover. See you there!

B&N Canton, CT - WGBY Bookfair


If you live near Canton, CT come on out to Barnes & Noble this Sunday at 4 PM for a reading of PF & PFoT. Proceeds from the sale of books next weekend will benefit WGBY, western New England's PBS affiliate. Just download and print out the voucher below and bring it with you to help support the quality programing that WGBY brings to the air.

Friday, November 09, 2007

We left our fez hats at home...

In-between book tour stops, I got to hang out with Philly's finest illustrators. From left to right, that's Brian Biggs, Matt Phelan, and Adam Rex. Although it was brief, it was well worth getting time with these incredible artists. Next time I'll plan ahead and bring books for them to sign...ah foresight....

Who knows how to party?

The librarian from St. Andrew School in Newtown, PA (Mrs. Kristen Sava) knows how to party....
St. Andrews was one of my stops in the suburbs of Philly hosted by Barnes & Noble. Thank you to everyone at St. Andrews, Edgewood Elementary & B&N for a great day!

Thursday, November 08, 2007

Worcester in Virginia?

I go all the way down to Virginia for a reading at Barnes & Noble in McLean and who do I see but a dude in a Worcester Sharks T-shirt?! Although we hail from the same city, we didn't know anyone in common and he wasn't sporting his Sharks shirt b/c he knew of our shared hometown. Thank you to everyone who came out (and on election night, too) to pick up a copy of PFoT! (For my friends from the Hole in the Wall Gang Camp who are reading this, you may recognize Liz Manning in the back. And while you can't see her, she's talking to John McNeil's momma. His aunt and grandma were there as well. I guess we should have had a proper photo shoot....)

The next day I ran around town from school to school in the Arlington/McLean, VA area by the nifty Alladdin's Lamp Children's Book shop. A thank you to all the schools and the store for their support!

Tuesday, November 06, 2007

Wynewood, PA - THURSDAY

Hey Wynewood, PA friends -

As a reader just pointed out to me, I have a date wrong on all of my tour listings. My event at the Borders in Wynewood, PA is on Thursday, November 8th @ 7 PM. Sorry for any confusion!!!!

Here is the store's listing of the event.

Please pass the word on to anyone who may have been planning on attending!

Monday, November 05, 2007

PF YouTube tribute by Milo

This is nothing short of awesome!

PFoT Tour Update

Hey everyone! The tour is going very well so far. Thank you to everyone who made it out to the Delaware Book Festival and big ups to everyone who organized the event! G and I met a lot of cool authors of books from all sorts of genres.

After the weekend was up, I made my way down to DC. I had a quick meeting with Minh Le of Bottom Shelf Books and was off to spread the Punk Farm around the nation's capital. The first stop was at Tree Top Kids in McLean, VA. Now, remember how I was at a farm for a reading the other week? Well this event was the other half of Punk Farm. Liz over at Tree Top brought in a BAND for this event! After I read PF & PFoT, Rocknoceros rocked out while I signed books. There was an abundance of inflatable guitars on hand and plenty of rock-stars-in-training to practice their moves.

I may be asking my publisher to schedule bands at all of my public events. But I will have inflatable guitars at all of my Random House sponsored events this week and let me tell you - nothing says fun like inflatable guitars at a Punk Farm reading!

And if you do live near a Tree Top Kids store, I signed a ton of copies of PF & PFoT and the McLean location will be distributing them throughout all of their stores.

Here are some pictures from the events so far:


(OK, so one pic for now. I'll post some more when I
get them, be sure to check back here.)

PF's toughest interview yet

Punk Farm has faced and survived many the tough journalist...Cluck Roosterman, The Fuse, Juliesha, Little Willow....but nothing, NOTHING wold prepare them from taking questions from the Kindergarteners at Chicago Jewish Day School.

Anne from Book Buds has published the Kindergartners' hard hitting questions and PF's evasive responses here.

Friday, November 02, 2007

On Tour next week


Hey there Dover, Philly, DC and Carmel, IN peeps ---- I'll be on tour all next week and in your neck of the woods. Come out and say hi!


Dover, DE
Nov. 3 - 11:30 AM
Delaware Book Festival - First State Heritage Park

McLean, VA
Nov. 5 - 3 PM
Tree Top Kids - 1382 Chain Bridge Road

Washington DC
Nov 6. - 10:30 AM
Politics & Prose - 5015 Connecticut Avenue, N.W.

McLean, VA
Nov. 6 - 6 PM
Barnes & Noble - Tysons Corner Center

Wynewood, PA
Nov. 7 - 7 PM
Borders - 80 East Wynnewood Road

Carmel, IN
Nov. 10 - 11 AM
Barnes & Noble - 14709 US Hwy 31 North

Book Page interview


The good people at Book Page gave me a page in their latest issue. They have this great series where they ask author/illustrators to answer questions visually and it was a ton of fun to put together. If you're in your library or local bookstore, see if you can pick up a copy of the print edition. In the meantime, you can see my entry here: www.bookpage.com.

(Here is a sneak preview of what you'll see)

Thursday, November 01, 2007

Bubble Bath Pirates fan mail

I'm trying to catch up on writing back to letters that I've gotten over the past few months. And then - I found this letter and these accompanying drawings. Priceless...



If you have a letter or drawing, I'd love to see them! You can send them to me here:
Jarrett J. Krosoczka
PO Box 60155
Florence, MA 01062

PFoT on Offsprung.com

Erica Perl writes a great review of PFoT on Pajamazon, the kids' book section of Offsprung.com. Offsprung is published by Neal Pollack, of Alternadad fame, and is a great website for parents looking for an alternative resource for kid info.