Jarrett J. Krosoczka
Discuss This Author
"If kids walk away from my books with anything, I hope they have enjoyed reading the books and will be encouraged to read, draw, and create."--Jarrett J. Krosoczka
Jarrett J. Krosoczka is the author-illustrator of Good Night, Monkey Boy; Baghead; Annie Was Warned; and Max for President. The author lives in Boston, MA.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
“How old were you when you started drawing?” This is a question that I get asked often and not one that I can truly answer. I really don’t know when I first started drawing. I always did, I just never stopped.
I would come home from school and just draw character after character and put them in various scenarios. I was in 3rd grade when I wrote and illustrated a book for the first time. As a kid, I was lucky to have the Worcester Art Museum just down the street from me and even luckier that my grandfather sent me to classes there starting in 6th grade. My first class was a cartooning class and most classes after that had something to do with cartooning! I was in love with Peanuts by Charles Shultz and Calvin and Hobbes by Bill Watterson. In fact, all throughout childhood and high school I wanted to either be a cartoonist for a comic strip or a comic book and I also thought that I might be an animator. When I was in high school, I got to be the cartoonist for my school paper and I got such a charge out of seeing my work published.
Right before I graduated high school, two big things happened- 1) I started volunteering at a camp for seriously ill children and 2) I saw two incredible books — The Garden of Abdul Gasazi and The Salamander Room. Both experiences opened my eyes to the potential that creating picture books for a young audience had.
So when I was a student at the Rhode Island School of Design, I had already decided that I wanted to be an author and an illustrator for picture books. But I wasn’t able to just draw my characters all of the time. I had to take a ton of painting and drawing classes! At the time, I hated it, but I learned so much. It was after I copied a painting by John Singer Sargent that my work took another turn - I started painting my characters! Aside from all of my studio courses, I also took several creative writing courses to sharpen up my writing skills.
Determined to get published, I started submitting stories to publishers while I was still a student. I received a great deal of rejection letters and I also wrote a great deal of new stories.
I graduated and continued to send submissions to publishers like a madman. Eventually, I was invited in by an editor at Random House to show my portfolio. And that is when Good Night, Monkey Boy got picked up! It was a dream come true! My first book would be published! People would read it! My name would be on the spine!
So really, what I do now, isn’t any different from what I’ve been doing since I was a kid — I tell stories with pictures and words. And again- I have no plans of stopping!
PRAISE
ANNIE WAS WARNED
“A delicious mix of suspense and wit.”—Publishers Weekly, Starred
“A prime read-aloud candidate.”—The Bulletin
“Young audiences will shiver with pleasure.”—Kirkus Reviews
BAGHEAD
“Playful . . . eye-catching.”—Kirkus Reviews
GOOD NIGHT, MONKEY BOY
“Especially winning.”—Kirkus Reviews
Author Bookshelf
Annie Was Warned
Annie was warned not to go to the creepy Montgomery mansion . . . and maybe she wouldn’t have if her best friend hadn’t dared her. But Annie isn’t afraid of anything. Not bats, not spiders,...
Available In:
- Hardcover
- eBook
Punk Farm
After a long day of work, Farmer Joe goes home to bed. But meanwhile, back at the barn . . .Cow sets up her drums.Pig plugs in his amp.Goat tunes his bass.Chicken sets up her keyboards.And Sheep checks...
Available In:
- Hardcover
- eBook
- Trade Paperback
Punk Farm on Tour
FARMER JOE IS heading off to a Tractor Society Conference in Reno. But meanwhile, back at the farm . . .. . . Cow, Sheep, Pig, Goat, and Chicken are getting ready to rock across the U.S.A. as they set...
Available In:
- Hardcover
- eBook
Lunch Lady and the Cyborg Substitute
Serving justice . . . and lunch!Hector, Terrence, and Dee have always wondered about their school lunch lady. What does she do when she isn’t dishing out the daily special? Where does she live? Does...
Available In:
- Trade Paperback
- Hardcover Library Binding
Lunch Lady and the League of Librarians
Serving justice . . . and lunch!Lunch Lady can sniff out something rotten like no one else—and there’s definitely something rotten going on in the library. The usually friendly librarians have...
Available In:
- Trade Paperback
- Hardcover Library Binding
Lunch Lady and the Author Visit Vendetta
Dee, Terrence, and Hector are very excited about Author Visit Day. Lewis Scribson is the author of the famous Flippy Bunny books, and Hector is a huge fan! And it gets Dee and Terrence out of math class.But...
Available In:
- Trade Paperback
- Hardcover Library Binding
Lunch Lady and the Summer Camp Shakedown
Lunch Lady and the Breakfast Bunch kids are looking forward to a relaxing summer vacation with no funny business. What evils could befall them at summer camp?Of course, there is the legendary swamp monster....
Available In:
- Trade Paperback
- Hardcover Library Binding
Ollie the Purple Elephant
Ollie is a purple elephant who is lost and has no place to call home. Until Shelby and Peter find him in the park—and invite him to live with them. Soon Ollie is a regular part of the...
Available In:
- Hardcover
- Hardcover Library Binding
- eBook
Lunch Lady and the Bake Sale Bandit
The Breakfast Bunch is excited for the upcoming bake sale—and the best part is that it's raising money for an awesome field trip. But when all the snacks go missing, it's no laughing matter. ...
Available In:
- Trade Paperback
- Hardcover Library Binding
Lunch Lady and the Field Trip Fiasco
Lunch Lady and the Breakfast Bunch are on a school field trip to a famous art museum. But while Lunch Lady is busy taking in all the culture, the kids have caught onto something strange—some of the...
Available In:
- Trade Paperback
- Hardcover Library Binding
Lunch Lady and the Mutant Mathletes
The Breakfast Bunch have joined the mathletes team, and are all set to win the championship trophy for Thompson Brook Elementary School—they only need to beat the defending champs from Willowby Academy. ...
Available In:
- Trade Paperback
- Hardcover Library Binding
Lunch Lady and the Picture Day Peril
It's picture day at Thompson Brook, but the students are plagued by a freak acne epidemic. While the Breakfast Bunch scrambles to put their best faces forward, their hifalutin photographer raises Lunch...
Available In:
- Trade Paperback
- Hardcover Library Binding
Max for President
Max thinks that he would like to be class president.So does Kelly.But there can only be one president! Who will the class elect?Full of laughs and suspense, Max for President is a lively story of good...
Discuss This
Good Night, Monkey Boy
Who’s that eating a banana? Swinging from the shower curtain? Making faces in the mirror? Why, it looks like a monkey!But not to Mommy. Mommy knows it’s her own monkey boy, and even monkey...
Available In:
- Trade Paperback
- Trade Paperback
Baghead
From the author of Good Night, Monkey Boy, the hilarious tale of a haircut gone awry!One day Josh had a big, brown bag idea: to wear a paper bag over his head. He thought it was a good idea. His mother...
Available In:
- Trade Paperback
- Trade Paperback
