Showing posts with label Jarrett J. Krosoczka. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Jarrett J. Krosoczka. Show all posts

Saturday, April 08, 2023

April 23: Jarrett Krosoczka - Sunshine: A Graphic Novel - A Live Reading at Arena Stage in partnership with DCPL and Arena Stage

Jarrett Krosoczka - Sunshine: A Graphic Novel - A Live Reading at Arena Stage in partnership with DCPL and Arena Stage

Sunday, April 23, 7:00 pm
Sunshine: A Graphic Novel By Jarrett J. Krosoczka, Jarrett J. Krosoczka (Illustrator) Cover Image
$14.99
ISBN: 9781338356311
Availability: Coming Soon—Pre-Order Now
Published: Graphix - April 18th, 2023

Hey, Kiddo: A Graphic Novel By Jarrett J. Krosoczka Cover Image
$14.99
ISBN: 9780545902489
Availability: In Stock—Click for Locations
Published: Graphix - October 9th, 2018

Click here to register. This is a free and open to the public event, however, registration is required. There will be limited walk- in registration if not at capacity.

Politics and Prose is delighted to partner with DC Public Library and Arena Stage for SUNSHINE: Live & Unabridged. Join National Book Award finalist Jarrett J. Krosoczka at Washington, D.C.'s historic Arena Stage for a live, unabridged reading brought to life via a multimedia presentation coupled with local performers. Part literary event, part experimental theater—this will be a truly remarkable evening!

Complimentary copies of SUNSHINE will be available courtesy of the DC Public Library Foundation. Copies are available on a first come, first serve basis while supplies last at the event only. Books will be pre-signed by the author. Books will not be available for pickup before or after the event on April 23rd.

This program is presented in conjunction with D.C. Public Library's Know Your Power contest, sponsored by Pepco. Teens are invited to submit an original work of writing, photography, illustration, or music that expresses their feelings on a social issue that matters to them. Click here for more information about Know Your Power.

Arena Stage at the Mead Center for American Theater is a pioneer of the regional theater movement, and where multiple Broadway hits, including Dear Evan Hansen, Sweat, Next to Normal, and The Great White Hope, first premiered. Since 2005, Camp Arena Stage has nurtured artistic growth in young people aged 8-15, who discover their inner artists through dance, drama, writing, movie making, and more. Click here for more information on the 2023 Camp Arena Stage programs, which begin June 26.

About the Book:

The extraordinary—and extraordinarily powerful—follow-up to Hey, Kiddo.

When Jarrett J. Krosoczka was in high school, he was part of a program that sent students to be counselors at a camp for seriously ill kids and their families. Going into it, Jarrett was worried: Wouldn't it be depressing to be around kids facing such a serious struggle? Wouldn't it be grim?

But instead of the shadow of death, Jarrett found something else at Camp Sunshine: the hope and determination that gets people through the most troubled of times. Not only was he subject to some of the usual rituals that come with being a camp counselor (wilderness challenges, spooky campfire stories, an extremely stinky mascot costume), but he also got a chance to meet some extraordinary kids facing extraordinary circumstances. He learned about the captivity of illness, for sure but he also learned about the freedom a safe space can bring.

Now, in his follow-up to the National Book Award finalist Hey, Kiddo, Jarrett brings readers back to Camp Sunshine, so we can meet the campers and fellow counselors who changed the course of his life.

About the Author:

Jarrett J. Krosoczka is the New York Times bestselling author/illustrator behind more than forty books for young readers, including his wildly popular Lunch Lady graphic novels, select volumes of the Star Wars™: Jedi Academy series, and Hey, Kiddo, which was a National Book Award Finalist. Krosoczka creates books with humor, heart, and deep respect for his young readers—qualities that have made his titles perennial favorites on the bookshelves of homes, libraries, and bookstores over the past twenty years.

Ages 13+

The Arlene and Robert Kogod Cradle at Arena Stage
1101 6th Street Southwest
WashingtonDC 20024

Wednesday, November 07, 2018

Book Review: Hey, Kiddo by Jarrett Krosoczka (updated)

by Mike Rhode

Jarrett Krosoczka is probably best known as the cartoonist for the Lunch Lady graphic novels for children. I hadn't run across his work before, but I was pleased to make his acquaintance with this book.

Hey, Kiddo: How I Lost My Mother, Found My Father and Dealth with Family Addiction (Scholastic Graphix, 2018; $25/$15) is definitely aimed at an older audience than his other books. The marketing material suggests a young adult audience, but I think it can enjoyably be read by adults as well. Krosoczka tells the story of his childhood and teen years, in a muted palette of browns and oranges. He was raised by his grandparents when his young mother mysteriously kept disappearing from his life. His father was never mentioned or featured in his life. Krosoczka tells his story chronologically, which keeps some suspense for anyone who hasn't read the promotional material or interviews.

He begins with his grandparents meeting and marrying and raising a family of five children after his grandfather Joe Krosoczka returned from World War II and convinced Shirley Olson to marry him. Joe began his own business making a particular piece for plumbing and seems to have been a success, but Shirley had difficult times with her children, especially Jarrett's mother, her daughter Leslie.

 Krosoczka recounts staying with his mother in a house that his grandfather provided for them, but she continues to shoplift and run around with less-than-admirable men, including two who come in one night covered in blood. His mother disappears after that and the preschooler moves in with his grandparents that raise him.

For the next few years (and chapters), Leslie pops in and out of his life, and as a young boy, after a trip to Disneyworld, his grandparents reveal that his mother is a drug addict and in jail. She's been addicted to heroin since she was a teenager. Eventually the teenage Jarrett uses his talent for cartooning to escape from working in the family factory, and reconnects with his long-missing father.

Throughout the book, his grandparents are presented as real people with some serious flaws revealed especially about his grandmother. However the author is adamant that they did give him a good life, and he has no regrets about the way things turned out.

Due to Krosoczka's cartooning ability, the story works as a graphic memoir. As a prose piece, it would be about 10 pages long. It held my attention, and I definitely felt for the young boy, so I would recommend this to people interested in memoirs. It was a National Book Finalist this year, and is available online and in most bookstores.

UPDATE:

Krosoczka spoke about the book at DC's lovely West End Library on November 8, 2018 and took questions from his friend, children's book authority Mindy Thomas. Here are some pictures from the event.





Watercolor backgrounds for the line art
Grandfather Joe, Grandmother Shirley and young Jarrett


The photo is the complete stack of art for the book