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Jarrett J. Krosoczka with a young reader
Mount Pleasant Library, Washington DC |
DC Public Library Mount Pleasant Branch and Politics & Prose invited children's author and illustrator Jarrett J. Krosoczka to meet with children and adults to present his new chapter book "The Platypus Police Squad: The Frog Who Croaked." The event was fun as well as inspirational: an art major and lover of comics is earning a living doing what he loves to do, i.e., telling stories with words and pictures. With already twenty books to his name (ten picture books, nine graphic novels, and now his new "Platypus" series), Jarrett J. is going strong. I loved hearing him talk about his graphic novel series "Lunch Lady" and I laughed out loud when he spoke of how, when revisiting his elementary school as an adult, he began to imagine how a lunch lady (or any adult at school) might possibly have a life outside the school - something he couldn't have fathomed as a child. As a teacher in an elementary school, I get that all the time. When I see students somewhere, whether it be a museum, the farmer's market, BestBuy, or just anywhere outside the classroom walls: "Mrs. Paul!" they exclaim, as if it would be impossible for me to be anywhere else but permanently ensconced at the front of the class at the school they attend! And I loved the way JJK talked to the kids. No funny voice, no cute-sy language. No, he spoke n-o-r-m-a-l-l-y. I admit that I feel real discomfort at the way
some adults speak to children, as it their intellect were not quite in tact. JJK was so real with them. And he connected with them, instantly. He knows their world because he remembers it from when he was a kid.
Thanks to DCPL, P&P, and of course, to Jarrett J. for a fun, witty, and informative encounter. His books will definitely be on my classroom library shelf come fall.
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| JJK's new chapter book |
