The interview above was recorded at Jeff Kinney’s bookstore in Plainville, MA — An Unlikely Story. In October 2017, five award-winning authors for young people — Jack Gantos, Jeff Kinney, Jarrett Krosoczka, Jon Scieszka, and Gene Luen Yang — gathered for a funny and insightful panel discussion about how to motivate boys (and any reluctant readers) to read more. Watch the panel discussion: How to Get and Keep Boys Reading.
Biography
Jarrett Krosoczka grew up in Worcester, Massachusetts, and as a boy was a fan of comic books and animation. He explored his creative talents at the Worcester Art Museum, where his grandparents enrolled him as a sixth-grader. His interest in creating books for young children was piqued when he first volunteered as a teen at The Hole in the Wall Gang Camp, a program for children with life-threatening illnesses. Krosoczka began his professional career by illustrating educational readers for a national publisher while still an undergraduate at Rhode Island School of Design.
In 2001, Random House Children’s Books published Good Night, Monkey Boy and Krosoczka hasn’t stopped or slowed down since. By 2011, he has authored and illustrated 16 published books — 10 picture books and six graphic novels. He is the two-time winner of the Third to Fourth Grade Book of the Year in the Children’s Choice Book Awards and his Punk Farm and Lunch Lady series are both in development to be feature films.
Jarrett is happily living out his childhood dream in Northampton, Massachusetts, where he resides with his wife and daughter and their pug, Ralph Macchio. In honor of his late grandparents and all the support and encouragement they gave him, he founded the Joseph and Shirley Krosoczka Memorial Youth Scholarships at the Worcester Art Museum.
Books by this author
Annie Was Warned
Age Level:
3-6 
Baghead
Age Level:
3-6 
Bubble Bath Pirates
Age Level:
3-6 
Good Night, Monkey Boy
Age Level:
3-6 
Lunch Lady and the Cyborg Substitute
Age Level:
6-9 Genre:
Fiction 
Lunch Lady and the Field Trip Fiasco
Age Level:
6-9 Genre:
Fiction 
Lunch Lady and the Mutant Mathletes
Age Level:
6-9 Genre:
Fiction, Science Fiction 
Max for President!
Age Level:
3-6 Genre:
Fiction 
Ollie the Purple Elephant
Age Level:
3-6 
Peanut Butter and Jellyfish
Age Level:
3-6 Genre:
Fiction 
Platypus Police Squad: Never Say Narwhal
Age Level:
9-12 Genre:
Fiction, Mystery 
Punk Farm
Age Level:
3-6 Find this author’s books on these booklists
Themed Booklist
Hail to the Chief
Themed Booklist