Notable Poultry Notes

To speculate on what our world would be like if all living beings could communicate with each other is always fuel for discussion, research, marvelous fiction and potential questions.  Would they be furious with our lack of care for the environment?  Would they be horrified at the rate of species going extinct?  Would they demand we stop clear-cutting forests?  Would they applaud our recycling efforts or our endeavors to rescue wild and domesticated animals?  Would they be happy to see more people are planting honey bee and butterfly-friendly gardens?

Closer to home, what would our pets have to ask or tell us?  There might be a certain chocolate Labrador retriever who would demand more treats, more chew toys, and a lot more running around outside.  Chicken Talk (Katherine Tegen Books, an imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers, January 15, 2018) written by Patricia MacLachlan with pictures by Jarrett J. Krosoczka follows a brood of hens and one confident rooster who act with comical consequences.

Farmer Otis and his wife, Abby, loved their chickens.  Their children, Willie and Belle, loved them, too.

This shared love extended to their poultry, eleven hens, Beatrix, Bitsy, Grace, Boo, seven named Joyce and a rooster named Pedro, was constant.  Abby was sure to fix lettuce and arugula meals for the fowl family and collect their eggs every day.  The eggs were labeled with the hens' names by the siblings.

The hens enjoyed a life of leisure, resting in chairs on the porch, pecking for tidbits of food in the dirt, listening to the stories Willie and Belle told and watching them read books.  Imagine the surprise greeting the humans one morning when the words

No more ARUGULA

were found written in a pathway.  Otis and Abby came to the only conclusion they could, Trixie (Beatrix) wrote the message.

It was as if the first message opened a door to bottled-up opinions held by the chickens.  Each day another note was discovered.  The nature of the statements revealed their author.  Although the family believed if they told anyone they would be thought a tad bit crazy, the chickens took matters into their own . . . um . . . feet.

An accused mailman decided to seek the truth on his own.  A shocking discovery had the news spreading.  Curious people made for good egg business.  Even after all the Joyces had their say, there was still one chicken that was silent.  When she finally left her two thoughts scrawled across the ground, they were the best of all.


In the masterful hands of Patricia MacLachlan, the impossible not only become possible but it is done so with the utmost charm and good-natured humor.  It's funny when the sentences written by the chickens are the honest truth.  It's even funnier when the family members readily accept their chickens can write and can identify the creator.  The flawless flow of narrative and dialogue elevates the laughter factor.  Here is a passage.

Otis and Abby drove into the driveway and walked up
the hill with shopping bags.
Willie pointed to the words scratched in the dirt.
Trixie strutted over and looked at Otis and Abby with
her bright beady eyes.
"Trixie wrote that sentence," whispered Otis.
"Yes", said Abby.
"Don't tell anyone," said Otis.  "They'll think we're nutty."
Abby nodded.  "I thought Trixie liked arugula."


The canvas of barnyard dirt on the matching and open dust jacket and book case extends over the spine, front to back.  The eight showcased chickens are either looking directly at readers, at the text or ISBN.  The red circles around their eyes increase the animation seen on their facial features while at the same time coordinating with the darker red in the title text and bar at the top of the ISBN.

The opening and closing endpapers are covered in a rusty red. The title page begins the pictorial interpretation of the playfulness and wit found throughout the book.  Along the top are three sets of chicken legs with the lower portion of their bodies.  The text is written "chicken" style as if scribbled in the dirt on the path.

The illustrations by Jarrett J. Krosoczka with their loose lines and colorful washes delineating light and shadow appear to be done in watercolor.  Many of the images are double-page pictures with full-page visuals usually framed in a white border.  Sometimes it's as if we are standing with the characters in the scene and other times it's as if our point of view shifts to looking down on the action.  Readers will find the eyes of the chickens greatly enhance the hilarity especially when coupled with their body positions.

One of my many favorite illustrations is on a single page.  We can see the farmhouse porch and a bit of the siding and one window.  This is in hues of gray.  The curtains on the window are a light rusty red.  Three wooden porch chairs are placed in a row.  Right in the center of each are three plump white chickens; two apparently in conversation. (I laugh every time I see this.)


You can be sure requests for this book, Chicken Talk written by Patricia MacLachlan with pictures by Jarrett J. Krosoczka, will be frequent.  Who doesn't love to laugh and wonder what animals would say if they could write?  For a story time showcasing chickens you could use Blue Chicken, What Floats in a Moat?, Bawk & Roll, Henny, Chickens in Space, My Dog's a Chicken, Snappsy The Alligator And His Best Friend Forever (Probably) and Interrupting Chicken And The Elephant Of Surprise.  You'll want to add this title to your professional and personal collections.

For more information on Jarrett J. Krosoczka and his other work, please follow the link attached to his name to access his website.  Jarrett J. Krosoczka maintains a blog, an account on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter. (You might want to check out Jarrett's tweets about this book.)  Jarrett J. Krosoczka also has two TED talks you might find interesting.  Here is a link to a short biography on the beloved Patricia MacLachlan at the publisher's website.

The Balloons Have It!

Certainly time is not passing more quickly but lately stopping the clock every so often is becoming more appealing.  Each year the amount of truly wonderful children's books being published is astounding.  Stacks of books in my home reveal titles from previous years yet to be read.

Two publications from 2015 speak directly to children.  The first, The Wonderful Things You Will Be (Random House, August 25, 2015) written and illustrated by Emily Winfield Martin is the joyful voice of a parent wondering about their child.  It's Tough To Lose Your Balloon (Alfred A. Knopf, an imprint of Random House Children's Books, September 8, 2015), the second title, written and illustrated by Jarrett J. Krosoczka asks readers to look for the silver lining in possible situations.  If you are asking yourself why these two books are paired together here, the answer is simple.  They both have balloons on the cover and within the book.  Like balloons these books will lift you up and up, higher and higher.

When I look at you
And you look at me,
I wonder what wonderful
Things you will be.  

From birth a parent reassures a child of their worth.  Even at this early age this parent is sure this little being is going to be someone special to know.  No one else in the world is the same as this unique individual.

A beginning, especially a new life, offers many possibilities.  Will this child be strong to right a wrong?  Will this child sing a new song?  There might be new tales told.  There might be seeds planted to make a garden grow.

Perhaps new heights will be reached to get a better perspective.  Maybe tiny creatures will flourish under this child's tender care.  Without a doubt certain characteristics will help this child to be the best they can be.

Even in the face of adversity this child, this splendid child, will prevail.  This child, whatever they decide to become, will be loved.  And this child will know it.


Of the four lines written the second and fourth end with rhyming words flowing from verse to verse like a melody.  Emily Winfield Martin's gentle poetic narrative is soothing and supportive.  It looks forward hopefully.  Here is another sample passage.

For all of your tininess
Couldn't disguise
A heart so enormous...
And wild...
and wise. 

The theme of a child gently rising with a handful of balloons is carried through to the back, on the left, of the dust jacket.  Some of the text from the interior is placed there between two children each holding a balloon as they float among the clouds.  A canvas of white affords a cheerful display of colorful balloons drifting upward on the book case.  A single squirrel clothed in orange trousers is holding a red balloon rising with the rest.  On the opening and closing endpapers Emily Winfield Martin, on a background of white, in three rows with a repeating pattern, features eleven different toddlers with varying ethnicity.

Most of the illustrations span two pages.  The others are a delightful blend of single page images or smaller pictures grouped together.  Martin varies her background shades but favors white to draw our attention to the children.

Tiny details are sure to give readers pause; Humpty Dumpty sitting at the table for a tea party, mice are playing their own instruments beneath the car as a child band warms up in a garage, and a boy is reading Emily Winfield Martin's first book, Dream Animals, to some children.  Near the end a stunning four-page fold-out acts first as a curtain on a stage.  Opened it reveals a line of fifteen children all in costume playing out their signature roles.

One of my favorite illustrations is three children working together having created a community garden in the city.  Raised beds are home to fruits, vegetable and flowers.  Squirrels and pigeons are keeping them company.  Two boys are on the left planting seeds as a girl walks toward them from the right carrying a watering can and an arm full of flowers.  In this picture, in all the pictures, the clothing the children are wearing is realistic but adorable in patterns of strips or polka-dots or soft plain hues.  One is wearing a bear costume.




It's tough to 
lose your balloon...
...but it'll make
Grandma smile
from the sky.

Imagine yourself spending a day at the beach.  After romping in the sand, water and sun you have worked up a powerful hunger.  Then, to your dismay, you drop your sandwich...in the sand.  How can you turn this around to make it positive?

Things can get broken.  An accidental tromp in a puddle will leave you with wet shoes.  What if you don't eat your ice cream cone fast enough on a hot summer's day?  There are inventive, easy-as-pie answers for each one of these mishaps.

Personal experience teaches adults that the slightest boo-boo calls for the best bandage in one of many boxes on hand.  New people can be frightening but turn out to be truly fun, if given a chance.  All we need to remember is without the rain there can be no rainbows.


Each incident proposed by Jarrett J. Krosoczka is as normal as sunrise and sunset.  Children all around the world have these things happen to them.  That's what makes his single sentences broken apart by a page turn, endearing in their ordinariness.  Those moments between disaster and joy give us a chance to choose.  Here's one more passage.

It's the worst to
have wet shoes...
...but it's the best
to go barefoot.  


From the front of the matching dust jacket and book case, it's plain to see this little guy is dismayed.  One minute he is happy.  In the next minute the item giving him this joy is gone.  To the left on the back, Jarrett J. Krosoczka has taken the red from the balloon using it as a background for words of wisdom in white.

When life
gets you down,
look
up,

up, 

up!

The opening and closing endpapers provide the beginning and conclusion of the story.  On the first, outside a park entrance, a boy is receiving a balloon from a vendor as his father watches.  For the verso and title page we zoom in on his smiling face, walking proudly and carrying his balloon, which holds the title text and the author/illustrator name.  

Strong black lines drawn freely outline the elements in all the illustrations.  Bright colors on the left are the background for the beginning of the sentence and the single page image on the right depicts the oops-why-did-this-happen event.  These are partially colored.  Two pages follow filled with bright hues.  

Krosoczka's children are fully animated especially when they discover the goodness which can follow the right outlook.  Our concentration turns to the smiling faces due to his layout and design.  Careful readers will detect other examples of small kindnesses within his illustrations.

One of my favorite pictures is of the girl going barefoot.  It recalls the pure bliss of walking on grass, shoes and socks scattered.  She is laughing out loud and grinning away with a front tooth missing as she swings as high as she can on the swing set.  Our perspective is of the feet coming toward us.  

Both The Wonderful Things You Can Be written and illustrated by Emily Winfield Martin and It's Tough To Lose Your Balloon written and illustrated by Jarrett J. Krosoczka are titles asking to be shared...repeatedly.  As you read each one you can feel a lightness filling you up.  You might even start to reach for a balloon to act as your guide.  They will both prompt discussions on the choices we make at any age.  At the close of his title, Krosoczka speaks about the spark leading to his book.  

To learn more about these talented authors/illustrators please follow the links attached to their names to access either their websites or in the case of Emily her blog.  At the publisher's website you can view interior pictures from It's Tough To Lose Your Balloon.  Scholastic's Ambassador for School Libraries, John Schumacher, premiered the book trailer on his blog, Watch. Connect. Read.  Jarrett J. Krosoczka wrote a message for readers there.  Enjoy the book trailer.

Team Laughter For The Win

Rattling around in my memory banks are cries of Red Rover, Red Rover shouted out by opposing teams as other groups of children of all ages enjoyed their daily respite on the playground of my elementary school.  Every year, same time, same place, those same boys and girls could be seen in another area huddled around a hole carefully made in the dirt as a high stakes game of marbles was being played.  The swings, slide, monkey bars and teeter-totter were our obstacle course.  We invented whole new worlds in this area outside the walls of our building.  It was amazing and we loved every minute of it.

When the word went out over the virtual wire about collaboration between ten outstanding authors/illustrators, you could almost hear the humming buzz growing into a roar of anticipation.  Comics Squad: Recess! (Random House) combines the talents of Jennifer L. Holm, Matthew Holm, Jarrett J. Krosoczka, Raina Telgemeier, Dave Roman, Dan Santat, Dav Pilkey, Ursula Vernon, Eric Wight and Gene Luen Yang.  These short stories take readers into the wonderful realm of one of the best breaks during any given school day.

A company of three dons black T-shirt masks to commence their meeting of a secret club.  Given an impossible task of proving his worth, a fourth surprises everyone with his hard-earned new super-awesome ninja mindset and moves.  Gene Luen Yang's dialog between these eight-year-old guys is genuine to a fault.  Many readers will identify with Daryl cheering him on as he pursues his dream but laughing at how he accomplishes each discipline.


Dav Pilkey starts his story with a letter home to parents from a disgruntled first grade teacher.  (Trust me when I say I was chuckling by the second paragraph.)  It seems their son, George, has made a comic instead of completing a writing assignment as required.  The comic, Book 'Em Dog Man, follows a criminal cat as he attempts to rid the world of reading.  The spelling errors like

You Reeka!
airplain and
instinkts

make this truly hilarious and authentic.


The students may be at recess but Betty of Lunch Lady fame has her hands full in more ways than one when her partner is ill on the biggest lunch day of the week, Pizza Day.  In an attempt to feed the hungry hordes their favorite food on time, Betty creates problems of monstrous proportions. Super tools in hand she seeks to thwart her foe in the hallways with only five minutes to spare.  Betty's thoughts and spoken conversations will have readers nodding their heads and smiling, glad of another adventure by a beloved character from her creator, Jarrett J. Krosoczka.

Thank green beans, it's recess time.


Scratch calmly reading a book during recess is interrupted by his friend Squeak.  He has found, yet again, a magic acorn.  (Scratch enumerates his previous three hundred false finds.) As these two squirrel pals dash away into the woods and into a clearing, readers and Scratch will get an out-of-this-world shock.  Ursula Vernon provides the perfect platform for innocence is bliss versus being in the know.


Our fearless cupcake-loving heroine has placed herself in a pickle of historic happenings.  Jennifer L. Holm and Matthew Holm send Babymouse on a quest to enjoy recess like the other students in school.  It seems as if her imagination (or something else entirely) has other ideas as medieval meanderings and a zap to Zeus, to name a couple, attempt to foil her plans.  Readers will appreciate the narrative asides in rectangular boxes as well as the Friday finale fiasco.  TYPICAL

Talk about "Spaghetti Western."


Get ready for a puns-tastic story in Eric Wight's tale of new student, Jiminy Sprinkles, a cupcake, in a classroom with a peanut, and other assorted fruits and vegetables.  It quickly starts at recess time when Jiminy asks the peanut if he can play with him.  He replies

I'm interested!  I'm just not used to having friends.  Everyone here thinks I'm a nut.

The Mean Green Gang try to trick the newbie and his pal but never fear peppermint is here.  Super Cool Man!


Not much could be funnier than three guys having a conversation about a three hundred word essay due right after recess when two of them have not even started.  To up the laughter factor the one dude is in a panic about not having even read the book.  (I can't tell you the title because I'm laughing too much. It's a sixty-four page classic.)  Add on the fact this was assigned three weeks ago and the dialogue is downright hysterical.  In a twist of fate (puke and a girl might be involved), Dan Santat delivers a stellar school story with humor at its finest.


It's raining outside; not a drizzle but pouring.  This equals doom for the students in Mr. Guff's class.  Their kickball tournament is cancelled and a fifth-grade monitor from Dullsville (my word not their word) is assigned to their room.  What the students don't know is Boring Becca has a few tricks up her sleeves.  Raina Telgemeier and Dave Roman know guys and gals and... gaming.  It shows on every page.


Edited by Jennifer L. Holm, Matthew Holm and Jarrett J. Krosoczka Comics Squad: Recess! is a rousing read.  Every single story, panels and text combined, is a success.  Babymouse and Lunch Lady act as narrative guides conversing on six separate pages before the stories start and at the end.  Four extra pages from the duo supply extra activities for readers.  Short biographical sketches of the authors/illustrators appear at the end.

Please follow the links embedded in the cartoonists' names above to access their websites.  For a peek at pages inside the book, follow this link to the publisher's website.  On the release date, July 8, 2014, John Schumacher, teacher librarian and blogger at Watch. Connect. Read. celebrated with an interview of Matthew Holm.  Jarrett J. Krosoczka stopped in at the Nerdy Book Club to chat about this title.  I don't know about you but there will be a stack of these at my house to hand out to trick or treat children this Halloween.

P B And J Lead The Way

Without a doubt the peanut butter and jelly sandwich is a classic, favorite food especially for children.  Even the pickiest of eaters will gobble up this delectable delight.  You can hardly think of one (peanut butter or jelly) without the other.  I have even discovered there is a National Peanut Butter and Jelly Day held each year on April the 2nd.

There are certain combinations, legendary duos, friendships, in the world of fiction, Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson, Batman and Robin, Calvin and Hobbes, Frodo and Sam, Christopher Robin and Winnie the Pooh, which have and will continue to stand the test of time.  I think a new marvelous match has entered the children's literature community, Peanut Butter and Jellyfish (Alfred A. Knopf, an imprint of Random House Children's Books) written and illustrated by Jarrett J. Krosoczka.

Peanut Butter and Jellyfish were the best of friends.

No day went by without these pals playfully exploring all the nooks and crannies of their briny habitat.  Unfortunately their blissful bonding was interrupted by the unkind comments of the local curmudgeon, Crabby.  Insult after insult floated through the ocean current as they swam past his rocky station.

Peanut Butter and Jellyfish did what positive people do; they ignored Crabby and his hurtful statements.  Did that stop him?  It did not.  He was a master of meanness.

To their surprise one day Crabby was not at his post.  Distressful cries caught their attention.  Crabby had been caught in a lobster trap.  Uh oh...things are not looking so swell for their tormentor.

A decision must be quickly made.  Will the flick of a tail work?  Will the talented tentacles do the trick?  Will fear be overcome with bravery?  There are indeed many undiscovered riches within the undersea realm.


Within this simple charming story, Jarrett J. Krosoczka defines friendship and taking the high road as well as how to voice one's fears and having the courage to admit your mistakes.  In the characters of Peanut Butter, Jellyfish and Crabby are traits commonly found in people who come and go in our everyday lives.  Readers will easily be able to identify with the circumstances of these three; similar situations are constantly present at home and school.

 A mix of narration and dialogue provides an even flow and a gentle kind of tension.  Krosoczka includes descriptive words like taunt, heckler, relentless, barnacles, invertebrate and excursion to broaden readers' vocabulary and invite discussion.  Here is a single example.

"Should we help?" asked Jellyfish.
The two friends shared a look.
"He is in serious trouble," said Peanut Butter.


Jarrett J. Krosoczka uses both the front and back of his identical dusk jacket and book case to present a cheerful illustration filled with bright, bold colors which calls out to readers inviting them to join in the adventures of Peanut Butter and Jellyfish.  His opening and closing endpapers show layers of ocean in vivid hues of blue, a fishing boat moving along the surface.  There is a noticeable difference in the two, a distinct beginning and ending to the story.  A continuation of the scene on the outside of the book provides on the inside a backdrop for the title and publication information.

A technique of using acrylic paintings manipulated into collages digitally brightens the text with two-page, one page and several half page visuals.  Using dots for eyes, a shift in eyebrows, and altered mouth shapes Krosoczka conveys a range of emotions.  Readers will cheer for the two friends and even feel empathy for their adversary.

The first sentence (shown above) with the joyful companions swimming through the colorful ocean sends an uplifting message that all is right in their world.  It is in direct contrast to another of my favorite designs.  On these two pages Crabby, in four half page illustrations, is shown in different poses shouting out not-so-nice one-liners from his rock.  The interplay of background colors and sea life is genuinely appealing.  (It's interesting that Krosoczka has chosen white for his font color.  I really like it.)


Who wouldn't want to have friends like the sea creatures found in Peanut Butter and Jellyfish written and illustrated by Jarrett J. Krosoczka?  They are cute, lighthearted and have a zest for life; even managing to crack ole' Crabby's shell of crankiness.  They are heroes who don't know they are.  Which in my book are the very best kinds.

Please follow the link embedded in Jarrett J. Krosoczka's name to his website.  He has loads of information and fun things to see and do.  At John Schumacher's blog, Watch. Connect. Read., he celebrates the release of Peanut Butter and Jellyfish with an author illustrator interview.  At the publisher's website more interior views of the book are available. The tweet below is pretty amazing too!

Bucket list item! Weston Woods will be animating Peanut Butter and Jellyfish! And I'll be narrating!… http://t.co/MtvMd7lArJ
— Jarrett J. Krosoczka (@StudioJJK) April 25, 2014

Super Heroes in Aprons

Being able to eat lunch served in the cafeteria was a big deal when I was in school.  Our family was on a very tight budget so we ate brown bag lunches almost every single day from first grade through high school.  On those rare occasions when I was given money to eat lunch in the school cafeteria, I saved it until the noon hour macaroni and cheese was served.  To this day I've never tasted macaroni and cheese as delicious as served by those wonderful cooks.

I often wondered if they included a secret ingredient to make the flavor and texture so mouth-watering good.  In the summer of 2009 when the first Lunch Lady graphic novel entered the world, my previous thoughts of mysterious powers held by those culinary folks in the kitchen were confirmed,  All nine titles since that day, Lunch Lady and the Cyborg Substitute, Lunch Lady and the League of Librarians, Lunch Lady and the Author Visit Vendetta, Lunch Lady and the Summer Camp Shakedown, Lunch Lady and the Bake Sale Bandit, Lunch Lady and the Field Trip Fiasco, Lunch Lady and the Mutant Mathletes, Lunch Lady and the Picture Day Peril, and Lunch Lady and the Video Game Villain, have all been leading up to the final episode in this phenomenal series, Lunch Lady and the Schoolwide Scuffle (Alfred A. Knopf) written and illustrated by Jarrett J. Krosoczka.

Everybody freeze!  This is a robbery!
Put all your cash in the bags and nobody gets hurt!
He's getting away!
C'mon! We've got the loot.  Let's get outta here!
We're filthy rich!
HA! HA! HA! HA! HA!

As if this latest crime spree of bank robberies isn't enough, things at Thompson Brook School are getting progressively worse.  Lunch Lady and her partner, Betty, are noticeable absent.  The new Superintendent Dr. Van Grindheimer, with her administrative cohorts, Vice Principal Pasteur and Principal Edison, and a strange new teaching staff, have the Breakfast Bunch crew, Hector, Dee and Terrence, and even Milmoe angry and worried.  Classes are being eliminated and the new rules are absolutely medieval.

On the whispered advice of the school custodian, Kalowski, the trio visit a local burger joint.  Betty, working at the counter there, finally leaps into action.  Arriving at Lunch Lady's apartment more than one startling discovery is made.  Two teams leave ready to thwart the as-yet-unknown plan of the evil Dr. Van Grindheimer.

Astonishing apples!  What's up with The League of Librarians!?  Terrifying tomatoes!  What's that you say about the treadmills?!  Monstrous melons!  Lunch Lady, Betty and the Breakfast Bunch need a plan in place now!

At Thompson Brook School students fill the hallways like rising bread.  Enemies appear in every corner like hot-popped corn.  As the sun sets and the moon climbs skyward, the fate of all falls on Lunch Lady (and her groovy gadgets).

Holy ravioli! Indeed.


Words and phrases readers have come to know and appreciate are present on every page.  Jarrett J. Krosoczka serves up a narrative spiced with spirit, determination, evil exclamations and of course, food.  Readers are in the middle of each moment, tied together with

In Principal Edison's office...
After school...
The next morning...  or
Throughout the day... .

His characters never disappoint in their zeal for good or bad making this latest installment a true page-turner.  What more could readers want than a boiler room, hidden behind a sliding refrigerator, filled with enough technology to rival the Bat Cave, Electronic Bananarangs, a beastly school bus or enough POW!, HIYAAAH! and ZAP! to make their hearts pound?  Here's a single dialogue exchange between Lunch Lady and Betty.

Oh my.  Hard-boiled egg for
breakfast.  Hard-boiled egg for lunch.
And for dinner---a slab of steak,
cooked rare.
Just as I
feared,
a tough
cookie.


Using ink on paper with digital coloring Jarrett J. Krosoczka's signature black, white and yellow images fill the panels with animated movement and emotion.  Visuals vary in size, sometimes several on a single page; others occupy the entire page edge to edge.  If necessary to the plot smaller, narrower pictures cross the gutter extending across two pages.  When a single illustration covers double pages a crescendo is reached in the narrative.

Outlines around speech bubbles reveal the emphasis and volume of the speakers.  Tiny labels with arrows pointing to the gadgets add to the sense of adventure and humor.  It's hard to pick a favorite but a surprise greeted with cheers by the students has a single word on the small corner image,

SMOOOCH!


Whether you are new to the series or a faithful reader of all ten books, Lunch Lady and the Schoolwide Scuffle written and illustrated by Jarrett J. Krosoczka is a riveting romp of a ride right down to the final panel.  I read it in a single sitting, closed the cover and started it all over again.  These books have brought guys and gals into the reading community for nearly five years.  I applaud you Jarrett J. Krosoczka for the quality of your writing and illustrating and for being an integral part of children's literature.  Our world needs a hero who can serve lunch and justice.

For those of you who wish to know more about Jarrett J. Krosoczka and his other titles, follow the link to his website embedded in his name above.  There is an official Lunch Lady website linked above also.  It contains many types of resources and links to the publisher's website where you can peek inside other books in the series.  Have fun reading these Ten Random Facts About the Lunch Lady Series.  Enjoy the videos below.

They're On The Case

I never go anywhere without a book; they are my constant companion and my best friend (except for Xena).  My purses are on the large side so I can always carry at least one (or maybe two) book(s).  Books educate, reaffirm, entertain and enrich me and my life.  Opening their pages removes me from where I am to the realm created by the written words.

A few days ago I found myself unexpectedly sitting in a hospital emergency room...for two hours.  Within a matter of minutes I had taken Platypus Police Squad: The Frog Who Croaked (Walden Pond Press, an imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers) written and illustrated by Jarrett J. Krosoczka out of my handbag, opening the cover for the first time.  All the sights and sounds surrounding me faded away; a crime had been committed on the docks in the dead of night in a city familiar but unlike any I had ever known.

This is the city.  Kalamazoo City.  Population: 75,000. By day, it's a bright, vibrant metropolis, the kind of city where dreams come true. ...
But it is a different city once the sun goes down.  The criminal element, asleep by day, haunts certain dark corners at night. ...

With those sentences from the first page of the prologue, your attention has been captured.  Your sense of anticipation is heightened.  By the time the final thought has been read, an esteemed faculty member, Professor Hopkins, a frog of impeccable reputation, has vanished.

Apparently an illegal purchase of synthetic fish has gone awry; a duffel bag filled with the odorous critters is at the scene.  Why, you may ask, was a teacher down at the docks?  Why does his coat bear the tire tread marks of a car?

Rookie Detective Rick Zengo, still living at home with his parents in a rather affluent section of the city, arrives at Platypus Police Squad for his first day on the force.  His late grandfather Lieutenant Dailey's portrait hangs on the wall. He is a hero, having lost his life in taking down the biggest criminal at the time in the city, Frank Pandini, Sr., a diabolical panda if there ever was one.

His new partner is veteran Detective Corey O'Malley, whose physique shows his love of one donut or cupcake too many.  A family man, two sons, one in middle school, the other in high school, and a teenage daughter with a new boyfriend, living with his wife in a lower income, established residential area of the city, O'Malley is known for following procedures, slowly fitting the pieces of a case together.  He was part of the team that took Pandini, Sr. down.

Zengo's gut instinct tells him that Frank Pandini, Jr., philanthropist extraordinaire, savior of the city, is not all he purports to be.  It seems he has his "finger in every pie" in town; possibly the missing person case they have been assigned.  When an evening stake-out at Pandini's club, Bamboo, goes sour, Zengo and O'Malley are taken off the assignment and reduced to elementary school crossing-guard duty by an enraged Sergeant Plazinski.

Can the newly-formed duo put seemingly unimportant clues together to solve the separate but connected crimes?  Have they been served their last best root beer floats in the city?  Readers and the detectives find themselves surprised at the answers.  And the last four pages?  Let's just say...put your pedal to the metal, flip on the siren and put the light on the roof.  It's going to be a ride to remember.


In his debut chapter book, Jarrett J. Krosoczka has created a cast of characters with distinctive, memorable personalities; Zengo and O'Malley are a likable, admirable pair, old school clashing and collaborating with eagerness, their families are humorously normal, the sly reporter, a lizard, Derek Doherty is lurking and looking, the two loud-mouth, annoying detectives, Diaz and Lucinni, are a little short on brains, the gruff Sergeant Plazinski is sharp, quick to anger but also to praise, rolling with the circumstances and then there's Frank Pandini, Jr. and his lackeys who put on a good show but....  The plot unfolds through a fast-paced narrative, snappy dialogue and the atmospheric descriptions of place and time.  Readers are completely engaged through the listing of where the characters are and the exact hour and minute beneath each chapter designation.  Here are a couple of example passages.

Even during the daytime, the docks were dank and dreary.  Dockworkers carried crates off and on boats, and the air was filled with the sounds of distant foghorns.  Zengo wasn't used to this, having grown up in the heights, far away from the poorer areas on the east side of Kalamazoo City.  He shivered.  It seemed ten degrees colder by the water, not to mention the stench! It hit Zengo so hard in the face that he gagged.  It was the kind of stink that would linger on his clothes for days.

"Don't worry, rookie. Not everyone has forgotten." Something passed over O'Malley's face. "Oh, crud, this is our exit!"
Zengo clutched the passenger-side door as O'Malley veered across three lanes.  When the car finally straightened out, the skyscrapers in the side-view mirror receded as the sprawling upscale business complexes rose up ahead.
"Not sure who's a bigger threat to society there, partner!" said Zengo, straightening his shirt and jacket.
"Can it, rookie."


Krosoczka begins this book by illustrating opening and closing endpapers with the docks at night, the buildings of the city behind, the slightly wavy water in front, in blacks and grays.  The title pages cleverly display pertinent information on lighted billboards on building roofs.  Less than twenty-five two page spreads are without some type of visual done in tones of black and white; varying in size to enhance the text appropriately.  Each chapter begins with a full page illustration on the left.


Combining all the best elements from decades of mystery and detective literature and television Jarrett J. Krosoczka brings to middle grade reader in Platypus Police Squad: The Frog Who Croaked an action-packed first installment to what promises to be an exciting new series.  When these boomerang-carrying, crime-solving detectives are on the job no criminal is safe.  Readers (myself included) will be ready for the next episode as soon as the final page is turned.

Follow the link embedded in Krosoczka's name above to visit his website.  This link is to his Nerdy Book Club post, Penguins Are Done In This Town.  Access the Zengo and O'Malley Rookie Rules Activity Kit here.  If you want to read the first forty plus pages follow this link. Be sure to mark May 23, 2013 on your calendar for the virtual launch party; more details are here.