Sunshine

Hey Kiddo is one of my favorite graphic novels, and Sunshine is its follow-up but it stands by itself. This book chronicles a week that Krosoczka spent at a camp for children with life-threatening conditions. He was one of six high school students chosen at random (and they are a motley bunch)

At Camp Sunshine, he is charged with helping out Diego, a 13-year-old who has a brain tumor and travels via wheelchair, and his family. He also meets a bunch of other children, notably young Eric, who is a bundle of energy and obsessed with Power Rangers. Instead of spending this time in sadness, instead he finds that this week is one of the rare and special times that these kids fit in, can relate to each other, and take time to enjoy themselves.

Many of these memories were captured by the video camera Jarrett brought with him, and the characters really come to life in their stories and the artwork. This book is very affecting, and the weighty subject matter comes off more as a celebration of life and a window into how individuals and their families deal with difficult life situations. There is much to smile at and cry about in this book, and I feel it does an excellent job of shedding light into areas that most people, especially those not involved, tend to shy away from. 

Jarrett Krosoczka is best known for his series of Lunch Lady graphic novels for younger readers, and he has also contributed to the Star Wars Jedi Academy series. His prior memoir Hey Kiddo won the 2019 Harvey Award for Best Book of the Year and also was a finalist for the National Book Award for Young People's Literature. He speaks about his work on Sunshine in this interview.

Most of the reviews I have read about this book have been positive. In a starred review, Publishers Weekly concluded, "Though the creator is unsparing in his raw depictions of the campers’ situations and his reverence when recalling these memories is palpable, he never condescends, always faithfully documenting the warmth and life-changing potential of confronting grief head-on and participating in communal care." Tahneer Oksman wrote, "Krosoczka has a talent for uncovering the bountifulness and grace that can emerge from harsh, and otherwise quotidian, realities." Kirkus Reviews summed up, "Loving and true but doesn’t always avoid cliché."

Sunshine was published by Scholastic Graphix, and they offer a preview and more information about it here. 

Hey, Kiddo: How I Lost My Mother, Found My Father, and Dealt with Family Addiction

I am not going to lie, Hey, Kiddo made me cry. This book is a memoir about a young man who grows up to learn that his mother is a heroin addict and goes to live with his maternal grandparents, Joe and Shirl. They are brusque and caring, though they have their own issues with alcohol. Still, they take care of Jarrett in their way and instill in him a great many positive characteristics, chief among them a strong work ethic. They also support him in terms of him following his interests, and they are instrumental in making sure he had venues to create art, which was cathartic to him in many ways. Also, it led to opportunities down the road that resulted in a career in making comics (luckily for us all!).

His father is a mystery to him, and for much of his childhood he refuses to even acknowledge the man exists, not that he was present for Jarrett in any way. When he reaches later adolescence, Jarrett finally does make a gesture to meet him, and he learns about his half-siblings, with whom he builds relationships. There is so much about this book that speaks to what families are and how people try to find love and acceptance in this world, but none of it is sugar-coated. This book is powerful both in terms of its story and artwork. Both are subtle and nuanced. Hey, Kiddo is a slow burn with lots of emotional punch, and even though I was raised in very different circumstances, I found much to relate to and empathize with.

The book also benefits from a variety of media, such as letters, coasters, artwork, and various other artifacts used as chapter breaks. These really brought home the reality of these events and situations, making them have just that more of an emotional impact. I loved reading this book. It was sad, sweet, and incredibly moving. I am very glad that it exists in the world to be something that various aged readers, not just the YA set it is marketed toward, can engage with and learn from.

Krosoczka is best known for his series of Lunch Lady graphic novels for younger readers, and he has also contributed multiple volumes to the Star Wars Jedi Academy series. I met him a few years ago at Knoxville's Children's Festival of Reading, and he was a swell guy. Go check out his website for multiple versions of his biography as well as some random facts about him. It's worth the visit!

This book has garnered Krosoczka a lot of positive attention and praise. He has been profiled by both NPR and The New York Times. Most impressively, Hey, Kiddo was named a finalist for a National Book Award. The NYT's Patricia McCormick called it "brave" and "inspiring." In a starred review, Publishers Weekly summed up, "This nuanced graphic memoir portrays a whole family and tells a story of finding identity among a life’s complications."

Hey, Kiddo was published by Scholastic, and they offer more information about it here. This book features some profanity, but nothing beyond what a typical YA book might contain.

Comics Squad: Detention!

I recently read this third installment of the Comics Squad series (see my reviews for Lunch! and Recess!), and I loved the range of stories focused on that time of day reserved for atoning for misdeeds, detention. Some of these stories seem autobiographical, some are more fictional, one recasts classic Greek mythology, and another follows some microscopic organisms. And the creators involved are some of the tops in comics, including a number of prominent award winners and best-sellers.

I don't think there is one bad story in the bunch here, but I did have my favorites. Victoria Jamieson told an fun and unexpectedly touching story about a new girl in school whose unconventional detention is to help out in a kindergarten classroom. There she has a few encounters with a rambunctious and unruly student who gives her a couple of runs for her money but also teaches her something interesting. I also very much enjoyed George O'Connor's Greek mythology-infused tale of Sisyphus. It was chock full of mythological references and pad puns (two of my favorite things).

The rest of the stories are mostly in the humorous vein, and some also had some inventive touches. I really liked Ben Hatke's short exploration of imagination in his tale about a boy getting in trouble for having a cell phone in school and then having to invent ways to pass the time without it. I have also liked his art style, but here it is looser, which was a nice change of pace. I also thought Jarrett Krosoczka's Lunch Lady comic featuring the Breakfast Bunch was thrilling and fun, though I was bummed to find out it ended on a cliffhanger. Hopefully, that story gets picked up in the next volume of this series.

With all of the great things going on in this book I should also write about two things that may put people off: 1. There is an agenda to sell more graphic novels to younger readers. They are clearly cross-promoting other series they publish (Lunch Lady, Babymouse, and Squish). Personally, I feel this volume would make an excellent "gateway book" to further reading, and I like much of what I have read from those particular series. So the commercial push does not bother me much, and I feel introducing readers to other tales they might like is actually one of the book's strengths. 2. A lot of the stories share the theme of going to detention for drawing in class. I know I had my own run-ins with teachers about when and when not to draw and can relate, but I feel like the joke gets a little stale by the end of the book.

Still, I very much liked the range of tales here as well as the variety of topics and art styles. This collection is a fantastic anthology for young readers, and I think it would be an excellent classroom library book.

I had a difficult time finding reviews for this book, but the one I did find, written by Heidi Grange, who stated that "all the stories are quite absurd, but thoroughly engaging and entertaining and bound to be enjoyed by many young readers."

Comics Squad: Detention was published by Random House, and they have a preview and more available here.

Comics Squad: Lunch!

This second volume of Comics Squad features some pretty heavy hitters in its line-up. Most of the stories within are humorous, but a few are actually pretty serious. In all, I liked the range of stories and art styles, and I felt this book would be a great introduction to comics for many young readers. Or, because it features so many established creators and characters, it would be a great read for more ardent comics fans as well.

I felt that the standout story was by Cece Bell, about a young girl who is very picky about her meals and particular about her lunch routine. I would like to say that she learns to branch out from her ways, but instead I was treated to one of the weirdest manifestations of nut allergies I have seen.

Other standout stories come from the Holm siblings who gave us another fun and funny Babymouse tale.

I also really enjoyed Jason Shiga's take on a choose-your-own-adventure story that reads like a kid's version of Meanwhile. Though I have to admit in the end I kind of had to cheat on the premise, because I could not get the darn tubes to match up with the stories (I blame operator error). And it is worth noting that this story had some funny bits but not a happy ending.

Humor is also mostly absent from the short Hazardous Tales entry from Nathan Hale, but I still appreciated his version of a peculiar World War II naval battle. He makes great nonfiction, and it is good to see such work rounding out this collection.

Among the other tales here include Jeffrey Brown's "Cave Soup" featuring Lucy & Andy Neanderthal, which acts as an introduction to a forthcoming book (series?) and a look at Lunch Lady when she was just a kid. The only real clunker in the bunch was the Peanuts piece, which made me a bit sad. There are so many good Schulz stories, but this one was a studio-created one that I found insipid. More an 8-page commercial for Snoopy than a story really.

Almost every review I have read about it had great things to say about this book. Andy and Gwen commented that "The eight stories collected in the anthology are relatively short, making them ideal for reluctant readers or for readers who are new to comics." Kirkus Reviews summed it up as "One rotten apple aside, a second helping of tasty treats." The Mayor of Bookopolis called it "the ultimate 'sampler platter' of graphic novels."

Comics Squad: Lunch! was published by Random House, and they have some more information about it here.

Comics Squad: Recess!

For most students, recess is the most fun part of the day, and I have to say that this compilation is totally fun for younger readers. It features some fantastical stories, like the one that stars an anthropomorphic cupcake named Jimmy Sprinkles and another featuring a talking squirrel ("The Magic Acorn"). There are also more realistic stories about kids dealing with indoor recess on a stormy day ("The Rainy Day Monitor") or the time crunch for getting a book report written ("300 Words"). Because of the consistent humor and quality of the various stories, I feel this book would be great to hook new comics readers or to entertain more experienced comics fans who are into some of the characters/creators contained within.

The creators here are all on top of their game, and I really dug most of the tales.My two favorites were  by current National Ambassador for Young People's Literature Gene Yang ("The Super-Secret Ninja Club") and Dav (Captain Underpants) Pilkey ("Book 'em, Dogman"). The former is about a group of kooky young boys who wear black t-shirts on their heads and the latter a police-dog contending against a cat who tries to steal the world's books. But there are also some familiar favorites, like an entry from the Babymouse and Lunch Lady series. Like those two series, this book's artwork is black, white, and one other color (orange). You can see what that looks like with this page by Raina Telgemeier and Dave Roman:

All of the reviews I have read for this book sing its praises. Publishers Weekly gave it a starred review and called it "a very funny collection." Kirkus Reviews also gave it a starred review, stating that it was "lively, upbeat and all-around-awesome." Andy Wolverton wrote that it was "the perfect book to give to young readers who already enjoy comics/graphic novels as well as to those who might be a bit hesitant to read them."

Comics Squad: Recess! was published by Random House Kids, and they have links, a video preview, and more information here.

Lunch Lady, Volumes 3-8

I have read and reviewed the first two volumes of this series in the past, and as luck would have it, the author Jarrett J. Krosoczka attended the 2013 Children's Festival of Reading in Knoxville. He has been busy working on the series, because now he is all the way up to a ninth volume. The newest one, Lunch Lady and the Video Game Villain, was sold out by the time I got to the book counter but I did snap up the volumes in between.

The set up, in case you don't recall, is this: by day, Lunch Lady works at the school with her fellow "lunch engineer" Betty, who designs many different culinary-based gadgets, like night vision tacos, fish stick nunchucks, and spork phones, that are useful in their many adventures. By night, she defends the school and its students and teachers from various menaces, which  there are a lot of at this school, from crazed cyborg attacks to crazed librarians. Lunch Lady handles all these situations with skill, humor, and aplomb. She is a smart, fun character, and it is hard for me to dislike a heroine who uses exclamations like "Good gravy!," "Great goulash!," and "Oh my tater tots!"

Also, there are three other characters that factor largely in these books, the Breakfast Bunch kids, Terrence, Dee, and Hector, who assist Lunch Lady when they can and have to deal with the local bully Millmoe. These characters offer readers more relatable viewpoints and some comic relief as well.

The plots of each book revolves around some mysterious circumstance based around mundane school day characters and events, which gives Krosoczka lots of material to mine for humor and intrigue. So, in effect, each volume is a black, white, and yellow Scooby Doo-type mystery with fun and sympathetic characters. Here are some brief summaries of the six volumes I read:

In this third volume, Lewis Scribson, a finicky author comes to school to read and autograph his books. He will not eat the cookies Lunch Lady has baked for him. He will not sign copies of his own book if they have wrinkled covers, which bothers one of his long-time fans who has a cherished and well thumbed through volume. And he resents having to do his presentation in the gymnasium. After his visit, the PE teacher mysteriously has vanished, which leads to two questions: What did the author have to do with that disappearance? and Is playing dodgeball the best method to deal with an army of Flippy Bunny dolls?

Lunch Lady tries to take a break in book four, because what could possibly go wrong at a relaxing summer camp? Aside from farts and other assorted smells and bodily functions that are accentuated by staying in summer camp cabins, there is also the matter of a swamp monster roaming about. Initial research points toward it being some kind of new lifeform, but its ability to go into a kitchen and pilfer ice cream sandwiches indicates it may just be a person in a suit. The various camp counselors provide lots of alternatives and red herrings about who is terrorizing everyone and threatening all of the fun activities planned for the next two weeks. It could not be the dreamy new counselor Ben, with his blond hair and guitar, could it?

In Lunch Lady and the Bake Sale Bandit, someone has stolen all of the baked goods for the bake sale the students needed to fund their field trip to the museum. Among the suspects are Orson, the over-zealous safety patrol officer, custodian Kalowski who hates cleaning up all the crumbs left by sloppy students, Mrs. Calahan, the health teacher with an anti-sugar vendetta, and bus driver of the year Brenda who hates footprints on seats and is a maniac behind the wheel. I don't want to spoil things too much, but in the end the culprit is caught and the bake sale is a success, which leads to the next book:

Lunch Lady is an art aficionado, and when one of the chaperones falls sick she gets enlisted to accompany the students on their trip to the museum. The Breakfast Bunch wander off by themselves and learn that there are a surprising amount of fake pieces of art on display. The new museum director Dr. Fraudwa is apparently up to no good, and he does not take kindly to their snooping around. It's up to Lunch Lady to crack the case and save the day, but she may be too distracted by the museum tour to be effective.

After cutting out on part of the field trip, the Breakfast Bunch has to join the after school math team. With their added brain power, the team steamrolls their way to the championship against the private school Willowby Academy, which has not lost in more than 20 years. After Lunch Lady and Betty figure out that there is no trace of the Willowby mathletes once they win their championships and the fact that they all have the same green eyes, they decide to break in and investigate their rival school. This action puts their crime-fighting secret identities, and lives, at risk.

Finally (for now), it's picture day at Thompson Brook Elementary School, and the ultra-chichi photographer Stefani DePino has come to immortalize the students. Strangely, many of them have broken out in acne at the worst time. Lunch Lady and Betty investigate and learn the cause of this malady and also its link to tabloid magazines. Along the way, we learn about missing student council funds as well as who would in a fight between two cafeteria workers and a posse of fashion models.

As you can hopefully glean from my summaries, these stories are pretty silly. They are full of corny jokes, puns, and comic book action. They are also quite a lot of fun. The images are crisp and clean, and the use of yellow tones throughout accentuates things nicely. Author Jarrett Krosoczka has an obvious love of comics and uses their conventions to great effect. He has a few other works, including the picture books Max for President and Ollie the Purple Elephant and the recently published chapter book Platypus Police Squad. Krosoczka speaks more about his creative process in this interview.

This series of books rolls on to great reception. It has twice won a Children's Choice Book Award and also received high marks from Common Sense Media. Kirkus Reviews calls them "agreeably silly" and "action-filled." There has even been talk of a live-action movie starring Amy Poehler, though nothing has come to fruition yet.

Previews, a Lunch Lady video game, interviews, and much more are available at Krosoczka's official webpage. 

Lunch Lady, Volumes 1 & 2

Students may not be fascinated by what their teachers do outside of school, but some of us lead exciting lives. Maybe no one more so than Lunch Lady, the star of Jarrett Krosoczka's graphic novels for younger readers. This lunch lady has a lot of neat gadgets. She has a spatula that spins like a helicopter and lifts her in the air. She has a night vision taco. She has a secret hideout behind the refrigerator in her kitchen. And she keeps all of this secret except to her accomplice, fellow lunch lady Betty. That is, until a few nosy students notice that the Lunch Lady is doing interesting things, and they do get involved more than they should.

Hector, Dee, and Terrance are the students who get involved in Lunch Lady's adventures. They are likable characters who act like kids. They chat, hang out, bicker, and try to deal with Milmoe, the resident bully. However, in this normal school with normal students, some pretty interesting things occur.

In the first volume, the children's favorite teacher, Mr. O'Connell, is replaced by a substitute who overwhelms them with work and worksheets. The substitute acts strangely and also refuses to eat the yummy things Lunch Lady offers him. All of this turns out to be part of a plot by Mr. Edison, the science teacher, to finally win the school's Teacher of the Year award.

In the second volume, the Lunch Lady deals with the local librarians. They have hatched a scheme to achieve world domination, and the first step is destroying all video games. The librarians have turned a few books into special weapons, unleashing fantastic creatures from stories to attack people. Lunch Lady and the kids fight back with a variety of gizmos, including juice boxes that make sonic booms. In the end, Lunch Lady foils their nefarious plans and saves the school book fair.

Jarrett Krosoczka is a veteran children's book author. He brings a fun, cartoony style to the books. The pictures are mostly in black and white, although there is also yellow thrown in. That color really makes Lunch Lady's rubber gloves pop. The books have received pretty positive reviews so far, as shown here in three separate ones from Bookie Woogie, 100 Scope Notes, and Comics Worth Reading.



Random House is about to publish its third entry in the series, and Universal has picked up the books to become a film starring Amy Poehler.

Here is a trailer for the series posted on YouTube. The comics official site is here.

For more information about Krosoczka, please visit Studio JJK, his official website. Be sure to check out his Bios. They're pretty good!