One Brave Soul

I can't stop thinking about Jarrett and how brave he is. I'm also extremely sad that I am #NotAtnErDCampMI and will have to wait even longer for a hug...

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

Current teens who spent their elementary years reading and re-reading Jarrett Krosoczka's Lunch Lady books are going to be thrilled to know that Jarrett is back.  This time he's the one donning the heroic yellow gloves as he lets the readers peep into his young childhood through courageous and heart wrenching words and images in his new graphic memoir.

Keep tissues handy and make sure you have a few hours set aside.  You won't want to stop reading.  This graphic novel is filled with love, hope, strength, the search for family, and words and images that will make you wonder, "What is a mother? Who is a mother?" Warning: You will continue to keep Jarrett in your thoughts days and days after finishing. As an outsider, I have always viewed Jarrett as a success story, the famous graphic novelist, the one whose books are torn and are forever checked out of my library.  Now he's offering us a raw glimpse into his struggles, his bravery, his family and sharing how his art became his first line of therapy. Maybe I won't stop thinking about him till I see him again for a big hug and the opportunity to say, "Thank you."

March 2013 with my then 6 year old Zack

In 2013, Jarrett visited my school right before the launch of the first Platypus Police Squad book. We were the first to serve him root beer floats.  At the time, my son was in first grade and fell hard, so hard that he began to set his sights on RISD for college.  Then we became Jarrett groupies, going to see him as often as we could, traveling the nearly two hours to events. Every time Jarrett saw Zack, he would embrace him as if we had been lifelong friends.  Zack is a bit older now and has sadly veered off the graphic novelist path a bit but he will always be a fan of Jarrett's. And I guess the same goes for Jarrett as when I finally ran into him and Gina before the Caldecott-Newbery-Legacy Banquet, the first thing Jarrett said was, "How is Zack? How old is he now?" This short memory is bringing tears to my eyes.  Here we are in a room filling up with the best of the best and the most talented authors and illustrators and publishers and librarians and Jarrett is asking me about my son.  Wow. He is a brave soul with a heck of a huge heart. 💕 But we didn't need his book to tell us that.

Me with Jarrett and Gina before the banquet last month

And I found this Twitter thread so fascinating and inspiring:

An ode to David Levithan, @loversdiction.

Because sometimes our mentors are also our peers.

<a thread>

— Jarrett J. Krosoczka (@StudioJJK) June 26, 2018