Jon Scieszka
During his term as Literacy Ambassador, I managed to hear Jon speak on two different occasions. As always, he was amusing, but did deliver the message about the importance of getting boys to read. He should know what he is talking about, since he comes from a large family. Jon was the second oldest of six boys and, in his words, the nicest and of course the smartest. Hailing from the Midwest, Jon went to Albion College in Michigan not too far from where he grew up and later received an MFA from Columbia University in NY where he moved when he decided that he wanted to be a writer. Prior to that he taught school, and it was the elementary school kids who he realized were his true audience. He also remarked on the cultural shock of being a male among so many females when he started teaching. He calls it a "Margaret Mead Moment."
After Jon wrote his first story, "A Wolf's Tale" he tried to sell it to many children's publishers but was soundly rejected. Through his wife, he met Lane Smith who liked the story and created illustrations to go with it. Finally, they found a publisher who thought it was funny and to date more than 3 million copies of The True Story of the 3 Little Pigs have been sold in fourteen languages.
His Time Warp Trio series was inspired by 3rd and 4th graders. He mused--what would happen if I could send these guys far away in time and place. The stories tap into their interests and then leads them up to the greater world that we live in. Most of the books start in mid-story, offer a flash back and then continue the story. There are now 16 books in the series, and they are also appearing as graphic novels and even TV adaptations. To quote from the website
"The TIME WARP TRIO television series offers a wonderful opportunity to get kids excited about history. Its lively humor and irreverent attitude combine to make the programs refreshing and appealing, while providing solid historical facts. Based on the widely popular book series by Jon Scieszka, the television series will attract readers and non-readers alike.
To help you [teachers] use the show in the classroom, we offer lesson plans, books and links, and other educational tools. Invite students to have even more fun with history by checking out the latest online TIME WARP TRIO adventure each week, with history-based interactive games, quizzes, and more. http://www.timewarptrio.com/teachers-parents/ "
Some find it alarming that Jon has embraced media other than printed books, but as far as he is concerned it would be unrealistic not to. Look at what the kids today are doing with their time.
Not content with just this one series Jon is starting another called "Spaceheads." Three aliens arrive to take over the world. They become a girl, boy and a hamster. I guess we will just have to wait to see how this trio handles things. One of his latest efforts has been the Trucktown publishing program for the truck crazed preschoolers. All the trucks have distinctive personalities and are more like people than inanimate objects.
Jon was very unhappy to learn that boys are dong worse in school than girls. He asked himself "What are we doing wrong?" As the Literacy Ambassador he got to say things like - too much testing, every book that they read comes with a test - what a turn off. Studies have shown that kids retention drops off seriously when they just focus on the test. He is very supportive of the 20 minute silent reading programs that have been adopted in schools where kids are given a time and place to read whatever they want.
In both venues where I heard him speak, Jon read from his book Knucklehead which he claims comes from a lot of personal experience. It includes a lot of bathroom humor that appeals to boys and stunts that would likely cause serious bodily harm, but miraculously ended up with just a few broken bones among the brothers. He still keeps in touch with his brothers who provided most of the fodder for the book and annually they have a golf outing. (At least they are still speaking to each other after he revealed some embarrassing and often funny episodes in their lives.)
Even though Jon misses teaching, he feels that he actually has a bigger classroom now and a chance to touch the lives of more kids and their teachers. He also credits his wife for being so supportive during the years when he was struggling to sell his stories. Although, he worked as a painter to earn money, she was always pushing him to continue to write and to try and sell his stories. Jon founded Guy's Read a nonprofit entity in 2005. Its web site is designed to help boys find good books to read and enjoy. He is also a fan of audio books and feels that is a great way to get boys started on the path to becoming life-long readers.
His tenure as Literacy Ambassador is now over, but his work on behalf of literacy and getting boys to read is nowhere near over. Visit Jon at http://www.jsworldwide.com/index.html
Contributor: Marilyn Courtot
Reviews
Cowboy & Octopus
Jon Scieszka and Lane Smith
The very odd couple, Octopus and Cowboy, meet and find that "Some things work better with a friend." A seesaw, for example. Shaking hands, however, takes a while, since Octopus has eight. Communication suffers when Cowboy takes Octopus's instructions too literally. When Cowboy surprises Octopus by making him dinner, unfortunately Octopus does not like Cowboy's favorite beans and bacon. But being his friend, Octopus tries to enjoy one bean at least. The friends share "scary" Halloween costumes, misunderstandings about knock-knock jokes, and honest opinions about their new hats. The silly fun supports the notion of the strange friendship. Smith continues to try out new media. This nonsense tale is visualized using a variety of collage objects. On the title page a pair of plastic scissors cuts out a "Western Heroes" paper doll; the multi-armed friend has been cut from a comic book. These figures remain constant through the seven episodes, for which titles have been constructed from cut-out letters. Other pictures, papers, and photographs are assembled to provide the contexts. Wispy orange clouds and a big yellow sun are cut from paper for background; a checkerboard tablecloth displays the plates of beans. Half of the endpapers display brands for cattle in brown on tan for the Cowboy; seashells on blue fill the other half for the Octopus. 2007, Viking/Penguin Young Readers Group, $16.99. Ages 5 to 9. Reviewer: Ken Marantz and Sylvia Marantz (Children's Literature).
ISBN: 978-0-670-91058-8
ISBN: 0-670-91058-9
Kat's Mystery Gift
Jon Scieszka
Illustrations by David Shannon, Loren Long, and David Gordon
Kat the truck is a friendly construction grader with big brown eyes and long dark eyelashes. In this story, she spots a mysterious gift in a square box covered in red gift wrap. The contents of the box are unknown. Kat's friends have fun guessing what is inside the box. Her fire truck friends think that the gift may be a new siren or, perhaps, a flashing red light. Rosie the construction crane imagines a bright and decorative ball is inside the beautiful box. Kat keeps all of her friends guessing. In fact, she is enjoying the mystery so much that she decides not to open the present at all. This lively and engaging story is perfect for beginning readers. The story is simple, the vocabulary is basic, and the print is large. Additionally, the fun illustrations are creative and colorful. Young children will most certainly enjoy this book, part of Jon Scieszka's "Trucktown" series. 2009, Aladdin/Simon and Schuster, Ages 3 to 5, $3.99. Reviewer: Denise Daley
ISBN: 978-1-4169-4143-9
ISBN: 978-1-4169-4154-5
Knucklehead: Tall Tales and Mostly True Stories of Growing Up Scieszka
Jon Scieszka
Jon Scieszka's enormously funny childhood autobiography not only tells larger than life stories about growing up with five brothers but more than answers the age-old question posed to writers, "Where do you get your ideas?" The tall volume looks like an oversize comic book, and while the text is divided into traditional chapters, the pages are illustrated with numerous photos, images, and scanned relics. The thirty-eight chapters are short - at most only a few pages in length. Practical chapter titles like "Home, Sweet Home" and "Schooling" give a broad sense of the wise-cracking stories they contain. "Cooking" begins: "I learned how to cook because I like to stir oatmeal more than I like to pick up dog poop." From there Scieszka goes on to explain his strategy for chore assignments in his large family. In "Sorry, Mom," he relates how roughhousing with his brothers often led to accidents: "You know that little bone in the front part of your shoulder? The collarbone? Did you know you can break that bone with just seven pounds of pressure?" A black-and-white school photo of his younger brother Gregg, complete with hunched shoulders, bow tie, and angelic smile concludes the chapter, along with Scieszka's comment that "Gregg's collarbone got good at fixing itself. I think we broke him three or four times....Which explains why we have a lot of pictures of Gregg looking like a third-grade pro football player." Not to be missed is the hilarious index at the end, making this memorable autobiography one to be paged through again and again. CCBC Category: Biography and Autobiography. 2008, Viking, 106 pages, $16.99. Ages 8-13. Reviewer: CCBC (Cooperative Children's Book Center Choices 2009).
ISBN: 978-0-670-01106-3
ISBN: 978-0-670-01138-4
On the Move!
Michael Teitelbaum, created by Jon Scieszka
Illustrated by David Shannon, Loren Long, and David Gordon
This hands-on, interactive, ten-page board book will be an instant hit with young readers who like trucks and transportation. Cleverly designed and created with colorful illustrations of each different type of truck, the trucks come to life and engage the reader immediately. The whimsical illustrations convey each truck's special and unique personality, helping children to understand the job of each truck. For example, Dump Truck Dan wiggles as he dumps his heavy load, Tow Truck Ted is always eager to help, and Wrecker Rosie swings her wrecking ball with strength and determination. Three award winning artists--David Shannon, Loren Long, and David Gordon--collaborated to create the wonderful illustrations and interesting moveable parts on each page of this book. Not only will young readers enjoy manipulating the cleverly designed moveable parts, but they will also learn additional information while reading this delightful book and they will cement their understanding of the text. Trucktown comes to life because of the distinct visual style of this appealing hands-on book. Young readers will want to read it again and again. Children who enjoy this book will also enjoy the other books in the "truck-town" series and they will enjoy going to the website which is noted on the back cover to find more fun and games about these wonderful trucks and their unique jobs. This book will be an absolute favorite with young truck lovers! 2009, Simon & Schuster, $6.99. Ages 1 to 5. Reviewer: Susan Borges (Children's Literature).
ISBN: 978-1-4169-4178-1
ISBN: 1-4169-4178-9
Robot Zot!
Jon Scieszka
Illustrated by David Shannon
Robot Zot jumps out of the spaceship and into the house. No one can stop Robot Zot. He strikes and crashes his Attack Ship into the heart of the dangerous Earth Army. Then he cries out bravely, "Robot Zot--never fall. Robot Zot--conquer all!" Robot Zot challenges the appliances in a modern kitchen, including the coffee maker and blender. Zot defeats these machines and then takes on the formidable toaster. Then he prepares for battle with another insulting enemy. He challenges this gigantic foe with a well-placed punch, and the TV falls apart immediately. But at that moment Zot sees the most amazing Earth person ever. Brrring! Brrring! Rings this queen. For the first time, Zot has a new feeling; he is smitten by this lovely cell phone and determined to save her from the guards. Singing the victory song, he takes her back to his spaceship, only to run into Earth's Commander General, a watch dog. Soon Zot and his queen zoom off to distant galaxies. In this humorous story, children will read about Zot, a likable and adventurous robot; the illustrations are equally entertaining. 2010, Simon & Schuster, $17.99. Ages 5 to 9. Reviewer: Suzanna E. Henshon, Ph.D. (Children's Literature).
ISBN: 978-1-4169-6394-3
ISBN: 1-4169-6394-4
Scoop that Snow!
David Shannon, Loren Long and David Gordon
A book about trucks that talk and have personalities will appeal to some young children, especially boys. These characters from Trucktown, Payloader Pete and Dump Truck Dan, are brothers. They wake up one morning and see a huge pile of snow. Well, they know what to do. Pete loads it all into Dump Truck Dan. What fun they have as the snow pile is down to nothing in no time at all. What do these two crazy trucks decide to do? Dump it all out and do it all over again! Sound familiar? Young kids will have no problem relating to this story. The added attraction is the sparkly snow on the cover and on the last page. 2009, Little Simon/Simon & Schuster, Ages 6 mo. to 2, $7.99. Reviewer: Marilyn Courtot (Children's Literature).
ISBN: 978-1-4169-4182-8
The Spooky Tire
Jon Scieszka
Illustrated by David Shannon, Loren Long, and David Gordon
Wooooooooo! Halloween approaches. Storytellers, it is time to prepare your best scary voices. Even the toddler and preschool set can enjoy the spooky season with this latest addition to the "Jon Scieszka's Trucktown" series. It is a dark and scary night when cement mixer Melvin gets a flat tire. He rolls into a dark junkyard, looking for a replacement. What does he find but a golden tire? He puts it in place and rolls out of the junkyard, heading for home. Apparently, he is not alone. "Who took my golden tire?" a spooky voice calls. Readers ultimately will discover that the source of the voice is well-intentioned Jack. Funnily enough, super-scared Melvin will not know; he is speeding away on the last page. Adult readers are likely to find themselves thinking of The Legend of Sleepy Hollow or any of a dozen chilling ghost stories often recounted around campfires. Young readers (for whom such older tales likely would be inappropriate) will enjoy participating in the season's shivers with this story. It has just the right amount of "scary." 2009, Ready-to-Roll/Aladdin/Simon & Schuster, $3.99. Ages 3 to 6. Reviewer: Heidi Hauser Green (Children's Literature).
ISBN: 978-1-4169-4142-2
ISBN: 1-4169-4142-8
Time Warp Trio Vol. 4: Meet You at Waterloo
Jon Scieszka
Take the best of graphic novel styling, mix in accurate historical details, add a smattering of Jon Scieska humor, and you have the "Time Warp Trio." This book series is based on the "Time Warp Trio" television series and stays true to the cartoon form familiar to viewing audiences. The basic premise of the Time Warp Trio is based on a book which transports the readers into a historical period whenever they open it and utter something historical in nature. This time the gang is transported to the time of Napoleon Bonaparte who mistakes the boys for enemy spies and orders their execution. They are rescued from the guillotine by their friend Samantha, who has also been transported back in time and is serving as an assistant to Sophie Blanchard, a famous woman aviator. Napoleon, in the mean time, has managed to read the book, find out about his defeat at Waterloo, and change history. The boys only find out about the change when they are transported back home and realize that everything American they are used to is now French. They must return to the past to save the present. This book will appeal to fans of Jon Scieska, graphic novels, cartoons, and history. It is complete with a "we interrupt this story" insert about the true tale of Sophie Blanchard. 2007, HarperTrophy/HarperCollins, $6.99. Ages 10 to 15. Reviewer: Louanne Jacobs (Children's Literature).
ISBN: 978-0-06-111646-9
ISBN: 0-06-111646-7
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1999 feature
Added 1/25/2010
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If you're interested in reviewing children's and young adult books, then send a resume and writing sample to marilyn@childrenslit.com.