The Antidote to Hopelessness

“This is about me making sure that, when it's said and done, I have been of service to a generation of young people who now know that they can have a relationship with literature and literacy, because it is for them.”

- Jason Reynolds

"The antidote to hopelessness is young people."
- Jason Reynolds

Hey, Kiddo

I just read author and illustrator Jarrett J. Krosoczka's new young adult graphic memoir Hey, Kiddo. It's a National Book Award finalist and definitely has Newbery Award possibilities.

Hey, Kiddo is the brutally honest story of the author being raised by his grandparents, his mother's addiction to heroin, and reconnecting with his father. His grandparents, Joseph and Shirley, are wonderful. The dedication in his first book, Good Night Monkey Boy (2001) reads: For Grandma and Grandpa, the best parents a kid could ask for.



You may recognize Jarrett from his Lunch Lady series fame or the Platypus Police Squad series. 

Maybe you saw his TEDx talk...





Be sure not to miss Jarrett J. Krosoczka on Fresh Air with Terry Gross.

Follow Jarrett on Facebook at StudioJJK to see amazing stories and images from the book like these:

Be sure to read the Author's Note and A Note On The Art at the end of the book.

Get this book for every reader who loves a story of challenge and triumph... who likes an amazing coming of age story... who may see themselves and their family in this book. This is a book for young and old alike.

life's library

John Green and Rosianna Halse Rojas are starting a book club! Every six weeks for one year a group of people will read a book together. 100% of the profits from the book club will go to Partners in Health. 

Life's Library, a new kind of book club.
If you are interested sign up HERE.

The first book is Jacqueline Woodson's, If You Come Softly.

The book is inspired by a poem by Audre Lorde that begins:

If you come softly
as the wind within the trees
you may hear what I hear
see what sorrow sees.

from the book:

“I think only once in your life do you find someone that you say, "Hey, this is the person I want to spend the rest of my time on this earth with." And if you miss it, or walk away from it, or even maybe, blink - it's gone.” 
― Jacqueline Woodson, If You Come Softly

“This is how the time moves - an hour here, a day somewhere, and then it's night and then it's morning. A clock ticking on a shelf. A small child running to school, a father coming home. 

Time moves over us and past us, and the feeling of lips pressed against lips fades into memory. A picture yellows at its edges. A phone rings in an empty room.” 
― Jacqueline Woodson, If You Come Softly