When I set out to write the Lunch Lady series of graphic novels, I had one simple goal in mind—to draw cartoons of a lunch lady fighting off robots with fish sticks. I wasn’t expecting to celebrate school lunch employees nationwide or to help awaken a generation of dormant readers. But while my original goals weren’t altruistic, I have come to embrace the responsibilities that the series has bestowed upon me.

First, and the most obvious, would be the “lunch ladies” that I am championing. The series itself was inspired by a chance encounter I had with Jeanne Cariglia, the woman who ran the cafeteria at my old elementary school. It was 2001 and I had returned to Gates Lane School in Worcester, Massachusetts, to talk to the students about my first published book, GOOD NIGHT, MONKEY BOY. While setting up my slide projector in the cafetorium, I noticed Jeanne was still working at the school and I struck up a conversation with her. When she told me about her grandchildren, I was bowled over. She had a family?! She didn’t live in the kitchen with the spatulas?! Even at 23, I had never thought about what would happen after the last lunch of the day was served. I set out to write a book that would detail the secret lives of school lunch employees, and the Lunch Lady series was born.

From left: Jeanne, Betty, and Jarrett

The series was launched in 2009 with LUNCH LADY AND THE CYBORG SUBSTITUTE and LUNCH LADY AND THE LEAGUE OF LIBRARIANS. I celebrated at the Worcester Public Library and had a packed house, with Jeanne and her old cafeteria cohort Betty front and center. I acknowledged their presence and presented them with framed drawings of the characters, along with autographed books. The crowd gave the women a thunderous round of applause. Both Jeanne and Betty loved the evening, relishing in the attention, and even autographed some books themselves.

In the time since the Lunch Lady graphic novels were first published, I've crisscrossed the country visiting schools to give lectures on writing and creativity. And with every school I visit, I learn about the school’s lunch staff and often stop by the cafeteria to shake hands with the women and men who work so hard to feed our nation’s school children. I love having the opportunity to hear how the series has shifted the way kids interact with their school’s lunch staff. Is there really a crime-fighting operation going on behind that sneeze guard?

In late 2011, I received some terrible news. Jeanne Cariglia had passed away. I attended her wake and could not believe what I saw there. Next to her casket were her childhood portrait and the drawing I had given her at the library two years prior. I spoke with her widower and his eyes widened as he told me about how much that gesture had meant to his wife. Jeanne was so proud of having been the inspiration for the series. She was even signing books for the nurses while in hospice.

I still have a difficult time wrapping my mind around that experience. That drawing I gave her—it took me maybe 15 minutes to make, but it meant a great deal to somebody. It, of course, went so much deeper than the time spent; it was the thought and validation that the drawing represented.

These experiences led me to dream up School Lunch Superhero Day, a day in which kids across the country could spread similar joy to their school lunch staff. When considering a possible date for this to take place, I glanced at a bulletin board I keep in my studio. It’s filled with mementos from the Lunch Lady books, including Jeanne’s mass card. I noticed her birthday—May 3rd. It seemed so perfect to me. What school employee wouldn’t want a little boost at the end of the year?

Along with Random House Children’s Books and the School Nutrition Association, I’ve created this dedicated website where educators and parents can download resources to celebrate on May 3rd.

But just as I want to encourage good citizenship in students, I also want to inspire their creativity. Through social media, I have already heard from so many schools that are celebrating in unique ways. One school is hosting the lunch staff on their morning news program, another is surprising their school lunch employees with balloons and flowers, and yet another will be lining the school’s hallways with drawings that the children make. The possibilities are endless!

Being that this is a guest blog for the International Reading Association, I did want to take a moment to touch upon the other group that I have embraced with the Lunch Lady series—the reluctant, or dormant, reader. I hear from so many educators and parents who share that their children are reading books for the first time because of my yellow-toned books and I am so humbled by their sentiments. Had comics been a validated reading format when I was a child, I can’t even begin to imagine how much more confident a reader I would have been. When I was a kid, I read every CALVIN & HOBBES treasury, I cut out and scrapbooked the GARFIELD comic strips from the newspaper daily and, if I couldn’t get a ride to the comic book store, I would walk a mile and a half to get there. I would walk three miles to read!

I won’t be abandoning this group when I wrap up the Lunch Lady series later this year. (If you haven’t heard, the tenth Lunch Lady book will be the last, at least for some time.) Also in May, my first chapter book will publish. While PLATYPUS POLICE SQUAD: THE FROG WHO CROAKED is a much longer and more prose-heavy book, it is very heavily illustrated. In 2014, I will see the publication of my next picture book, PEANUT BUTTER AND JELLYFISH. I also have some wonderful top-secret plans in the works, and some of them involve comics.

I hope that you have enjoyed reading my books in your schools. I am, and forever will be, grateful for the hard-working educators who put my books into the hands of young readers. I look forward to seeing what kind of fun activities you might come up with for School Lunch Superhero Day. When reading and food join forces, nothing but good can come from it! And when our children’s imaginations are inspired as they develop a love of reading it is an awe-inspiring thing!

Jarrett J. Krosoczka has been passionate about storytelling through words and pictures since he was a kid. His Lunch Lady series has twice won a Children's Choice Book Award and was nominated for a Will Eisner Comic Industry Award. In the summer of 2013, Jarrett will have his chapter book debut with the publication of PLATYPUS POLICE SQUAD: THE FROG WHO CROAKED. His Punk Farm and Lunch Lady series are both currently in development as feature films. Jarrett is happily living out his childhood dream in Northampton, Massachusetts, where he resides with his wife and daughters and their pug, Ralph Macchio.



Graphic Novels Reviewed, Part 2

5 Questions With... Dave Roman (ASTRONAUT ACADEMY: ZERO GRAVITY)

I am writing this as a confession. For the first twenty-five years of my life I cannot recall ever voluntarily reading an entire book. I’ve always been enamored by a good plotline when watching a movie, following a TV show, or listening to someone tell almost any kind of story. Both my parents and my older brother were voracious readers who kept every book they ever read on shelves like little trophies. I should have been an avid reader of books, but I wasn’t.

I went to a fine public school and was instructed by competent teachers who told us how important it was to read. But I didn’t read.

My teachers did not know I wasn’t reading because I “fake read.” I was a sharp enough student to figure out that if I read the words written on the covers of books I could bluff my way through assignments and book reports. I was not illiterate; I was a slow reader, but I knew how to read. I just didn’t want to. I suppose today I would be labeled as alliterate because I used every device I could think of to avoid reading any book.

I thought the idea of reading for pleasure was an oxymoron. Teachers would give their list of approved selections, but none caught my interest. I thought they were boring and of no value except to get a grade on a test or book report.

Occasionally I would observe classmates who always seemed to have their “private stashes of literature” with them to read during any stolen moment. I wondered what was wrong with them. Why would anyone read a book they weren’t required to read?

In class my teachers would introduce classic novels as great pieces of literature without really explaining the importance of what they could teach us about life and about ourselves. I’m sure my teachers were well intentioned, but they seemed to approach reading as a technical feat and/or memory exercise rather than as an experience to be savored. Every book report assigned was to be written in the accepted formula of title, author, setting, main characters, and summary. I was never asked what I thought about a book, how the book may have changed my thinking, or what kind of books I might like to try.

For twenty-five years I read only what I absolutely had to. I made good grades, but I never read a book for pleasure, for curiosity, or for just more information.

I am embarrassed to admit this, but what finally began my appreciation of pleasure reading was a romance novel, SWEET SAVAGE LOVE, by Rosemary Rogers. In my mid-twenties I was talking with a friend who brought along a copy of the book. She couldn’t seem to put it down. I teased her about being a “book nerd,” so she started telling me how steamy and romantic the book was. She summarized part of the plotline, and I was hooked. I had to know how the story ended. She handed me the book and said, “See for yourself.”

And I did. I read every single word of the book. I was thoroughly entertained, and I felt like I had entered another world through the characters Ms. Rogers created. I asked my friend if there were any more books like that around. She smiled and said, “A few.” I read several more simple romance novels right away.

Never before had I experienced being swept up by the written word to another time and place. When I had to put my book down to attend to mundane duties I worried about what was going on with the characters; I could not wait to get back to see how everyone was faring. I was fascinated by the novelty of being able to pick right back up where I had left off no matter when I came back to the book. My character “friends” were always there awaiting me. I could visit them as many times as I liked.

And, of course, the more I read the better reader I became. I soon tired of romance novels and moved on to historical romance novels, then to historical novels, then to all manner of fiction, both classic and new. I discovered for the first time how a work of fiction can help a person understand history, psychology, geography, human behavior, philosophy, and boundless areas of life.

I was struck by how much enjoyment I found in the stories, the people, and all I learned by taking a journey outside myself into the world of literature. But I was also saddened by how much time and opportunity I had missed for the first quarter of my life. I felt then and still feel that I can never catch up with all the books I have missed as I “fake read” my way through school. As a teacher I wonder why I was such a reluctant reader and how many students are missing the same things I did.

I think part of the problem is that I am a very slow, plodding reader with the attention span of a gnat. To this day I can listen to a book on CD, which I often do, faster than I can read it myself.

But more than that, I somehow missed the fact that there were so many books available that I would have found relevant and appealing. I was well aware that there were numerous books required and/or recommended by my teachers, but I never found my personal Harry Potter or Judy Moody series that would beckon me to turn off the TV or stop talking to my friends and immerse my self in a private, more fulfilling kind of journey.

When I listen to people like Steven Layne, Danny Brassell, and Donalyn Miller speak on how they help make books come alive for kids I am envious of the students in their classes who will know early on about coming of age novels to help them navigate the tricky waters of early adolescence, and deeply thoughtful works that may change forever the way they think about the world. I am awestruck by the creativity, the commitment, and the resourcefulness of teachers of reading who change lives every day by introducing students to the power of literature.

I applaud those educators who attend conferences, study pedagogy, and try countless strategies to inspire students to become lifelong readers. My apprehension, though, is for a growing concern I hear among teachers who feel they can no longer afford to spend time talking with students about the books they are reading or even for reading new literature themselves. With the pressure of a standardized curriculum, high sweepstakes testing, and too many “boxes to check,” many teachers feel they can no longer afford to indulge in the luxury of encouraging kids to read for pleasure.

Standards experts have shifted the curriculum to emphasize nonfiction and technical reading so that ideally students will be more ready to enter the workforce. More and more assessments have been developed to check students’ decoding and comprehension abilities at every step of the game.

But where in the standards is there an emphasis on helping students discover the joy and the affect of reading literature for discovery, for enlightenment, or for entertainment? If we create a bunch of technically proficient readers who, like me, learn to avoid books that aren’t required, then what have we accomplished?

I am a product of teachers who were proficient in teaching me how to read but never why I should read. I never truly became a reader until I started reading for pleasure. I learned much too late that the best way to become a better reader is pretty simple—read!

Come see Debbie Silver at IRA 2013. She will be speaking at the Second General Session on Sunday, April 21, 2013.

With 30 years spent as a teacher, staff development instructor, and university professor, Debbie Silver doesn't just know her way around the classroom; she's familiar with the challenges educators face at every level. Her newest book, FALL DOWN 7 TIMES, GET UP 8: TEACHING KIDS TO SUCCEED, is being heralded by parents, teachers, and administrators as a “fresh approach to getting kids to work smarter and better.” When she’s not working as an educational speaker and motivator, Debbie enjoys spending time in Texas with her husband, Dr. Lawrence Silver, and with their five sons and their families in five different states.



Debbie Silver to Speak at Annual Convention General Session

In the Classroom, Whose Taste Matters?

Building Communities in an Online Environment

Certain teachers stand out in your mind, even forty years after the fact. My fifth grade teacher, Mrs. Dietz, sent me a note when I graduated, asking if I still wrote poetry. And Mr. Perkins, my seventh grade social studies teacher, never flinched away from my essays—even when they were about topics like me mourning my yet-to-blossom bosoms. I still have two essays I wrote for him, not-very-neatly printed on lined paper, kept for the circled A at the top.

And then there were a half-dozen teachers who let me read in class after I had finished my work. All these teachers encouraged my love of reading and writing. And the two things are so tightly intertwined I can’t really tease them apart. To be a writer, you must be a reader.

Too often we tell kids who want to be writers: write what you know. But that advice should be modified to: write about what you want to know. Have I ever been blind? A serial killer? A drug dealer? No. But I have written best-selling books about people who are.

My secret: I read!

Reading is key to making writing come alive. When I first get an idea, I go to my library’s website and enter key words that might lead me to books. I’ll also Google the same terms, looking for articles and more books. If I read a book that covers interesting ground, I’ll use look at “Customers who bought this item also bought...” on Amazon to get ideas of more books to check out. As I read, I jot down ideas and questions.

When I get further into a project, I will also look for blog posts or listservs because they can offer an unfiltered and intimate experience. For example, I’ve Googled terms like “What it feels like to get shot” or “my car accident,” and I’ve lurked on message boards for cops.

I always read up on a topic before I interview anyone. Reading gives me a baseline of knowledge so I can respect people’s time. It shows my sources that I’ve gone to the trouble to learn something before asking for their help.

Here’s an example of how this process works. GIRL, STOLEN got its start with a real-life story I saw on the news. A blind teenager named Heather Wilson went out to dinner with her folks. When they also wanted to go Christmas shopping, she decided to stay in their minivan. Her mom left the keys in the ignition in case she got cold. A guy came along, saw the keys, didn’t see Heather, and stole the car. When she realized what was happening, she asked him to let her out.

The next day, I watched Heather and her mom being interviewed and I thought, That would make the great beginning to a book. What if the thief had kept her?

There was only one problem—other than having occasionally seen someone walking with a white cane, I knew NOTHING about what it’s like to be blind.

I began by reading first-person accounts of going blind. Several teachers and librarians recommended FOLLOW MY LEADER, by James B. Garfield, published in 1958, but still powerful today. I also read COCKEYED, by Ryan Knighton, TOUCHING THE ROCK by John Hull, and many more.

Once I had done some reading, I started reaching out to people who are blind. The Oregon chapter of the National Federation of the Blind put me in touch with a girl who was blind and went to a regular high school. And I asked a woman who reviews mysteries and is blind about clichés she saw in books or movies about blindness. She said that in movies there is often a dramatic moment where the blind person asks a sighted person if he or she can touch the other person’s face. She told me she had no desire to feel another person’s face, yet sighted people will often offer to let her touch theirs. So I had my character talk about this issue.

I hadn’t thought about putting a guide dog in my book (Heather doesn’t use one) until I read account after account about how much a guide dog can change the life of a person who is blind. People see you as much more approachable, and you can travel much faster. And of course, the dog is also your companion.

Luckily for me, there’s a Guide Dog School for the Blind that’s only an hour away. I made arrangements to visit. When I got there, I could see people in a meeting room. Some were seated, but two of them were walking—not dogs, mind you, but people! The people were on their hands and knees, with one arm up in a harness. It turned out that the students were going to get dogs the next day, but a dog can’t tell you you’re pulling too hard or not hard enough. So for a time, instructors played the roles of dogs.

Writing books has led me to read and do things I never would have. For THE NIGHT SHE DISAPPEARED, I read many articles on how to make architectural models, the profession of the killer. I also learned how divers search rivers for bodies. For an upcoming series called POINT LAST SEEN, I’ve learned how to tell animal bones and teeth from human, and I’ve been taught the finer points of finding crime scene evidence in the woods (leather gloves and painter’s kneeling pads are key, since you spend hours on your hands and knees).

And kids respond to this research. Two or three times a week, I’ll get a note like this:

“I am in high school and I have read two of your books and I'm trying to find some more. They are thrilling and I personally don't like to read but your books just draw my attention!”

“I finished the book in two days. My friend invited me over one day after school but I told her, ‘Sorry I want to finish my book!’ I'm not a big reader but this book made me love it. For some reason I can’t stop thinking about that book, I even have dreams about it.”

At the IRA conference, I’ll be talking about how mysteries and thrillers can be gateway drugs for reluctant readers. Study after study shows that the key to getting kids to read is to give them material that interests them. And mysteries and thrillers certainly appeal to kids, who love CSI-style shows and explorations of good and evil.

Come see April Henry at IRA 2013! She will be co-presenting the "Mystery Reading and Writing" workshop on Saturday, April 20, 2013.

April Henry is the NEW YORK TIMES bestselling author of many acclaimed mysteries for adults and young adults, including the YA novels GIRL, STOLEN; THE NIGHT SHE DISAPPEARED; and the thriller FACE OF BETRAYAL, co-authored with Lis Wiehl. She lives in Oregon.



It's All About the Story

Digging for Details that Make Historical Fiction Delicious