Search results for ""Author Jarrett J. Krosoczka""

An important graphic novel memoir that was a US National Book Award Finalist. In kindergarten, Jarrett Krosoczka's teacher asks him to draw his family, with a mommy and a daddy. But Jarrett's family is much more complicated than that. His mom is an addict, in and out of rehab, and in and out of Jarrett's life. His father is a mystery - Jarrett doesn't know where to find him, or even what his name is. Jarrett lives with his grandparents - two very loud, very loving, very opinionated people who had thought they were through with raising children until Jarrett came along. Jarrett goes through his childhood trying to make his non-normal life as normal as possible, finding a way to express himself through drawing even as so little is being said to him about what's going on. Only as a teenager can Jarrett begin to piece together the truth of his family, reckoning with his mother and tracking down his father. Hey, Kiddo is a profoundly important memoir about growing up in a family grappling with addiction, and finding the art that helps you survive. Jarrett's TEDTalk about growing up and becoming a children's book illustrator, How A Boy Became an Artist, has over a million views

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The extraordinary - and extraordinarily powerful - follow-up to Hey, Kiddo. When Jarrett J. Krosoczka was in high school, he was part of a programme that sent students to be counsellors at a camp for seriously ill kids and their families. Going into it, Jarrett was worried: wouldn't it be depressing, to be around kids facing such a serious struggle? Wouldn't it be grim? But instead of the shadow of death, Jarrett found something else at Camp Sunshine: the hope and determination that gets people through the most troubled of times. Not only was he subject to some of the usual rituals that come with being a camp counselor (wilderness challenges, spooky campfire stories, an extremely stinky mascot costume), but he also got a chance to meet some extraordinary kids facing extraordinary circumstances. He learned about the captivity of illness, for sure but he also learned about the freedom a safe space can bring. Now, in his follow-up to the National Book Award finalist Hey, Kiddo , Jarrett brings readers back to Camp Sunshine so we can meet the campers and fellow counselors who changed the course of his life.

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