A WORK IN PROGRESS: An Audible Best Book of 2023!

~ Jarrett Lerner ~ 2 Comments

It’s getting toward the end of the calendar year (hard to believe, I know!), and at the end of the year, all the Best Of lists begin to come out. And just a couple weeks ago, A Work in Progress appeared on a pretty big one.

That’s right: the book was chosen as an Audible Best Book of 2023! Of course, I share this honor with the hugely talented Eric Yang, the narrator of the audio version of A Work in Progress, who delivered a gut-wrenching (but ultimately hopeful and uplifting) reading of my words.

At the beginning of this year, several months before A Work in Progress published, Eric was on a list of narrator candidates that my publisher sent me. I listened to samples of everyone’s previous work — and Eric quickly emerged as a frontrunner. When I sent him a handful of poems to read from the book, we got back a five-minute audio file. But I knew after just five seconds that Eric was it. I opened up my email as I continued listening to Eric’s reading, and well before the five-minute mark, I’d fired off a note asking my publisher to please offer Eric the job. And Eric — he did not disappoint. His performance is absolutely incredible, and I am so, so pleased that he has received this recognition as well.

Here’s what an Audible editor said about the book — and Eric’s performance — on their Best Of list:

When I saw an anti-fatphobic audiobook aimed at middle-grade boys, I was thrilled! When I downloaded and listened to it, I was gobsmacked. Jarrett Lerner lays bare the embarrassment and shame a kid feels realizing that others’ views of him affect how he views himself. Because the protagonist is looking back from a safe, adult perspective, the story is appropriate for young readers, and the influence of a character who positively shifts Will’s self-image triumphs in the end. It’s Will’s pain, however, narrated by Eric Yang, that makes this story—and the redemptive arc—exceptionally satisfying for any listener.

Thank you to Audible for their kind words and for honoring A Work in Progress in this way. Thank you to Eric Yang for all of the work he put in to crush his reading like he did. And thank you to my wonderful, brilliant team at Simon & Schuster, for doing countless big and small things to help make my work shine.

Click HERE to check out more of Audible’s Best Of picks, and whether or not you’ve read A Work in Progress yet, I encourage you to go and take a listen to Eric’s reading the book. He’ll knock your socks off.

~ Jarrett

TWO Cover Reveals + A Paperback Release Date

~ Jarrett Lerner ~ 1 Comment

I had a very busy October, and that is why I am only coming on here now, in November, to share a whole bunch of very exciting stuff — specifically, a pair of cover reveals (one of which also happens to be a series reveal) and a paperback release date.

First up, the cover reveal for Welcome to Scare School, the first book in my new series, Scare School Diaries:

Welcome to Scare School is a chapter book — but save for its length, it’s very different from most chapter books you’ll open. The book is what my editor, agent, and I have begun to call a “hybrid,” a blend of both written and illustrated elements that are put together in a way that make it difficult to classify according to traditional categories. In other words, it’s not a straightforward chapter book, with mostly text and some occasionally illustrations. And it’s a not a graphic novel, with comic paneling on every page. The book is set up as a diary (that of Bash, a young ghost just beginning his education at Scare School), but while each entry begins with text, it soon gives way to a mix of spot illustrations and comics. In other words, with each page turn, the reader never knows what they’ll see next! I find storytelling in this form the most natural for me (if you’ve ever seen photos of drafts, which I often share on social media, they almost always appear in this way, whether or not the final product is a novel, a graphic novel, or whatever).

I can’t wait to share more about this book (and series!) with you, which comes out on July 16, 2024, but is already available for preorder wherever books are sold. (As always, if you preorder from the Silver Unicorn, I will sign/personalize — and doodle in! — your copies. Click HERE to do that.)

Lastly, here’s my publisher’s description of the book:

Bash, a young ghost who’s never been good at “ghost stuff” is heading off to Scare School, the world’s leading institution for elementary scare instruction, and he’s not happy about it. In fact, he’s kind of scared! His older sister Bella, precocious in every way, was a star student there and he knows the classes are hard and the teachers are tough.

Even before his first day of school, Bash is worried about how he’s going to make it through the rigorous curriculum when he hasn’t been able to get the hang of basics like making himself invisible or passing through walls (without bonking his head!). Will the young ghost get booooted out of Scare School?

Next up, the cover reveal for my next (the third) Nat the Cat early reader: Nat the Cat Has a Snack!

I’m a bit nervous that if I let myself ramble a bit about this book, I’ll end up spoiling everything. So I’m going to limit myself to saying that it comes out on May 7, 2024, but like Welcome to Scare School, it is already available for preorder wherever books are sold. (And also like Welcome to Scare School — as well as all my other books — if you preorder from the Silver Unicorn, I will sign/personalize/doodle in your copies. Click HERE to do that.) Beyond that, I’m going to let my publisher describe the book for you:

Nat that Cat has a snack. Pat the Rat wants a snack. Nat the Cat can share, right? Nat the Cat does not want to share!

And for my last bit of news today, I’m thrilled to share that A Work in Progress now has a paperback release date!

This significantly cheaper and much more portable edition of the book will come out alongside Nat’s newest adventure, on May 7, 2024. I don’t know much about the paperback A Work in Progress beyond the release date, but I know my publishers are currently working on it, and are exploring some pretty cool design ideas. I’ll be sharing more information about it — and the other two books mentioned above — as soon as I can, in addition to more news about all the other stuff I’ve been working on these past handful of months. Oh! How could I forget? The paperback edition of A Work in Progress is, like Welcome to Scare School and Nat the Cat Has a Snack, available for preorder wherever books are sold. And you know the drill, right? Preorder from the Silver Unicorn if you want YOUR copies signed/personalized/doodled in. Click HERE to do that.

And THANKS!

~ Jarrett

Global Read Aloud Resources

~ Jarrett Lerner ~ 1 Comment

Next week marks the start of this year’s Global Read Aloud, of which my illustrated novel in verse, A Work in Progress, is a part. (To learn more about this year’s Global Read Aloud and/or the project in general, you can click HERE and HERE.)

Before things get underway, I wanted to make sure to once more share about some of the resources available to those reading and discussing the book (either now, for the GRA, or whenever in the future). Specifically, if you head over to the A WORK IN PROGRESS page of this website, you’ll find two very handy things: first, the incredible Educator’s Guide (created by media specialist extraordinaire Carrie Friday), and second, the series of “behind the scenes” videos I put together about the book. There are six of these videos in all, each one covering one of the GRA’s six weeks of scheduled readings. You can watch these videos directly on my website or over on my YouTube channel (where you’ll find a bunch more cool stuff).

To everyone participating in this year’s Global Read Aloud, I look forward to connecting with you! And I hope the resources I (and Carrie!) have prepared prove useful in your exploration of A Work in Progress.

~ Jarrett

GEEGER THE ROBOT: FIELD DAY pub day (plus more Geeger the Robot news)!

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Today is a big day for me — and for Geeger the Robot, too. The sixth and final book in my early chapter series is officially here!

Starting today, you can get your hands on the book wherever you prefer to do so — your local independent bookstore or library, or from the online retailer of your choice. As always, if you want signed and/or personalized (and doodled in, too!) copies of the book — and/or any of my books — place your order through my local independent bookstore, the wonderful Silver Unicorn. (Click HERE to order the latest Geeger from the Silver Unicorn. And click HERE to browse all my books at their shop.)

All six of the Geeger the Robot books.

Field Trip is, in my opinion, the best of the Geeger the Robot books I’ve made. I did my darnedest to pack the thing full of as much humor and heart as possible. It’s the first one in which we see Geeger venture out of the now-familiar comfort and safety of Amblerville Elementary School and out into the wider world. It’s adventure, brimming with excitement and delight and surprises — but those surprises turn out to be both good and bad. And maybe it was in part because I was sad to be saying goodbye to Geeger, but the ending of the book . . . well, it’s the only one of the Geeger books that I’ve gotten teary-eyed while finishing. I think I really stuck the landing.

In other Geeger the Robot news, the first book in the series — Geeger the Robot Goes to School — was recently named an Amazon “Teachers’ Pick.”

What does it mean for a book to be a Teachers’ Pick? It means that it joins an elite list of books that have been praised and celebrated by hundreds of educators and librarians, and have also been positively reviewed by Amazon’s own in-house editors. It also means that that nifty little banner will now permanently fly above the book on Amazon.com.

Completing this series has been a bittersweet thing. Never say never, I suppose — but just in case this is the last Geeger adventure I get to share with my readers, I’d like to take a moment to thank everyone and anyone who has read, shared, and/or otherwise supported these books of mine. They have been an absolute blast to make, and have brought me some of the most rewarding moments of my career so far. I’ve lost count of the number of messages I’ve received about one or another of the Geeger books being a young reader’s first chapter book they’ve ever read on their own — and the books were carefully constructed and designed to lend themselves to being just that. Like all my work, I hope the Geeger the Robot books either convince or confirm for kids that reading can be an enjoyable, rewarding experience, and I hope the reading of the books helps them grow into more capable, confident, and eager readers. To have been informed on countless occasions that the books have done just that is a true gift. I’m grateful to every person whose had a hand in helping make those moments happen. Thank you, thank you, thank you.

~ Jarrett

MORE Nat the Cat!

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I’m delighted to share that my Nat the Cat series of early readers has been extended! There will now be (at least) SIX books in the series.

These books are such a joy to make. And I’ve already hit the ground running making them. I’ve written the third book, finished the cover art, and laid out the interior. I’ve also written Books #4 and #5, and sketched covers for both. And I know you’re obligated to take this statement with a (very large) grain of salt, but I think the stories are only getting better and better. (Perhaps there’s some evidence for this, too — while both Nat the Cat Takes a Nap and Nat the Cat Takes a Bath were Junior Library Guild selections, Nat the Cat Takes a Bath scored a bonus STARRED review.)

In any case, I can’t wait to share more about these new Nat (and Pat!) stories with you. I’ve already shared a couple of sneak peeks about/of Book #3 on my social media accounts, so head over there to see those and make sure you don’t miss anything else about the books!

~ Jarrett

THE HUNGER HEROES: MISSED MEAL MAYHEM Wins the OTTER Award!

~ Jarrett Lerner ~ 1 Comment

A little over a year ago, I shared some excited news about Missed Meal Mayhem, the first graphic novel chapter book in my Hunger Heroes series. The news was that the book had been nominated for an OTTER Award, one of three state book awards the book had been put up for. (You can read the original blog post about the OTTER Award HERE.) The OTTER Award, which is given out by the Washington Library Association, is an especially special award. The list of nominees is put together by a group of librarians, and after a year of reading and discussing all the nominees, the winner of the award is chosen by the KIDS of Washington state. And I am beyond delighted and honored to share that, last week, it was announced that The Hunger Heroes: Missed Meal Mayhem WON the award.

There are even MORE reasons why the OTTER Award is so darn awesome, though, one being that the award highlights and celebrates a very specific type of book: so-called “transitional chapter books.” These books — which fall between picture books/early readers and longer, full-fledged chapter books — aim to both attract AND assist readers. In other words, these books need to be ones that kids will not only love to read, but ones that will help them in their journey to becoming stronger, more confident readers. And that is precisely what I tried to accomplish with Missed Meal Mayhem and its sequel, Snack Cabinet Sabotage. The carefully balanced blend of comics and text was designed to grow readers just as it excited and entertained them. To have a bunch of librarians acknowledge the work I did to make such a book — and, by nominating it for their state’s award, let me know they think I made a successful one — and THEN have thousands of young readers use their vote to declare it their favorite? I can’t think of anything better.

THANK YOU to the Washington Library Association, and THANK YOU to every Washington kid who read The Hunger Heroes: Missed Meal Mayhem, whether they ultimately voted for it not. Because getting kids reading and voicing their thoughts and feelings about books — that’s the real prize.

To learn more about the OTTER Award, click HERE.

To see the official announcement about Missed Meal Mayhem‘s big win, click HERE.

~ Jarrett

A WORK IN PROGRESS Update: Educator’s Guide, Another STARRED Review, and More

~ Jarrett Lerner ~ 1 Comment

I just returned home from the final out-of-state school visits of my A Work in Progress tour, and have some news to share, in case you missed my posting about it on social media.

First, this website now has its very own A WORK IN PROGRESS page. On it you’ll find some general information about the book, a list of accolades (with links), and — drumroll please — the Educator’s Guide! This IS deserving a drumroll, because this guide: it’s EPIC. And you can trust me on that, because it wasn’t me who made it.

The Educator’s Guide was made by award-winning middle school media specialist Carrie Friday, and she did SUCH a fantastic job. Using both carefully crafted questions and thoughtful extension activities, Carrie has not only created a resource that will help educators ensure their readers get everything out of A Work in Progress that I could’ve hoped and dreamed, but has found so much more in the book. Her experience and brilliance as a librarian really shine through, and I’m amazed by all the ways she has found to use the book as a launchpad for meaningful discussion and productive exploration. Again: you can find the Educator’s Guide at the A WORK IN PROGRESS page of this site, or by simply clicking HERE.

In other A Work in Progress news: the book received another STARRED review. This time, it’s from Shelf Awareness, and the reviewer (Cade Williams) really got what I was going for. In addition to calling “earnest and inspiring,” Williams says:

Lerner’s novel is striking, sincere, and sensitive to the very real problems of bullying and ostracization. Visually, the book recalls a middle-schooler’s notebook, with a font reminiscent of penciled handwriting and striking cartoonish doodles that illustrate the novel’s events and Will’s emotional reactions to them. Throughout the novel Lerner uses repetition, emphases (such as bolding and capitalization), and free-verse forms to illustrate feelings of chaos and disorientation, anxiety, and oppressive self-loathing, and–eventually–determination and self-acceptance. A Work in Progress conveys a resounding and empowering message of self-love.

THANK YOU, Cade, for the kind words — and for that shiny star!

On top of touring to do school visits and bookstore events to share about A Work in Progress, I’ve also been doing lots of interviews, as well as guest posts at various websites. Only a portion of these posts and interviews have been published or aired. But you can find all of those that have — and keep an eye out for more as they are released — at the PRESS page of this website. Click HERE to head over there. As more interviews and filmed appearances are made public, they’ll be linked on that page.

Thanks to all of you who have already shown A Work in Progress so much love and given it so much support. The book has only been out for a few weeks and it’s already been such a wild, enjoyable ride.

~ Jarrett

NAT THE CAT TAKES A BATH Receives a STARRED Review from School Library Journal!

~ Jarrett Lerner ~ 1 Comment

I know I already gave it all away in the title of the post, but I’m so jazzed about it, I’m going to say it again down here: Nat the Cat Takes a Bath got a STARRED review from School Library Journal!

I want to say a big THANK YOU to School Library Journal — and a big THANK YOU, in particular, to SLJ reviewer Mary Lanni. It’s extra special when a reviewer really “gets” what you’ve tried to do with a book of yours, and Mary did just that and then some.

I’ve pasted below the full text of the review, and you can also click HERE if you want to check it out on SLJ’s site (which I recommend, since there’s TONS of great stuff on there). Also, if you follow me over on social media, you know I’ve been teasing some big news about Nat that I’ve got to share. This wonderful review isn’t it — this was a total surprise, and one that I learned about just last night. But I promise: the OTHER big news is coming soon!

Nat the Cat Takes a Bath is available wherever books are sold, as is Nat’s first book, Nat the Cat Takes a Nap. As always, if you want your copies of Nat’s books signed (and personalized, if you wish), you can order them from my local indie, The Silver Unicorn. Click HERE to do that.

Thanks!

~ Jarrett

Pub Day Eve for NAT THE CAT TAKES A BATH and A WORK IN PROGRESS!

~ Jarrett Lerner ~ 2 Comments

Tomorrow, I have TWO books coming out: Nat the Cat Takes a Bath and A Work in Progress. Judging by their covers, the books couldn’t be any more different. But I have similar hopes for both of them. I hope both books find readers, and I hope they both change the way their readers think of themselves.

I hope the kids who discover Nat the Cat Takes a Bath — and have it read aloud to them in their homes or classrooms or libraries — come to think of themselves as kids who love stories, and kids who want to engage with more books. And the kids who read the book on their own — I hope they close the book feeling more certain than ever that they are indeed readers.

I hope the kids who discover A Work in Progress read the book and never again doubt — or never even begin to doubt — that they are worthy of kindness, consideration, compassion, understanding, love, and respect. I also hope the story exercises and expands readers’ empathy, and that it alters the way they interact with the individuals that they cross paths with during their time on this planet.

On the eve of what will be a very big day for me, I also want to make sure to take this opportunity to thank, as always, everyone who supports me and my books, and everyone who puts my books in the hands of the young readers who want and need them. I can’t reach those readers alone. The parents, educators, librarians, administrators, grandparents, aunts, uncles, and others who share my books with the kids in their lives are an absolutely essential part of the equation, and I never, ever take that for granted.

Thank you. And I look forward to hearing what you all think of the books!

~ Jarrett

A WORK IN PROGRESS on the Kids’ Indie Next List!

~ Jarrett Lerner ~ 1 Comment

In case you missed me shouting about it on social media, I figured I’d share the news here…

A Work in Progress was picked for the May/June 2023 Kids’ Indie Next List!

What IS the Kids’ Indie Next List?

It’s a list (I’m guessing you’d worked that much out) compiled every two months by the independent booksellers of the country and published by the American Booksellers Association. The list contains 31 books — the ten kids’ books in each of three categories (Picture Books, Middle Grade, and Young Adult) that those independent booksellers of the country are MOST excited about (plus one “#1 Pick,” which received the greatest number of votes from the booksellers). This is obviously an enormous honor, and also bodes very well for the book’s performance in the independent booksellers of the country. As a longtime lover and avid supporter of independent bookstores and the hardworking, devoted booksellers who run them, this honor is especially meaningful to me.

You can see a preview of the May/June 2023 Kids’ Indie Next List HERE, and in a matter of days, you’ll be able to find beautifully designed and printed copies of the list at any independent bookstores near you. Below are quotes about the book from a few of the booksellers who voiced their support for A Work in Progress being on the list.

“One of the most relatable middle grade novels ever! Almost all of us have been called names, ones that hurt, ones that we internalize. Names that we beat ourselves up over, body shaming names. The incredible graphics in this book and notebook format illustrate brilliantly the power of words meant to hurt and those words we use against ourselves. We are all works in progress. To root for Will Chambers is to cheer for ourselves!” – Becky Anderson, Anderson’s Bookshop (Naperville, IL)

“Jarrett Lerner has put all of himself into this middle grade, novel in verse, graphic memoir, and the results are stunning… It is a harrowing look at what can go through the mind of a young person, and hopefully will serve as a cautionary tale that it’s important for all of us (not just kids) to remember to love who we are. This outstanding and accessible book figures to be on bookshelves for a very long time.” – Paul Swydan, The Silver Unicorn Bookstore (Acton, MA)

“Will’s journey from self-hate to learning that he is – that everyone is – a work in progress is one that will break your heart and stitch it back together with threads of hope. Every human –age 8 to 108– needs to read this book, because every human has felt less than in their lives.” – Lorie Barber, Anderson’s Bookshop (Naperville, IL)

Once again, THANK YOU BOOKSELLERS!

~ Jarrett