You asked for it (again!), and so I’ve worked with Custom Ink to set up a FOURTH round of #KidsNeedBooks of All Kinds fundraising. This time, we’re doing a Winter Edition. Options include: V-neck, long sleeve, raglan, hooded long sleeve, crew neck sweatshirt, and hoodie.
Click here to buy or donate.
And as always, THANK YOU!
~ Jarrett
My name is… Jamie Michalak. As in Mc – CAL – ick. My last name rhymes with metallic, which worked better as mnemonic device in middle school when I had a mouthful of braces.
I am… a daydreamer. Lately I daydream about being a surfer. Last year, I made big plans in my head to own a food truck. For days, I 100% believed I’d drive a food truck called Disco Pancakes with a big spinning disco ball on top. But then I wrote a story about it instead. In fact, my next three books are all about food. That’s the great thing about writing — you can live out your dreams in your stories. Even if in your book you’re, like, a baked bean.
As a kid I was… painfully shy in school. But in the familiar comfort of my neighborhood, I was adventurous and take-charge (read: bossy). I grew up in a city, and my street was lined with two-family houses full of kids. At age ten, I loved to organize backyard variety shows, form clubs, and issue a monthly newspaper called “The Biltmore Street News.” I’d interview my neighbors and reveal a little too much about their personal lives in my articles. Then I’d sell the paper door to door, and my parents would get phone calls.
Writing is… easier than speaking for me. As a part-time shy kid, I sometimes had a hard time speaking up in a group or saying exactly what I meant. It was incredibly frustrating because I knew the me most people saw didn’t match the real me. But when I wrote, I could make my thoughts flow out the way I wanted them to. Writing became my outlet and keeping a journal was great practice for an aspiring author.
Reading is… a ticket to explore the world and beyond, a closet of different lives to try on, a time travel machine, a seat in wizardry school, and more. Best of all, you don’t even have to leave your bed. (Pajamas rule.)
Books are… taking over my nightstand! I like to read several books at once, and then I have other books on deck under the ones I’m reading. It looks like a Jenga tower ready to topple.
Did you know…. that I’m also a writer at a toy company? A favorite part of my job is naming new toys.
You can find me…
As far as I’m concerned, teachers and librarians are the closet thing we’ve got to ACTUAL superheroes in this world. And it looks like I’m not the only one — check out this art made by students of Kristin Rambo, second grade teacher in Pottstown, PA!
To reflect this belief, and to help teachers and librarians everywhere proclaim there awesomeness, I designed some new T-shirts!
I shared this last night on Twitter, and right away someone asked, “What if you’re a teacher librarian?” Well, that’s a lot to fit on a T-shirt. But I might just have to whip up a new design to give all the teacher librarians out there some love. (Someone also suggested I make an “editor” version of the shirt!)
If you’re interested in getting a shirt, either for yourself or for an awesome teacher or librarian in your life, you can check out the teacher version here and the librarian version here.
Proceeds from these T-shirt sales will be used to help get high-quality, high-interest books into kids’ hands, through donations to organizations (such as First Book and We Need Diverse Books) and direct purchases and distribution.
And in case you missed it, you’ve still got a couple weeks to get a #KidsNeedBooks of All Kinds T-shirt (click here). Just the other day, this second round of fundraising broke the $4,000 mark!
Together with the first round of fundraising, nearly $18,000 has been raised! And if you’ve already got your shirt, don’t forget to post a #ShowMeYourShirt pic to enter to win some books and art!
You can see some of First Book’s favorite pics and read more about it all in this post they put up last week. And more pics can be found by searching the #ShowMeYourShirt hashtag on Twitter or Instagram. One of my favorites so far wasn’t actually a picture, but this drawing that Shannon, a 4th grader from Hawaii, did of her teacher wearing one of the shirts!
Thank you all once again for your incredible support and generosity!
~ Jarrett
I was recently interviewed by Lisa Tolin of Today.com about #KidsNeedBooks and book access in general. You can find the article here and also on my Press page.
One thing I’d like to take this opportunity to re-emphasize, is that it doesn’t take a lot of effort or money to help out. I have made a habit of keeping an eye out for books, and have been able to find LOTS of affordable books that are still in great shape at: yard sales; library sales; used book stores; book stores’ remainder sections and “hurt” book bins; friends’ and neighbors’ homes (ask around to see if anyone would like to give); flash sales online — just to name a few sources!
If you’ve got books to give, contact schools or libraries or kids’ programs in your community. I am certain you can find people who would be grateful for your generosity and glad to help find good homes for your books.
Lastly, if you have yet to read Donalyn Miller and Colby Sharp’s Game Changer! Book Access for All Kids, I cannot recommend it strongly enough. If you already care about this issue, or just want to learn more about it, THIS is the book to read. Get a copy for yourself, and maybe a couple for your friends and colleagues. Read it, then go out there and share the wealth of information and inspiration to be found in its pages.
~ Jarrett
Today’s the day!
Revenge of the EngiNerds has officially launched!
If you preordered the book — which, by the way, THANKS! — it should be arriving at your home or independent bookstore today. Otherwise, you can go and get yourself a copy wherever books are sold. The book should also, of course, be available at your local library. And if you can’t find it on the shelves at any of these places, just ASK!
Anyway, I’m celebrating the big day over at the MG Book Village, where I’m talking to two of my favorite people — Kathie MacIsaac and Corrina Allen — about one of my favorite things: humor!
Don’t worry — no frogs were harmed in the creation of this blog post. Check it out here! And thank you — again and again and again — for all of your awesome support.
STAY NERDY!
~ Jarrett
Over the past few weeks, I’ve been working on some activity sheets — drawing and writing prompts to help ignite the imaginations and kickstart the creativity of kids (and, as always, kids-at-heart)!
~ Jarrett
Pre-ordering books is an AWESOME way to support authors and illustrators you love. It signals to publishers that you’re excited about their books, and lets brick-and-mortar bookstores know how many copies they should order ahead of time and then expect to keep in stock.
To show my appreciation for such support, I am doing a Revenge of the EngiNerds pre-order giveaway! All you have to do is send proof of your pre-order to ROTEpreorder@gmail.com, and you’ll be automatically entered to win a class set (that’s 25 copies!) of the paperback edition of EngiNerds when it hits shelves in February!
And guess what? If you pre-order from an independent bookseller your name will be entered into the drawing TWICE!
Questions? Feel free to reach out here, via my Contact form, or on Twitter!
THANK YOU for the support!
Hello, friends!
It’s been a busy couple of months. Since I last checked in, I’ve been in Vermont, Kansas, Colorado, and Michigan. I took three of these four trips in order to attend those states’ nErDcamps.
nErDcamps are one-of-a-kind events where educators and creators come together to celebrate books and reading and, more importantly, learn from and inspire one another. The very first nErDcamp (a term built from “EDcamp” and the “nerd” of the online #nerdybookclub movement) took place six years ago in Parma, Michigan, and was labeled an “unconference” — instead of a day of pre-planned, scheduled sessions, participants showed up and organized a day of sessions on the spot, based on what they wanted to share and learn about.
Around 150 educators attended that very first nErDcamp. This year’s nErDcampMI had an attendance of nearly 2,000 (with a waitlist, one organizer told me, double that). There were also over 1,000 kids in attendance for nErDcampMI’s nErDcamp Jr., an evening during which local kids come to hang out with and learn from authors and illustrators and, amazingly, walk away with at least one, but often several, brand new books.
Michigan’s nErDcamp is by far the largest. But that first one six years ago launched a movement, and inspired others to organize nErDcamps of their own. Nearly a dozen have sprung up in the years since, and there are more in the works as I write this. The nErDcamp I attended in Vermont was that state’s first. The one I attended in Kansas was that state’s third. Each camp works a bit differently — some mix pre-planned sessions with the “unconference” style’s on-the-spot session creation — but they are all fueled by the same spirit, and by the same understanding: that by working together, kids’ educators and creators can more effectively make a difference in the lives of kids. And isn’t that why we’re all doing what we do every day?
If you are an educator, a creator, or otherwise involved in the process of getting books into kids hands and/or the promotion of reading, I cannot encourage you enough to attend a camp. I assure you that you will be warmly welcomed, make friends, learn loads, and leave feeling inspired and hope-filled.
Below you’ll find a list of all the nErDcamps I know of (if I missed any, let me know!). Follow the links to learn more, and find the various camp’s on social media (especially Twitter). Many of their accounts are active all year long, and do more than just share info about their camp itself. Also keep an eye out for new nErDcamps being launched in Central NY (follow Corrina Allen, Susan Sullivan, and Erin Varley on Twitter so as not to miss any info or announcements) and on the West Coast (follow Jennifer Druffel to keep in the loop about that).
And you can find ME at two more nErDcamps before the year is out: nErDcampNNE (up in Maine in September) and nErDcampLI (on Long Island in November). More info about both can be found on my Appearances page and at the camps’ websites/social media accounts. Hope to see you there!
Until next time: STAY NERDY!
A few weeks ago, my friend Ann Braden — author of the forthcoming MG novel The Benefits of Being an Octopus — did something pretty amazing. Inspired by a blog post from Donalyn Miller and moved by a flurry of tweets from educators expressing frustration, sadness, and even fear about the fact that their students were soon leaving school for summer break and wouldn’t have any books to read until they returned in the fall, Ann picked through her shelves and put together a stack of books that she was willing to part with. Educators interested in the books simply needed to retweet Ann’s tweet in order to enter the giveaway.
I saw Ann’s tweet, and was inspired to do what I could to help. That same night, I went home and put together a stack of my own. All the books were ones that I had read and enjoyed, even loved, and that I had purchased with the intent of having them on my shelves forever. But as soon as I considered the fact that there were a tremendous number of young readers out there who, for one reason or another, were facing the prospect of being book-less all summer long, it wasn’t very hard to part with even the most beloved of these books.
The next day, a couple more authors joined Ann and me. And the day after that, there were a handful more. Ann had got the ball rolling — and pretty soon the thing was just racing along. Up to a dozen new stacks were offered on every one of the following days. As of this post, nearly 90 authors have joined our little movement, and well over a hundred stacks of books have been given away. And these stacks were by no means small. Some contained 20 or even 30 books. Officially, the #KidsNeedBooks crew has given away over 500 books. But a huge number of books have been shipped out unofficially, and by my estimate, we’re closer to 1,000. (Below are the stacks I’ve so far given.)
As wonderful as this has all been, it is, sadly, not nearly enough. Our country is riddled with so-called “book deserts,” but all of us authors behind #KidsNeedBooks are committed to doing everything we can to continue flooding these places with books. We have been and are looking forward to working more closely with educators and librarians in a number of ways and on a number of projects, not only to get books into their students’ hands, but also to connect and engage with kids in other ways. As I’ve said before, kid lit authors and educators are colleagues, all of us united in our mission to enhance and enrich the lives of kids. When we work together, we can do more, and do it better.
Click here and here to read more about #KidsNeedBooks at Ann’s website. Click here to read coverage of the #KidsNeedBooks movement in the School Library Journal. And click here to sign up for the #KidsNeedBooks newsletter, through which we’ll keep you updated on our activities and alert you to opportunities to get involved.
Jarrett Lerner 