Jon Scieszka

Jon Scieszka ( SHESH-kə: born September 8, 1954) is an American author known for picture books including The True Story of the 3 Little Pigs! and Math Curse, often illustrated by Lane Smith. Scieszka wrote Time Warp Trio, a series of youth novels to teach history. He founded Guys Read, a web-based reading advocacy program to encourage boys to become readers."

Scieszka was the first U.S. National Ambassador for Young People's Literature in 2008 and 2009, appointed by the Librarian of Congress.

Early life and education

Scieszka was born in Flint, Michigan on September 8, 1954. He was the second oldest of six sons born to Shirley Scieszka, a registered nurse, and Louis Scieszka, a former elementary school principal.

Scieszka attended Culver Military Academy in Indiana for high school. In 1979, he graduated with a B.A. from Albion College in Michigan, where he studied English and medical science. He then earned a Master of Fine Arts in fiction writing at Columbia University in 1980. While attending Columbia, he painted apartments as a job.

Career

After graduation, Scieszka taught at Trevor Day School in New York City for ten years, where he worked with students between 1st and 8th grades but mostly focused on second graders. He then began writing and touring full-time.

Scieszka said he writes books because he "loves to make kids laugh." He has collaborated with the illustrator Lane Smith on many of his best-known works, including The True Story of the 3 Little Pigs! (1989), The Stinky Cheese Man and Other Fairly Stupid Tales (1992), and Math Curse. Smith illustrated 9 of the 16 novels in Scieszka's The Time Warp Trio series, which went on to be adapted into the Time Warp Trio television show in 2005 and 2006. Smith's wife, the graphic designer Molly Leach, contributed cover and layout design for many books by Scieszka and Smith. Some of these books, notably Stinky Cheese Man, have been noted for their zany and unconventional graphics and have influenced picture book artists.

Scieszka is also the founder of Guys Read, a web-based literacy program for boys whose mission is "to help boys become self-motivated, lifelong readers." He founded the nonprofit in response to his experiences as an elementary school teacher and the United States National Assessment of Educational Progress statistics showing boys consistently scoring worse than girls on federal reading tests every year, at every grade level.

In 2008 Scieszka was named the nation's first National Ambassador for Young People's Literature by the Librarian of Congress. During his two years as Ambassador, it was his job to raise "national awareness of the importance of young people’s literature as it relates to lifelong literacy, education and the development and betterment of the lives of young people." For Scieszka, this meant traveling to schools, libraries, and book-related conferences to speak about engaging kids in reading through choice, an expanded definition of reading, positive role models, and embracing new technologies. He has joked that being an ambassador gets him out of parking tickets.

Personal life

Scieszka lives in Park Slope, Brooklyn with his wife and children.

Books

Scieszka has written and edited many books for various publishers.

Picture books

The True Story of the 3 Little Pigs!, illustrated by Lane Smith - Harper & Row - 1989 ISBN 9780140544510

The Frog Prince, Continued, illustrated by Steven Johnson - Viking Press - 1991

The Stinky Cheese Man and Other Fairly Stupid Tales, illustrated by Lane Smith - Viking Press - 1992 ISBN 9780670844876

The Book That Jack Wrote, illustrated by Dan Adel - Viking Press - 1994 (out of print)

Math Curse, illustrated by Lane Smith - Viking Press - 1995 ISBN 9780670861941

Squids Will Be Squids, illustrated by Lane Smith - Viking Press - 1998

Baloney, (Henry P.), illustrated by Lane Smith - Viking Press - 2001

Science Verse, illustrated by Lane Smith - Viking Press - 2004

Seen Art?, illustrated by Lane Smith - Viking Press- 2005

Cowboy and Octopus, illustrated by Lane Smith - Viking Press - 2007

Walt Disney’s Alice In Wonderland, illustrated by Mary Blair - Disney Press - 2008

Robot Zot, illustrated by David Shannon - Simon & Schuster - 2009

The Time Warp Trio

Also see The Time Warp Trio

The Time Warp Trio books are illustrated middle grade novels about three boys, Sam, Joe, and Fred, who travel through time and space with a magical book. The early books were illustrated by Lane Smith, and later ones by Adam McCauley. They are published by Viking Press.

Knights of the Kitchen Table, illustrated by Lane Smith - 1991

The Not-So-Jolly Roger, illustrated by Lane Smith - 1991

The Good, the Bad, and the Goofy, illustrated by Lane Smith - 1992

Your Mother Was a Neanderthal, illustrated by Lane Smith - 1993

2095, illustrated by Lane Smith - 1995

Tut, Tut, illustrated by Lane Smith - 1996

Summer Reading Is Killing Me!, illustrated by Lane Smith - 1998

It's All Greek to Me, illustrated by Lane Smith - 1999

See You Later, Gladiator, illustrated by Adam McCauley - 2000

Sam Samurai, illustrated by Adam McCauley - 2001

Hey Kid, Want to Buy a Bridge?, illustrated by Adam McCauley - 2002

Viking It and Liking It, illustrated by Adam McCauley - 2002

Me Oh Maya!, illustrated by Adam McCauley - 2003

Da Wild, Da Crazy, Da Vinci, illustrated by Adam McCauley - 2004

Oh Say, I Can't See, illustrated by Adam McCauley - 2005

Marco? Polo!, illustrated by Adam McCauley - 2006

Jon Scieszka - Time Warp Trio Lyrics

Trucktown

Scieszka was inspired to create the Trucktown series because he "really wanted to write something for all of those crazy little guys who didn’t think there was something out there for them to read."

The Trucktown characters and backgrounds were created by the team of David Shannon, Loren Long, and David Gordon. The over fifty-book Trucktown program includes picture books, "Ready-to-Roll" early reader books, board books, and a variety of activity books. They are published by Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing.