In the Heights: Jerry Craft Subverts Expectations

Episode Transcript
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Jerry Craft (00:03):
That's what they tell the black kids, but their
white classmates can read HarryPotter and relate to going to
Hogwarts and flying on broomsand kept bells, but a black kid
can't aspire to go to Paris canactually happen more than anyone
else can fly on the brook.

Jordan Lloyd Bookey (00:25):
There's a snarky t shirt you might have
seen that reads, stereotypes area real time saver. And, hey,
sometimes that's true. I mean,if both your parents were famous
jazz players, and they sent youto twelve years of music school,
and your nickname is SaxxyMaxxy, well, I expect I might
guess what you do for a living.But then there are people who

(00:47):
take those expectations and makethem look outright pointless.

I just tried to go against all of those tropes.

Our guest today is an expectation buster.
He didn't grow up in a family ofwriters or even readers. He
wasn't a lonely library lover ora junior journaler. And sit down
for this one. He can't rememberever liking a single kid's book
ever.
What he was motivated to do wasto draw and eventually to create

(01:24):
the kind of kids books that henever encountered when he was
young.

The books I like have just kids of color as
regular kids and aspire to bethem, and I think that's more
world changing.

Jerry Craft is a New York Times best selling
author and illustrator, bestknown for New Kid, the first
graphic novel to win the NewberyMedal. In this episode, Jerry
tells us about the one teacherwho found the secret to
inspiring him, explains howbeing a black comic strip artist
was a lot like the movieHighlander, and ponders whether
his dad's night shifts might bethe reason he still works best

(02:01):
at 3AM. My name is Jordan LloydBookey, and this is The Reading
Culture, a show where we speakwith diverse authors about ways
to build a stronger culture ofreading in our communities. We
dive deep into their personalexperiences and inspirations.
Our show is made possible byBeanstack, the leading solution
for motivating students to readmore.

(02:22):
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(02:45):
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(03:06):
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the page? Visit beanstack.com tolearn more. I'm gonna start go

(03:27):
back in time a little bit toyour, like, early life.
So you grew up did you grow upyour whole, like, childhood in
your from Washington Heights?That's where you're born and
raised?

Yeah. So the actual house where Jordan Banks lives
is the house where I grew up.

Side note, Jordan Banks is the main
character in Jerry's New Kidseries.

So I drew it's a brownstone.

Yeah.

And so his room is basically my room.

Uh-huh.

It was a really interesting area in Washington
Heights because there was acobblestone street. Mhmm. And
right across the street wassomething called Morris Duhamel
Mansion, which is like ahistorical landmark. And they
had these cannons in front and,like, George Washington used as
a headquarters during the war.You know?
Like, that's the law. And thennow it's supposed to be haunted.

(04:19):
So there used to be tour busesthat came all the time.

So interesting. Yeah.

Yeah. And me and my friends used to be out playing
softball and football on thelawn at front.

Yeah.

And then the tour buses would come. And one day I
looked up and, you know, there'sa group of people and it was
Queen Elizabeth. And we wentover and said hi, and, you know,
it was like, okay. But, youknow, that's that's the kind of,
neighborhood I was in.

When he wasn't welcoming foreign
monarchs, Jerry was busy honinga different set of social
skills.

My friends around my block, I mean, we were like
the little rascals.

Mhmm.

You know? So there were, like, 12 to 15 of us.

That's the best.

And, I mean, it was the best. Mhmm. You know, of
every morning in the summer, westart off ride our bikes or go
to the basketball court, andthen everyone's up. Then you
play the stickball game, andthen you go and you do this, and
then softball, then skateboards,and then play touch football

(05:25):
until the street lights come onor eight, 09:00 at night, and
then hot peas and butter. Andand then, you know, you you just
roast each other.
Yeah. That was it. So I wasalways one of the smallest of a
lot of my friends. Yeah.

So Like Jordan.

My tongue got to be very sharp.

That's right. You gotta make yourself
dig in some other ways. Right.Yeah.

We used to call it not roasting, but snapping on
each other. So I kinda honed theblacksmith with the the sword,
you know. And I'm like, you youwanna go toe to toe, I'm good.
Like, even sometime I go to highschool.

Yeah.

And the kids do something, I'm like, alright.
You know, I'm leaving here. Youknow, after you say your part,
I'm a leave here. You're the onethat's gonna have to see your
friends tomorrow after I sayback to you now. You wanna go
there?

Out under the streetlights with his crew
of friends, Jerry was a bigvoice with quick wit and a sharp
sense of humor. But inside hishome, he led a much quieter
life, guided by a parent who hadgrown up in a time when being
outspoken wasn't often a safeoption for a black man.

So my dad was born in 1918. So for an African
American man to have livedthrough a lot that he lived
through.

Sorry to interrupt. But where was he
born?

He was born in New York in Astoria, Queens.

In 1918.

Mhmm. And so, you know, he lived through colored
drinking fountains and, youknow, just everything that is TV
to most people.

Mhmm.

So he didn't expect a lot. So even when I went to a
school like Jordan, I ended upgoing to a field school in
Riverdale, but I don't rememberhim ever coming to parents day.
You know, there was kind of a Idon't know if he felt
intimidated, but, yeah, probablyso. You know, because you go

(07:33):
there and there are kids gettingpicked up in limos and cars with
diplomatic license plates and,things like that. So there were
things that are everyday for youand I that were just like, can
we go to that restaurant?
Can we do this? Can we do that?You know? So there was a a
humbleness to him. My dad workednights, so I would wake him up

(08:00):
every night at 10PM.
And he would get dressed andcatch the subway and then work
midnight till eight at the postoffice, the big post office
downtown Manhattan. Mhmm. And hedid that my entire young life.

He always had that night shift, that
graveyard shift?

Uh-huh.

Did he want that so he could then be with
you, like, during the otherhours? Is that the idea, or is
it just like the those are justthe hours of his job?

I think initially so that he would be home

Mhmm.

When I got home from school. But then once I was
older, he still kept that untilhe retired.

Yeah.

So I would come home from school at, like, 05:00
because I was in the afterschool program. Mhmm. And we'd
have dinner and hang out alittle bit, then he'd have to go
back to sleep, and then itstarted again. So I always like
to draw. So I am was always kindof a night owl.
So after he would leave, I wouldstart drawing and make my own

(08:57):
comic books and, you know, thatnever changed. I finished
drawing at 5AM this morning. Idid an all nighter. Wow. And
then got a couple hours sleepand here

I am. Sort of like your dad. Mhmm. Just
drawing keeping those hours.

Yep. I'm

gonna get to drawing in a second. But
then, and then your mom was thethree of you pretty much when it
was besides your other twosiblings.

Yep. And then they divorced when I was 17.

Oh, interesting.

So then it was just me and my dad for about eight
years or so, just the two of us.So I was always used to being
able to entertain myself bydrawing or watching TV or Yeah.
You know, whatever. You know? SoI know some people panic at the
thought of being by themselvesbecause they get bored so

(09:44):
easily.

Yeah.

And even now being in my studio is just like a
sanctuary. Like, my fortress ofsolitude. I get work done and my
wife and I, I'll stop a coupleof times during the day and
we'll go and we'll do somestuff. But for the most part,
like, I'm I'm good. And it's soweird to go from being alone for

(10:09):
so much of the day and thengoing to ALA where there's,
like, 3,000,000 screaminglibrarians, you know, all all
wanting to take selfies andstuff.

I wanna share here that I first met
Jerry at one of thoseconferences where despite his
fame and all those screamingfans, he immediately did
something that showed how humbleand kind he really is. I just
said, oh, hey. Jerry turnedaround like it's Jerry Craft. I
think, you know, you're JerryCraft. And you were like, yeah.
So my kids love your work. Yousaid, oh, great. What are their

(10:46):
names? Then you just took out alittle I didn't ask. You just
took out these two little sheetsof paper and put there and made
them each a little drawing,which we have it hanging up now.

Right. Because it's like, you know, how long did
that take out of my life?

Right.

You know, like like, what could I have done
that would have been better?Mhmm. You know what I mean?
Yeah. In in that, like, fiveminutes that we engage and for
me to sign an autograph to yourkids, you know, how could I have
used that time better?

Right.

You know? And then you go home, and you take it to
your kids. Like, oh, mom. Andyou get your mom cool points.

Yeah. Yeah. My cool points. Were you always
drawing? Like, it sounds likeyou were always drawing.
Do you kind of remember, like,discovering, I'm good at this. I
enjoy this. Or, like, who gaveyou your first crayons or that
kind of thing?

You know, the Sunday funnies were a big thing
back then, and then I inheritedmy brother and sister's Marvel
comic collection. So between theSunday funnies and the Marvel
comics, that kinda got me intowriting and drawing. And I
remember when my brother went tothe marines, if I went to see a

(12:01):
movie, I would then draw themovie out in comic strip form
and mail it to him.

Oh, really? That's so cool. Do you remember
which ones some of the ones youdid it for?

Yeah. You know, I mean, that was back in, like,
the Shaft days. RichardRoundtree and Shaft and then
Bruce Lee, like, Fist of Furyand Into the Dragon, like, those
kind of days. And those

So you would actually, like, do all the
panels for sending him and thensend him the movie your movie
rendition of it?

Uh-huh. And then I remember in Feelson, my, I
think, ninth grade biologyteacher, Barbara Silver, let me
do my term paper as a comicbook.

Wow.

And it was about the life of a plant. And towards
the end, it was winter comingand frost, like in these
spaceships shooting the like icerays. And

Yeah. They had to

build energy using photosynthesis and moving stuff
up with the xylem and phloemsystems and all this stuff. Then
I still remember because Iworked so much harder on that
than I would have if it was justa regular paper that I had to
type up. You know? So Idefinitely encourage teachers if
you've got that kid that doessomething that's a little off

(13:20):
the beaten path. Mhmm.
If you can find a way to bring alesson plan where they can use
that kind of thing.

Yeah. It's cool that she did that because
it's I think, like, nowadays, Ido think it's maybe more common
for people understand thepedagogy of, like, trying to
understand how a kid can bestcommunicate that information and
give them the tools. And a goodscenario with someone who has
the tools to be able to do that.You know? Yeah.
But I think you know, whenyou're in school, like, that was
just couldn't have been commonto allow somebody to do that.

(13:49):
You know?

And I think it was maybe Kevin Hart's teacher that
told him if he behaved for theentire week, Friday before they
went home, he could do comedy infront of the class.

I don't know that story really.

Yeah. So those kind of things really make a
difference on a kid. And that'sthe thing. You never know what
impacts a kid. Mhmm.

You

know? Did she know that fifty years later, I'd be
telling the story of how much Iremembered it?

Yeah. It's wild to think about after all
this time, that that experiencestill stands out so clear for
you. Yeah. And I bet I bet shedoes not know the outsized
impact that it had on you. Andso you're obviously known as a
drawer, as an artist foreverybody.
But I'm curious, and I have readthat you did not like to read a
lot growing up.

One book in elementary school, and that was
Jonathan Livingston Seagull. Iremember he was a Seagull. I
don't remember anything else. Idon't remember literally reading
any of and and it's not like Iwouldn't have read it because,
you know, I was like a honorroll student. Mhmm.
But there's nothing that justthat comes to mind. Like, I have

(15:01):
no memory. Mhmm. You know? Andeven writing wise, I remember in
Feelson in high school, I readGooseberries by Anton Chekhov.

Oh, wow.

And I had to write a paper on it. And for some
reason, I really got it clicked,and I really understood it. And
I wrote a really good paper onit. And I remember my English
teacher calling me into hisclassroom. And, hey.
You know? What does your mom dofor a living? And what does your
dad do? And interviewing justlike this. And, you know, he

(15:39):
gave me my paper, and it was ana.
And it was probably years laterthat I was like, you know what?
He didn't think I wrote that. Hethought, like, my mom or dad
wrote that.

Wow.

Yeah. And I'm like, I'd like to find one day and
show my Newbery Medal and pickpick my tongue out at them.

There was eventually one book that Jerry
felt some connection with, andit was probably not a title
you'd guess that a, quote,reluctant reader would gravitate
toward. For starters, it wasmore than a century old and set
in Georgian England, and yet itsthemes of limited class mobility
and the weight of inheritedstatus rang true to a young man

(16:24):
from Washington Heights who wasattending a much wealthier
neighboring school. Did youguess it yet?

So Great Expectations, that was the first
book of any substance or anylength. It's a long book,
though. It's like a 300 pagebook. And I read it and finished
it and enjoyed it, and I wasstunned because that was the
first I didn't think I couldever read a 300 page book. You

know? Mhmm.

I remember we had to read American Tragedy, which
is, like, 800 pages. And me andone of my friends in the class
came up with a plan. They'relike, look. I'll read the first
four hundred pages and read thesecond four hundred, and we're
comparing those. And neither ofus did.
Who would have thought that thatplan would have worked out?

Sounds like a very good, high school void
plan.

Right. But it's like, you know, you can't give
some kids 800 page books. Imean, now, you know, their kids
are like, oh, I read HarryPotter when I was five. It was
1,500 pages. It's like, oh,okay.
Well, good video.

Whatever. Yeah. I know.

No. But that's amazing.

Yeah.

But for some kids, like me, when you see that many
words, it just looks like graypaper. Mhmm. You know, so many
words, it it just grays out. Youknow? Mhmm.
At least it was about a kid.That's the one thing. Even
though he was a kid from Englandnamed Pip, he was about my age
or whatever. So at least he wasa kid.

Yeah.

And I always say that people had expectations for
him. And as a young AfricanAmerican kid, we didn't even
expect to live to the end of thebook. You know what I mean? Much
less climb social hierarchiesand socioeconomic and go to all
the class systems. It's like, itwas nothing like that.

Yeah. Especially like what you were
saying about your I think yourdad and also having that, like,
the inheritance of that whereyou said his humility and his
sort of, like he literally forhimself and maybe for you, I
don't know about for you, butfor himself did not have those
own expectations. It was like

Oh, yeah. You know, I was, like, first college
graduate in the family, first toown a house, first to, you know,
those kind of things. So, yeah,it it was just very different.

This is usually the part where guests
read a passage, something thatshaped them or stuck with them.
And I thought Jerry's might besomething from Dickens, but he
told me he'd prefer to share aquote that he keeps pinned to
his wall, a reminder to himselfto never underestimate the
effect we can have on others.

So I'm not really one of these that puts up these
sayings or whatever, but I I didsee this, and this is actually
hanging up. It says, to theworld, you may be one person,
but to one person, you may bethe world. When I saw it, the
light shines down and the angelsstart playing the harp, you

(19:27):
know, and all that stuff. And asI have seen that and different
stories that teachers andlibrarians have shared with me
over the years of, you know,they're coming to me and they've
already got tears in their eyes.I'm like, okay.
What's going on? Like, there's akid in my class, and he has

(19:49):
never read a book before. And heread New Kid, and he read it,
like, three times. And then heasked me if he could start a
book club. I'm like, really?
And they're just bawling. Andnow I'm about to go up on stage.
I'm bawling. I'm like or ateacher who says that, again, a

(20:12):
kid who never read came to himand was like, miss Stuarten, can
you promise me you'll read thisover the weekend so we could
talk about it on Monday? Andshe's like, you're giving me
reading homework?
You know? And the fact that thiskid could sit down with his

(20:33):
teacher and read a Newbery awardwinning book. And not only that,
but sometimes adults, if youdidn't grow up reading comics,
it's not second nature.

No. It's not. Yeah.

You know, I read I grew up reading comics. It's
easy. But there are adults thatare like, okay. Do you look at
the pictures first?

It's, like, pretty sophisticated actually to
read. Right. Yeah.

But for kids, it's second nature, a lot of them.
And so now this kid sitting downagain with a award winning book,
having to show his teacher howto read that, you know, and
enjoying it together anddiscussing it is like like me
doing my biology term paper as acomic book. Like, you just never

(21:18):
know the impact that it had onthat kid.

To come back to the quote. Like, you
just don't realize that that

Right. That it could be life altering.

Do you have in mind when you sit down to
create a new story? Like, areyou consciously imagining how a
kid might be inspired by thatbook?

The books I like have just kids of color is
regular kids. Yeah. You know, sowhen you see Octopus Stew by
Eric Velasquez, or the King ofKindergarten, the Queen of
Kindergarten, you know, by DerekBarr, or Big by Varsley
Harrison. Yeah. Like those arebooks that I'm like, any kid can

(21:55):
relate to them Yeah.
And aspire to be them. And Ithink that's more world
changing.

Jerry's path to making those world
changing books as an illustratorand author wasn't a straight
shot. It was more twists, turns,and bumps than smooth road.
Along the way, he began craftinga family comic strip he called
Mama's Boys. And eventually, hefound a spot working at a comic
syndicate, King Features, butalso found himself frustrated by

(22:30):
the expectations that newspapersand publishers had for a, quote,
black comic strip.

Each syndicate had one black comic strip. So, like,
King Features had Curtis by RayBillingsley. And then, I think
Tribune had Maury Turner's WePals. LA Times had, like, Herman
Jamal by Stephen Bentley.Detroit Free Press had Barbara
Brand is where I'm coming from.

(22:56):
So each syndicate had Had one.One it was like Highlander.
There could be only one. And youeither had to wait for someone
to retire or you had to wait forsomeone to leave the business or
hope that you add of theirleaves or whatever. You know,
they can have 15 talking catstrips.

(23:19):
They can have Garfield andHeathcliff or Yeah. A lot

of, like, middle aged mom types. Yeah.

Right. But there was one black comic strip. So
then news comes in thatUniversal has picked up
Boondocks. And I'm like, well,it was a good run. You know,
like, that's it.
Like, I'm never going to get orit's gonna take years before I

(23:46):
get another shot at that. Sothat's when I started to self
publish. And 1997, I selfpublished my very first book,
Mama's Boys as American SweetPotato Pie, which is a
collection of my comic strips,of my Mama's Boys comic strips.

That's boys with a z or a zed for my
Canadian listeners, a tribute toone of his favorite films, John
Singleton's Boys in the Hood.But Jerry's young characters
were far from South Central LAin that gritty nineties film.

And it was like, you know, I just wanted to do
family humor. You know, goodkids, you know, respectful. You
know, the mom owned a bookstore.

Jerry frequently found that respectful
and family friendly weren't whateditors were looking for in a
comic about a black household.

They're always like, hey. You know, you're
doing a a black strip. Can youcurse? Can you do this? Can and
I'm like, no.
I don't I don't wanna do that.And then it ends up that, Stan
Mack actually did a real lifefunny on me with them. People
want me to curse in my stripswith I just wanna do a family
thing. In 1997, I wanted to do abook and sent that out to

(25:01):
different publishers and gothorrible rejection letters.
Again, one of them had ananother, dear Jerry.
And I was like, it's not a formletter. It's per someone took
the time to read me this letter.Yeah. It's gotta be good. And it
was like, you know, this wholeblack sitcom style works on TV,

(25:23):
but it doesn't work in the book.
So to think that this will everget published, you're kinda
wasting your time.

Oh, man.

I'm like, shoot. That was mean.

Yeah. Like the high school writing teacher
who doubted that Chekhov essay,the publishing world in the
nineties had a lot ofpreconceptions about what
Jerry's work was supposed tolook like. Pushing back against
those cliches became one of hisdeliberate goals, a principle
that continues to guide hiscreative process today.

So when I did, Jordan's dad, I wanted to have a
real hands on dad. Yeah. Youknow, I didn't want the dad
because the other trope in themovies is

Absent dad. You know? Right.

Or or even if he's there, he's not really there.

Yeah. Or he's like a drag he's like
literally a physical drag on,you know, or like a neg a
negative force.

So I don't wanna have Jordan playing baseball,
and it's the championship, andit's high school team. And he
looks up, and there's one emptychair. Yeah. And that's because
dad is working late. Yeah.
He's trying to make partner. Andthen he gets there as the kids
are getting on the bus. And I'mlike so I I just tried to go

(26:42):
against all of those tropes.Even, you know, the dad is my
complexion and the mom is darkerskinned.

Yeah.

We never see that. It's always the darker skinned
dad.

It's always a reverse. That's right. And one
thing I love about your books,even at the very end, like,
there are some people who justsuck, and they still just suck
at the end. You know what Imean? And it's just real.
Like and there's not like a it'sa nice bow on what you know, you
have the three years of middleschool experience, but there are
just some people that just theythey just go on being who they

(27:18):
are.

And and I have to thank my original editor, Angela
Leopoldis, for that because whenI had the Andy character, I
would have tried to explain him,you know, if he hurt people,
hurt people. And so I was gonnahave this whole big thing. And
he basically said, like, you'relike, some people just suck.

While continuing to subvert
expectations as a writer, Jerrywas also determined to enlarge
the range of what AfricanAmerican audiences were offered
as readers. He knew firsthandthat children's books and media
with black characters were oftenlimited to history and
biography, creating theconfining feeling that somehow

(28:03):
all black stories had to beanchored in the suffering of
slavery or the struggle forcivil rights and justice.

Kids have so much on their day to day, you know,
on their plate. So many of themovies and books that I had to
see as a kid, especially withAfrican American characters

Oh, yeah.

You know, there was an hour and forty minutes of
trauma, and then, you know, itends, you know, in the last ten
minutes. It's like, hey. You'refree now. Oh, hey. Aren't you
happy?
And I'm like, you know, I justwatched, Life with Eddie Murphy
and Martin Lawrence, which Istill love the movie. And I'm

(28:46):
like, is that a happy ending? Imean, I guess it's happier than
them not? Yeah. But that's oneof the happier of the movies
with African Americancharacters.

Yeah.

You know? Because they're always in jail for
something that they didn'tcommit. Yeah. And then and and I
always say and I don't even sayto you, to give you an idea of
what it's like with that traumaas your entertainment, if the
only books that you had as a 13year old girl were like
Handmaid's Tale.

Right.

You know what I mean? Not that it's not a great
book, not that it's not wellwritten, not that it's not
whatever. Yeah. But one afterthe other, you know, you go from
Cinderella as a kid and thenHandmaid's Tale, and you go to
13 Reasons Why. That kindamesses you up.

It sure does.

There is, a sense of trauma amongst African
American readers that I don'teven think that we're conscious
of. I remember one woman, andthese are, you know, grown women
in their forties or fifties. Shegot school trip, and she said
she read the first two chaptersand really liked it. And then

(30:00):
she hadn't read the first twobooks, New Kid, The Class Act.
And then she immediately goesand reads the last chapter to
make sure that all the kids arestill alive.
Oh. And, you know, like, so manybooks on slavery and civil
rights and police brutality. Andlike I said, even if the ending,

(30:22):
you know, like the last threechapters is like, hey. You know?

Everybody's okay. They have hope.

It's okay. But, you know, for those first twenty
seven chapters

You've been through it.

Have the weight of the world on your back.

Against that backdrop, Mama's Boys, New
Kid, and its sequels are part ofa wider movement to boost the
availability of what Jerryearlier called, books where kids
of color are just regular kids.And yet, on a recent school
visit to promote the 2023 novel,School Trip, Jerry was still
running into the dustyexpectation that kids of a

(30:59):
certain race could only relateto a certain kind of story.

So here's one of the worst things. So in addition
to the banning on Goodreads Igot, I don't think that my
largely poor, largely AfricanAmerican students are gonna be
able to relate to these kidsgoing to Paris for a week. So
I'm not even gonna show themthis book. I'm like, then you
shouldn't be their teacher.

My god. Talk about, you know,
expectations and greatexpectations and that theme. You
know? It's like

No expectations. And I'm like, okay. But because,

actually, if you had read the book, then
you would really in particular,like, the way that it ends with
him talking to his friend.Right? And, like Yeah. Yeah.
And, like, I want you to go.
Right? Yeah.

Right. But it's like, again, that's what they
tell the black kids, but theirwhite classmates can read Harry
Potter and relate to going toHogwarts and flying on brooms
and catching bells, but a blackkid can't aspire to go to Paris
Yeah. Can actually happen morethan anyone else can fly on the

(32:04):
broom.

I know. I love Ellen Oh always tells a
story in her presentations. Shealways says, like, when she was
in a bookstore, the mom waslike, that book's not for you.
You know, picking up a bit. Thenshe saw that happen, and then
she was like, but, like, arethese books about wizard?
If it's not for you based on,like, this so the but, like, a
wizard's based on you or, youknow, it doesn't make it doesn't
make

Hey. That's unrealistic to read that book.
Here, get this one on a mermaid.

Yeah. Exactly. No sense.

Because you can relate to that.

You've probably noticed by now that
Jerry Craft keeps it very real,and that holds true for his
reading challenge.

I went with graphic novels

Okay. Shocking.

Because, you know, again, there there are some
teachers there was a couple ofyears ago, a friend of mine said
that at her granddaughter'sschool, they only banned two

things (32:57):
cell phones and graphic novels. What? And if you got
caught with either, they wouldcomplicate them, and I think
you'd have to pay $15 to getthem back.

You're joking. Graphic novels?

Mhmm. And then there's, I saw online, this
woman wrote to, like, this helpcolumn and was like, My kid only
reads graphic novels. Help.Like, what am I gonna do? So
graphic novels first, somepeople don't understand that.
So I always say this, it's not anovel with graphic content.

(33:30):
That's not what they do.

I know. Yeah. You're in Orlando. You
wanna lead with that. That's forsure.

Right. It's illustrated. It's a big old
comic book.

For his reading challenge, how it
started, how it's going, Jerrycurated a group of graphic
novels that chronicle his ownjourney as a creator, from the
books that inspired him to thosethat helped forge his path and
finally to those for which helaid the groundwork.

So where it started for me was Maus by Art
Spiegelman because after theradio show, he sent me volume
one and two, and I read it andwas blown away. And it was like,
wow. I had no idea that youcould do that kind of thing. El
Deafo by Cece Bell and RollerGirl by Victoria Jamieson were

(34:17):
the first graphic novels to wina Newbery honor. So I like to
feel like they kind of paved theway for me a little bit.
So thank you, Victoria and Cece.Stitches by David Small. I met
him at the Wildcat Comic Con inPennsylvania. We had dinner, and
I went through his sketchbook,and I came home, and whatever

(34:41):
book I was working on, I, like,threw it in the garbage and
started from scratch because Ijust felt unworthy to be in his
company. It's a black and whiteand really, like

Spectacular looking.

Yeah. So this was like the conversation with Ray
Billingsley that was like, okay,another coming out the
chrysalis, you know, as abutterfly and flapping my wings.
So I feel like that got me toanother level. And then a couple
that I kind of like to feel likethe success of New Kid paved the

(35:18):
way for.

Okay. Oh, I like that. Yeah.

To the world, you could be one person, one person
could be the world. This is oneof the first that I ever did a
cover blurb for.

Oh, I love that book.

This is Swim Team by Dani Christmas. I've got my
cover blurb up there, which iskinda cool. And it's it's so
funny because when New Kid firstfirst came out, they were like,
for fans of Raina Telgemeier,you know? And then it's like,
oh, okay. And now I see bookslike, for fans of Jerry Craft.
Like, oh. Like, wow.

You can find Jerry's reading challenge
and all past reading challengesat the readingculturepod.com.
And this week's Beanstackfeatured librarian is Laurie
Shaliol, media specialist atHeritage Intermediate School in
Middlebury, Indiana. She tellsus about a spicy incentive that

(36:11):
pushed her students' reading tothe next level.

Laurie Shalliol (36:14):
I feel our most successful reading challenge was
actually our first communitychallenge, mainly because it
really, showcased kind of how myadmin and other members of staff
kind of came together to reallysupport the kids in their
reading goals. So I went to, Mr.Dave Gaskell, our principal, and
basically asked him, how howbest can we torture you if these

(36:37):
kids reach their reading goal?And he came back with the idea
of doing, a really interesting,like, hot ones style interview.
So our top 10 readers were ableto ask him questions as he ate
spicier and spicier chickennuggets, that were made by our
lovely kitchen manager, Tracy.
And it was really cool becausethe minute we announced what was

(37:00):
going to happen, it was like thenext day that the kids reached
their community goal. And it wasjust really cool to see them all
come together and also to reallybe wrong. And I I completely
underestimated how quickly theywould get our first community
goal done. So we recorded ourhot one style interview and all
the kids watched it. It wasvery, very popular.
They loved it and so did we. Soit's a really, really good time.

This has been The Reading Culture, and
you've been listening to myconversation with Jerry Craft.
Once again, I'm your host,Jordan Lloyd Bookey. And
currently, I'm reading OnyxStorm by Rebecca Yaros, shout
out to my Beanstack FantasySlack channel, and Out of My
Mind by Sharon Draper. If youenjoyed today's episode, please
show some love and give us afive star review. It just takes

(37:50):
a few seconds, and it reallyhelps.
This episode was produced by MelWebb, Jackie Lamport, and Lower
Street Media, and script editedby Josiah Lamberto Egan. To
learn more about how you canhelp grow your community's
reading culture, check out allof our resources at
beanstack.com. And remember tosign up for our newsletter at
the readingculturepod.comforward slash newsletter for

(38:13):
special offers and bonuscontent. Thanks for listening
and keep reading.

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