Jon Scieszka
Jon Scieszka
Jon Scieszkais an American children's writer, best known for picture books created with the illustrator Lane Smith. He is also a nationally recognized reading advocate, and the founder of Guys Read – a web-based literacy program for boys whose mission is "to help boys become self-motivated, lifelong readers."...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionAuthor
Date of Birth8 September 1954
CountryUnited States of America
funny kids mom reading stories studying stuff thinking throughout time
I like to tell kids that I started thinking about stories when I first started reading stuff like Dr. Seuss and 'Go, Dog. Go!,' thinking, 'Oh yeah, that's funny. I'd like to do that.' And then writing throughout school, but at the same time I was studying pre-med stuff, because my mom told me I should be a doctor.
motivated people shark
People say, 'All my son will read is 'Captain Underpants,' or 'My son is crazy about shark books, is that O.K.?' I want to be the person to say, 'Yeah, that's really O.K., as long as he's motivated to want to read.'
accepted books considered graphic looking novel
'Just looking at pictures' used to be considered cheating. No longer. The graphic novel is booming. Comics, heavily illustrated texts, books with no words are now accepted as reading.
analytical kids lose reading teaches turn
Reading is so important. It teaches kids to be analytical thinkers. If we turn our kids off from the very beginning, we're going to lose that.
push reading wonderful
Don't push reading as wonderful or magical. For a lot of boys, it's not.
discovered gigantic good kids less liking since six terrible worse
The big problem is just this kind of gigantic piece, of kids reading less and liking it less and so getting worse at it. It's kind of this terrible spiral: Since they're not so good at it they do less of it, get worse at it, do less of it. And it's really what I discovered five, six years ago when I started the 'Guys Read' thing.
ambassador continue good great honored national playing promise served stop time walk wife
I am honored to have served as our great nation's first National Ambassador for Young People's Literature. I will continue to serve as Ambassador Emeritus. And I will make good on my Ambassadorial promise to my wife to stop playing the 'Fanfare' every time I walk into or out of a room.
boys fiction grail holy pushed schools tend
Fiction is always pushed in schools as the holy grail of reading. Boys tend to like non-fiction more.
consumer help reader realize smart
You need to be a reader to be a smart consumer and an intelligent citizen. To help boys, we need to realize they have a different take on reading.
fan gets kids pull supposed
If the day gets really bad, I can always pull out fan mail. Who else gets mail where kids write to you and say, 'Dear Mr. Scieszka, we were supposed to write to our favorite author, but Roald Dahl is dead. So I'm writing to you.'
jeff kids series
Jeff Kinney's 'Diary of a Wimpy Kid' series and Stephenie Meyer's 'Twilight' books got 49,323,701 kids reading.
choose good kids reading role
Be a good reading role model. Show kids what you like to read, what you don't like to read, how you choose what you read. Let them see you reading.
call sure visual
I'm not sure what to call 'Lego Star Wars: The Visual Dictionary.' Nonfiction? Movie/toy fiction? But it is any Lego/'Star Wars' kid's dream. Call it spectacular.
kids readers trying
I'm just trying to get kids motivated to be readers by connecting them with a book they like.