Sunday, September 7, 2003

'Annie' wins praise for Jarrett Krosoczka

Nancy Sheehan

TELEGRAM & GAZETTE STAFF

"Annie Was Warned" is the title of author and illustrator Jarrett J. Krosoczka's new children's book, the talented 25-year-old author's fourth one.

But when it came to book signings, Mr. Krosoczka hadn't been warned.

More than 300 people showed up for his first signing, for "Good Night Monkey Boy," at Tatnuck Bookseller in 2001, said Mr. Krosoczka, who grew up in Worcester's Webster Square area and now lives in Dorchester.

His entire family showed up, along with his friends from the Hole in the Wall Gang Camp in Northeastern Connecticut, where he had worked as a counselor for several summers. Then there were his friends from Gates Lane School and Holy Name High School, the parents of friends, the grandparents of friends, and the friends of his grandparents, Joseph and Shirley Krosoczka, who raised him.

There also were some real surprises.

"My dentist was there," Mr. Krosoczka said. "And my first-grade teacher, who came running in and pushed everyone out of the line and was, like, "I taught him how to read' and "He was always such a good boy.' It was great having all those people there supporting me, but I surely did not expect it."

Perhaps he should begin to get used to it.

"SLY AGILITY'

Mr. Krosoczka, who signs at Tatnuck again Sept. 16, is already getting praise for "Annie Was Warned," released Aug. 26. Plaudits for the book, with its suspenseful Halloween theme, include good buzz back at his publisher, Alfred A. Knopf, and the all-important starred review in Publisher's Weekly. That big-in-the-book-world publication described "Annie" as "a delicious mix of suspense and wit" and points out how Mr. Krosoczka advances the story with sly agility, providing visual clues that children will enjoy trying to pick out.

"Annie Was Warned" is the story of a little girl, born on Halloween, who isn't afraid of taking a walk to a haunted mansion at night on her birthday, even though all her friends have warned her not to go. Despite their protests she heads out, and what does she find when she reaches the mansion and opens its heavy doors? A surprise birthday party with all her forewarning friends and family in costumed attendance.

"Annie" in many ways meets Mr. Krosoczka's goal of making each book different from the one before. In addition to "Good Night Monkey Boy," his other books include "Baghead," a kiddie-paced mystery about a boy who has a secret reason for going to school with a paper shopping bag over his head, and "Bubble Bath Pirates," in which two little boys make an exuberant splash of their bedtime bath.

"Annie's a lot darker," he said. "She is my first female protagonist and I have a different way of telling the story as well. I don't want to rely on the same tools. I don't want to ever fall into a gimmick. I don't ever want to follow a recipe."

Except a recipe for success, perhaps, in the fiercely competitive children's book field.

"IT ALWAYS HAPPENS'

"When you're a children's book author or illustrator, everyone you meet tells you some sort of story about how they or a relative or someone they know is trying to get published," he said. "It always happens to the people I work with at Random House (which owns Knopf) - my editors and my art directors. My editor said she can't leave a bar mitzvah without something in her hand that somebody wants her to look at."

Once you're in, the competition doesn't go away. You have to fight for your piece of "the wall," so that your book is displayed with its cover facing out and not just slipped into the shelf with only the spine showing.

"It's very competitive to get on the wall, especially at national chains where there are these people who decide, "OK, these are going to be our wall books for this month.'" Mr. Krosoczka said. "Then, when you look at a wall of books that have just come out in a given month, about four-fifths of those books aren't going to be on the shelves two months later. You really have a window of about three months or so after the book comes out."

"Annie" is a window on a more darkly illustrated world than Mr. Krosoczka has previously dared venture into. To accurately paint scenes of Annie brandishing her flashlight at night, he needed help. He called on his 16-year-old sister, Maura Hennessy of Oakham (to whom the book is dedicated).

WITH A FLASHLIGHT

"With "Annie Was Warned' she was carrying a flashlight throughout the whole book that was hitting her face at different angles," he said. "So I took my sister and had her pose with a flashlight in a dark room. The character doesn't look like my sister but it was a way of knowing how is the light of a flashlight going to fall on a girl's face. That's not something that I know instinctually. It's almost like a recipe: You take a certain amount of reality and add in your own imagination to make it what it is."

Something he does feel instinctively is that this book - and the next, which he has already finished, called "Max for President" - are likely to do well.

""Annie Was Warned' is getting such glowing reviews and it's coming out around Halloween. I just feel like it will resonate with people," he said. "And the book after, "Max for President,' comes out in July of 2004.

"It's nothing like I said, "Oh, I want to cash in on the presidential election.' I had the idea last year. The book was done and coincidentally will be coming out during the elections. So I feel really good about Annie and I feel good about Max and I think the timing of the books will add to the good feeling inside I'm starting to get about them."