“After that, I started thinking about the secret lives of lunch ladies and what they would do.’’
That chance encounter led to Krosoczka’s signature series: comic graphic novels about a school cafeteria worker who’s secretly a crime fighter, taking on rogue librarians, evil cyborg substitute teachers and a visiting children’s author with his own sinister agenda. The seventh “Lunch Lady’’ book will be released in March.
The young readers who pick the Children’s Choices Book Awards voted the “Lunch Lady’’ series the best third- and fourth-grade books of 2010 and 2011. And Publisher’s Weekly had this to say: “Krosoczka’s inventive visual details, spot-on characterizations and grade-school humor make this a standout graphic-novel series.’’
Hollywood has taken notice, too: Universal Pictures is developing a live-action “Lunch Lady’’ movie slated to star “Parks and Recreation’s’’ Amy Poehler.
All told, Krosoczka, a boyish-looking 34, has already published 16 titles, including 10 picture books, in less than a dozen years in the business, winning praise from critics at The New York Times, The Boston Globe and Newsweek, among others.
If he seems like a happy guy — and he is — it’s because he’s making a living doing what he most enjoyed as a kid: telling stories with words and pictures.
“Here’s my commute,’’ Krosoczka says as he walks about 50 feet from his home to a former one-car garage that he has converted to a studio. “Not bad, huh?’’
The studio is small and cozy — and free of the distractions in his house, pleasant though they are.
Krosoczka and his wife, Gina, moved to the Valley five years ago in search of a good place to raise a family. The couple now have two children, 3-year-old Zoe and 7-week-old Lucy. And they’re thrilled, they say, to be living in a town with a community feel and a strong artistic vibe.
