Mess Stuff Up With Jon Scieszka

First Draft with Sarah Enni

First Draft Episode #341: Jon Scieszka

Jon Scieszka, former National Ambassador for Children’s Literature and New York Times bestselling author best known for picture books with illustrator Lane Smith, including The True Story of the Three Little Pigs, The Stinky Cheese Man and Other Fairly Stupid Tales, Math Curse, and more.

Links to Topics Mentioned In This Episode:

• The Decameron by Giovanni Boccaccio

• Jacqueline Woodson, 2020 MacArthur Genius fellow, National Book Award winner, Newberry, Caldecott, and Coretta Scott King winner, former National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature, and #1 New York Times bestselling author of Brown Girl Dreaming, Red at the Bone, Another Brooklyn, Before the Ever After and many, many more. She joins us to talk about her picture books with Rafael López, The Day You Begin and The Year We Learned to Fly. Hear her First Draft interview here.

• Dr Seuss, author of How the Grinch Stole Christmas, Oh, the Places You’ll Go!, Green Eggs and Ham and more

• Go, Dog, Go by P.J. Eastman

• Franz Kafka, author of The Metamorphosis, The Trial, The Castle, and more

• Jack London, author of The Call of the Wild, White Fang, and more

• Edgar Allen Poe, author of The Raven, The Masque of the Red Death, The Cask of Amontillado, and more

• Jon’s Science Verse

• The Astronuts, Jon’s series with Steven Weinberg

• Jonathan Baumbach, author of The Pavilion of Former Wives, Dreams of Molly and many more

• Thomas Pynchon, author of Gravity’s Rainbow, Inherent Vice, and The Crying of Lot 49

• Gabriel Garcia Marquez, author of One Hundred Years of Solitude, Chronicle of a Death Foretold, and more

• Carlos Fuentes, author of Aura, The Death of Artemio Cruz, and more

• Charles McGrath, former editor of The New York Times Book Review and former deputy editor of The New Yorker. He is currently a writer at large for The New York Times

• Frog and Toad Are Friends by Arnold Lobel

• Boy: Tales From Childhood and Going Solo are autobiographical books written by Roald Dahl

• Vladimir Nabokov, author of Lolita

• Oliver Jeffers, visual artist, climate activist, and author and/or illustrator of several New York Times bestselling picture books, including The Day the Crayons Quit, How to Catch a Star, The Fate of Fausto, and Here We Are, joins us to talk about his newest picture book, There’s a Ghost In This House. Listen to his First Draft interviews here and here.

• Battle Bunny by Mac Barnett and Jon Scieszka

• Matt de la Peña, author of seven critically acclaimed young adult novels including Mexican Whiteboy and Newbery Medal–winning author of Last Stop on Market Street talks about his newest collaboration with illustrator Christian Robinson, Milo Imagines the World. Listen to his First Draft interview here.

• Adam Rubin, author of Dragons Love Tacos, Those Darn Squirrels, Robo-Sauce and more with Daniel Salmieri

• The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle (TV show)

• Jon’s autobiography, Knucklehead: Tall Tales and Mostly True Stories of Growing Up Scieszka

• Gone to the Woods: Surviving a Lost Childhood, a memoir by Gary Paulsen, author of Hatchet

• Monty Python

• Saturday Night Live

• Jon Klassen, Caldecott Award-winning and New York Times bestselling author and illustrator of the I Want My Hat Back series, who is back with a book he wrote and illustrated: The Rock From the Sky. Listen to his First Draft episodes here and here.

• The Far Side cartoon by Gary Paulsen

• Calvin & Hobbes by Bill Watterson

• Guys Read

• Kate DiCamillo, is one of six people to win two Newbery Medals, for her novels The Tale of Despereaux and Flora & Ulysses, and author of Newbery Honor book Because of Winn-Dixie, National Book Award finalist The Tiger Rising, as well as New York Times bestselling novels The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane, The Magician’s Elephant, the Mercy Watson series, and more. DiCamillo was the U.S. National Ambassador for Young People's Literature for 2014 and 2015. Her most recent novel, Beverly, Right Here completes the trilogy of Raymie Nightingale and Louisiana’s Way Home.

• Dog Man by Dave Pilkey, author of Captain Underpants

• Shannon Hale, author of Princess Academy, The Goose Girl, Austenland and more

• Adele Griffin, two-time National Book Award honoree and author of almost thirty books for Young Adult and middle grade readers, including The Unfinished Life of Addison Stone, The Becket List, and Sons of Liberty and Where I want to Be. Hear her First Draft interview here.

• Lisa Brown, illustrator of The Phantom Twin, The Airport Book and more

• Katherine Paterson, author of The Bridge to Terabithia, Jacob Have I Loved, and more

• Dave Shannon, author and illustrator of No, David!

• Loren Long, author and illustrator of Otis, Little Tree, and many more

• The Treehouse books (The 13-Story Treehouse all the way to The 143-Story Treehouse) by Andy Griffiths and Terry Denton

• The Rijksmuseum, the museum that has Rembrandts available online

• Jason Reynolds, New York Times bestselling author of critically acclaimed books, including National Book Award finalist Ghost, Newberry and Printz-honored Long Way Down, Coretta Scott King Honoree As Brave as You, and his latest, middle grade Look Both Ways, which was just named to the National Book Award Longlist for Young People’s Literature. Listen to his First Draft interviews here and here.

• Walter Dean Myers, author of Monster, The Glory Field, Malcolm X: By Any Means Necessary

• Gene Luen Yang, former National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature and author and illustrator of American Born Chinese

• The Rabbit hOle’s Explor-A-Storium

• The Real Dada Mother Goose: A Treasury of Complete Nonsense by Jon Scieszka and Julia Rothman

  Thanks for Listening!

🏆 Support the Show

Join the First Draft Patreon, or make a monthly or one-time donation via PayPal or Venmo

🤳 Subscribe To First Draft with Sarah Enni in Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.

📫 Sign up for the First Draft Newsletter to hear about news, recommendations, and upcoming events

👕💯 Get First Draft merchandise

✍️ Track Changes Learn how the traditional publishing industry works in the Track Changes podcast mini-series.

👍 Rate, Review, and Recommend

Take a moment to rate and review First Draft with Sarah Enni in Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen to podcasts. Your honest and positive review helps others discover the show -- so thank you!