68 pages • 2 hours read
Jarrett KrosoczkaHey, Kiddo: How I Lost My Mother, Found My Father, and Dealt with Family Addiction
Nonfiction | Autobiography / Memoir | Middle Grade | Published in 2018A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more. For select classroom titles, we also provide Teaching Guides with discussion and quiz questions to prompt student engagement.
Summary
Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Key Figures
Themes
Symbols & Motifs
Important Quotes
Essay Topics
Tools
BetaEssay Topics
Jarrett Krosoczka’s developing love of art is a running theme throughout this graphic memoir. How do you see the germ of this story developing in the stories he tells about how he learned to make comics? How is his art-making related to the way he makes meaning from the events of his life?
The artist Jarrett often writes his adult thoughts over pictures of his younger self doing things unrelated to his grown-up ideas. What effect does this juxtaposition have on your understanding of the story?
In the book’s afterword, Krosoczka describes how he chose the book’s one accent color based on a pocket square that Joe used to wear. Where else do you see ideas or sayings from the book’s characters turning up in the way that Krosoczka chooses to shape his visual art?
Though much of Hey, Kiddo focuses on familial ties, one of the book’s last ideas is that “really good friends? They become family” (297). How does Jarrett’s portrayal of his friendship with Pat differ from the way he tells the story of his family? What role does Pat play in this story?
Take a look back through the book and notice the many different techniques that Krosoczka uses: panels and full pages, big areas of black, reproductions of real-life letters and artwork. Choose a scene that grabs you, and ask: How do the visual choices of this scene affect how it works dramatically?
If you look back at the copies of his early artwork that Krosoczka includes in the book, you’ll notice that his line work used to be very firm and structural. Explain some of these illustrations. Why do you think he uses a brushier, looser approach in this book (while also detailing a few drawings)?
In between the bigger dramatic moments of this story, there are lots of anecdotes—like the story of Jarrett and Pat accidentally setting a stuffed animal on fire with flaming hairspray. Detail a few more of these. How do these little incidental scenes contribute to the overall feeling of the book?
Take a look back at the Prologue. Why do you think Krosoczka starts his book with driving lessons in a graveyard? How does this beginning relate to the story that follows?
What effect does Krosoczka’s use of real photographs and letters have on how you read this story? Describe some of these inclusions. How would the book work differently if he did not include these elements?
