His grandfather officially took custody of Krosoczka when he was not yet five years old, and it wasn’t until much later that his learned about his mother’s heroin addiction and imprisonment. In this deeply vulnerable, moving graphic memoir, Krosoczka, well known for his popular Lunch Lady series, recounts his sometimes troubled childhood, spent largely with his grandparents his struggle to maintain a relationship with his heroin-addicted mother and his gradually developing love for making art and comics. Hey, Kiddo is a profoundly important memoir about growing up in a family grappling with addiction, and finding the art that helps you survive. Only as a teenager can Jarrett begin to piece together the truth of his family, reckoning with his mother and tracking down his father.

Jarrett goes through his childhood trying to make his non-normal life as normal as possible, finding a way to express himself through drawing even as so little is being said to him about what's going on. Jarrett lives with his grandparents - two very loud, very loving, very opinionated people who had thought they were through with raising children until Jarrett came along. His father is a mystery - Jarrett doesn't know where to find him, or even what his name is. His mom is an addict, in and out of rehab, and in and out of Jarrett's life.

But Jarrett's family is much more complicated than that. A National Book Award Finalist! In kindergarten, Jarrett Krosoczka's teacher asks him to draw his family, with a mommy and a daddy.

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