Lunch Lady Books In Order

Publication Order of Lunch Lady Books

“Lunch Lady” is a series of graphic picture novels by children’s fiction author and illustrator Jarrett J Krosoczka. Jarrett was a goofy child growing up and love to draw whenever he had the chance. He was born and raised in Worcester Massachusetts, and as soon as he could hold his markers and pencils, he became a relentless drawer and writer of short stories. By the time he was in the 9th grade, he was entering competitions and soon after he was the winner of the Worcester Telegram & Gazette’s short story writing and design contest. It was this that lit a fire in the aspiring author who decided to pursue a career in the arts. After several rejections, he was finally admitted to the Rhode Island School of Design. It was while he was a senior that he got his first job at a national educational publisher as an illustrator. Six months after graduation, he moved to New York City and within months he had signed the contract for his first work. By 2001, he had published “Good Night, Monkey Boy,” and has never looked back since writing more than a dozen picture books and more than a dozen graphic novels in the “Lunch Lady” and “Platypus Police Squad” series. With the publication of “Lunch Lady and the Cyborg Substitute” and the subsequent titles, Jarrett became known as a graphic novelist.

For his work, Jarrett Krosoczka has been feted by many publications across the world. He is a top 20 new visual artist under 30, an honor awarded to him by Print. He has also had his works n the shortlist of prestigious lists by the likes of The New York Times, Newsweek, The Boston Globe, and USA Today among many other publications. He has also been featured in many recommendation lists including the Children’s Choice Awards by the CBC/IRA and the Texas 2X2 list. He continues writing his graphic novels from his home in Northampton Massachusetts, where he lives with his wife, daughter and Macchio their resident pug.

“The Lunch Lady” series is an interesting set of novels that chronicles the life and times of a lunch lady who fights crime when she is not making lunch for the kids. Lunch Lady is a secret superhero who employs all manner of special cooking gadgets as weapons in fighting the bad guys. She uses anything from a spatula to bring down a helicopter, a hairnet to entrap the bad guys, and fish sticks to beat them with. While everyone at school saw her as just the lunch lady, she had vowed that in addition to serving food, she would also dispense justice. She works alongside Betty her helper and sidekick who has a few aces up her sleeve too. Betty has a giant laboratory set up behind the freezer door, where she actively innovates and produces the newest crime-fighting technology and weapons such as the Lunch Tray Laptop, and Taco Night Vision Goggles. While they seem silly, they are very clever and effective when they are used in real-life situations. Jarrett writes a perfect even if random plotline that turns out to be a humorous story with an engaging superhero. With crazy robots, secret oiler rooms, and a ton of interesting weapons, it is an excellent debut.

The “Lunch Lady” series kicks off with the novel “Lunch Lady and the Cyborg Substitute.” It introduces the Lunch Lady as a superhero who makes food for Terrence, Dee, and Hector who attend the local school. The kids often wonder about Lunch Lady and Betty her assistant. The ladies do not reveal much when interacting with the kids, and hence they assume that they must live very predictable and boring lives probably with houses full of cats. What they do not know is that Betty and Lunch Lady are exceptional sleuths and are currently looking into the odd behavior of a temporary teacher that was standing in for Mr. O’Connell who was in the running to become “Teacher of the Year.” It turns out that the substitute teacher is a cyborg though it will take a while before he is found out. Down in the boiler room of their school, the two ladies have set up a laboratory where they make their crime-fighting tools that range from food and kitchen items such as the spatula copter, the cannoli-oculars, and chicken nugget bombs. Over the course of a few weeks, the kids get curious and while investigating the two women, they witness them performing superhero feats such as jumping from the tall building at school into a superpowered motorcycle. She also saved the children from danger by carrying them to safety on her spatula copter when they were under attack from cyborgs. To ward off the cyborgs she had attacked them with her special recipe of fish stick nunchucks.

“Lunch Lady and the League of Librarians” the second novel of the Lunch Lady series is a funny graphic novel that continues chronicling the life and times of Lunch Lady. In this outing, she sniffed out something rotten way before anyone else did. There is something very fishy going on in the library and she intends to find out what it is. In the recent past, the friendly and chatty librarians have become secretive cold and retiring. Even Dee who had been their favorite no longer has the power to make them smile. Lunch Lady gets on the case intending to find out the reason for the secretive and cold demeanor. The secret Mrs. Page the chief librarian and her colleagues are hiding is that they have been pinching money from a variety of school programs. They have been using the money to destroy any video game content that was about to be released. Their ultimate plan is world domination and now it is up to the Breakfast Bunch students and the indefatigable Lunch Ladies to step in and stop them in their tracks.

“Lunch Lady and the Author Visit Vendetta” the third novel of the “Lunch Lady” series is a fun children’s book that takes a slightly different tone to the previous two novels. At the open of the novel, Lewis Scribson who is a famous author is set to visit Hector’s school and the children cannot wait to get his autograph. When he finally comes, Hector is one of the kids that does not get an autograph from him which leaves him devastated. He has always been a huge fan of the author’s books and especially the “Flippy Bunny” series. In the meantime, the Lunch Lady has been acting differently though she agrees to investigate the author since it is weird that he would behave so despicably in the face of his adoring fans. The Lunch Lady’s investigation ends up with her following the author to his house and asking him to apologize for how much distress he had caused Hector.