About Jory

Jory John is a #1 New York Times bestselling author and two-time E.B. White Read-Aloud Honor recipient.

Jory's work includes the #1 New York Times bestselling picture book, The Good Egg, the #1 New York Times bestselling picture book, The Sour Grape, the #1 New York Times bestselling picture book, The Big Cheese, and the #2 New York Times bestselling picture book, The Bad Seed, all illustrated by Pete Oswald. He is also the author of the popular picture books, Penguin Problems, Giraffe Problems, and Cat Problems, all illustrated by Lane Smith, the award-winning Goodnight Already! series, illustrated by Benji Davies, the New York Times bestselling Terrible Two series, the recent picture books Quit Calling Me a Monster! (with Bob Shea), First Day Critter Jitters (with Liz Climo), Something’s Wrong! and Nothing’s Wrong! (both illustrated by Erin Kraan) and the international bestseller, All my friends are dead, among many other books for both children and adults. His work has been translated into more than 30 languages.

Jory's books have won numerous state book awards, most recently the Oregon Spirit Book Award, the Hawaii’s Children’s Choice Book Award (the Nēnē), the North Carolina Children's Book Award, the Florida Sunshine State Reading Award, the Dorothy Canfield Fisher Award of Vermont, the Louisiana Young Readers Choice Award, the Volunteer State Book Award of Tennessee, the North Dakota Library Association Flicker Tale Award, the South Carolina Children's Book Award, the Oregon Spirit Book Award Honor Prize, and his work was shortlisted for the Texas Bluebonnet Award, the California Young Reader Medal, and is currently a finalist for the Arkansas Diamond Book Award. His books were also twice-nominated for the prestigious Kate Greenaway Medal in England, won the ALA Reluctant Young Readers Award, and have been named an Irish Times Best Children’s Book of the Year and a National Public Radio Best Children’s Book of the Year. Jory was also a recipient of the 2020 Children’s Choice Book Award, the only national book awards selected exclusively by young readers.

Jory’s picture book Giraffe Problems was featured by Michelle Obama on her Mondays With Michelle Obama story-time segment for PBS Kids. His picture book First Day Critter Jitters was included as a selection in the Dolly Parton Imagination Library. And his book The Good Egg was read by Jon Hamm for the Save With Stories initiative.

In addition to the books mentioned here, Jory has also written for the New York Times, The Guardian, the San Francisco Chronicle, the Believer, McSweeney's Internet Tendency, and BuzzFeed, among many other publications. His work has also been featured in The Best American Nonrequired Reading, The Best of McSweeney's Internet Tendency, Reader's Digest, the TV show Jeopardy!, and more.

For more than six years, Jory worked as the programs director at 826 Valencia, a nonprofit writing and educational center in San Francisco's Mission District, founded by Dave Eggers. In that time, he conceptualized and edited, Thanks and Have Fun Running the Country: Kids' Letters to President Obama, which was featured in the New York Times and on the radio program, This American Life.

Find Jory on Instagram here, YouTube here, and Twitter @IamJoryJohn

Frequently Asked Questions

Note: I’m planning on creating a more expansive Frequently Asked Questions section for this website when I have a bit of free time, but until then, here are a few interviews where I answer a bunch of questions, some of them frequently asked.

Interview with Avery & Augustine
Topics discussed: My favorite authors … career ambitions when I was younger … writing for children … how I got started … my previous jobs and how they helped shape me as a writer … my writing process … ideas and where they come from … my books Penguin Problems and Giraffe Problems … some challenges in writing … a typical day in my life … the funniest thing(s) I’ve heard from students about my writing … and more!

Interview with 100 Scopes Notes
Topics discussed: Writing sequels … my writing style … the most difficult part about learning to write for kids … sunflower seeds and other snacks … achieving peak creativity … and more!

Interview with Brightly
Topics discussed: Inspiration for specific characters … picture books themes … the type of feedback I get … the most rewarding thing about writing for children … my favorite books growing up … the picture-book character I most relate to … and more!