LITERATURE + LECTURES

Blue Willow Bookshop presents  Dave Keane and Denise Brunkus.   Author Dave Keane and illustrator Denise Brunkus will be here to discuss their new picture book Sloppy Joe. It's a very funny story about a boy who just can't stay clean! Join us for a very fun event. Please join us Tuesday, September 22, at 4:30 p.m.

When it comes to being messy, Sloppy Joe is a pro! He slurps, spills, slouches, talks with his mouth full, and never, ever tucks in his shirt. But being messy has its challenges. So Sloppy Joe sets out to become Neat Joe, only to learn that being messy is a part of who he is—and his family loves him for it!

Dave Keane grew up with six brothers, making him an expert on all things sloppy. When his mom made sloppy joe sandwiches, Dave always got the nastiest dribble stains on his T-shirt—which he'd wear like a badge of honor. Today he is a stubbornly sloppy dad and the author and illustrator of the Joe Sherlock, Kid Detective series. Dave and his neat wife spend their days picking up after their sloppy son and his two slightly less sloppy older sisters. They live in rather tidy northern California.

Denise Brunkus has illustrated more than sixty books for children, most notably the bestselling Junie B. Jones series by Barbara Park, Read All About It! by Laura Bush and Jenna Bush, and Charlie Hits It Big by Deborah Blumenthal. Denise is basically a neat person, so adding smudges and smears to the art for Sloppy Joe was an unexpected thrill. She lives in Massachusetts.