Look and Listen

Biography

Jeffery Kalinowski (aka JKaylin) became the first born son to Marion and the late Joseph Kalinowski. Jeffery later grew up in Lombard, IL. He later started attending classes at a local community, the College of DuPage in Glen Ellyn, where he finished his Associates in the Arts Humanities Degree with the Highest of Honors. Why the pseudonym? "Because my last name is Kalinowski," he laughs, during a recent phone interview. The author felt he needed a name that would be easier to remember. Looking for something that was catchy, he chose J.Kaylin, which mirrored his own initials. "Deep down, I always wanted to do something for children but I was afraid I wouldn't be able to do it." "That is a scary thought, trying to write for children," said Kalinowski. All his poetry is rhymed. He doesn't like the stuff that's not. He felt that when writing for a children's audience, he should write rhyming poetry, "I think it's important," said the author. Kalinowski sees marketing as his greatest challenge in creating "A Yellow Jellow, What Did You Say?". He's happy with the content and the finished product, but as a one-man operation, he feels challenged in his efforts.

Inspiration

Why over the years my first simple little book has had such a unique appeal to children and to others as well, I do not know. When this book originally went on sale for the first time, I got a phone call from a woman about my book and the effect it was having on her son. She stated that her child loved books; however, he would not read them for himself. Although he certainly could read well enough, he just had to have someone read his books to him; she couldn't get him to just sit alone with a book and just read it by himself. Her main reason to call me, she said, was to tell me about this peculiar positive effect my book was having on her child, and she thought it important that I should know something about my book, which seemed to set it apart from her son's other books. My book in particular, she said, was the first book that after she had read just the first few pages to her son, her son then insisted on reading the rest for himself. This really surprised her, she told me, because up to that point her son had shown no interest in wanting to read any book by himself. And she added, that wasn't the only thing that surprised her, her son also wouldn't let anyone else near the book until he was finished reading it. And although she couldn't explain why my book was having this positive effect on her son, she hoped that it would somehow help him to feel more comfortable about reading other books all on his own, and for that, she was also calling to thank me. Why did I write my first children's book in the first place? Why have I now written a second children's book similar to this one? I like playing with silly words, wits, and rhymes. I liked the Zizzer-Zazzer-Zuzz at the end of Dr. Seuss's "ABC's". I liked Shel Silverstein's book, "The Missing Piece", and I really liked, "The Real Mother Goose". These books fascinated me when I was young. I read them and read them. I liked how they spoke to me, and sometimes from across the pages came a simple message wrapped in a certain kind of wit, humor, or in just plain silliness. I loved words. I loved how they sounded and were put together. I loved how they felt and how they made me feel. I don't know how many times I read that last page in Dr. Seuss's "ABC's" - The Zizzer-Zazzer-Zuzz. Today I still love playing with words. My second book is titled, "Hey, Griddle, Griddle!" and my fist book was originally titled "A Yellow Jellow . .. WHAT!?" "A Yellow Jellow Telephone was the first poem written for my first book. This poem was inspired by a word game I played with the Cox children who belonged to a family from whom I rented out a room. One rainy lost Sunday afternoon, I watched the Cox children playing with a large broken toy calculator. The kids were pointing the inoperative toy out the backyard window, pushing buttons, and naming the different things they were imagining, which were then appearing on the back lawn from out the front of the broken toy that they were now calling the "making machine." I, being unable to rest in quiet or resist playing the game, asked them if I could play too. Then after they all quickly agreed to let me into the game, they re-evaluated and explained some of the rules to me. We started playing the game by taking turns being in charge of the now re-invented toy calculator while the rest of us went in turn naming something we wanted to have made, and then to have that something magically projected out the front of the "making machine" and onto the back lawn. When it was the eldest child's turn to be in charge of the "making machine", he held it all ready to go, steadfast and aimed, out the back window at the back lawn, while he waited intensely for one of the rest of us to start the game by announcing what we wanted made before he would push any of its buttons. Then finally one of us called out what we wanted made; then the eldest child with relieved tension push the first button; then he waited again for one of us to say what we wanted it made out of; then he would push a second button. Then someone had to say what color we wanted it to be, and then the eldest child would push the final button. Then there on the subdued wet autumn lawn, a top the wilting yellowish greenish grass and damp dark leaves was something all of us wanted to see, something all of us made up together, and something you could almost see if you really thought about it and looked really hard. One of these times while the eldest child was pointing the "making machine" out the window just waiting to push a button, one of the three of us called out 'telephone,' and he pushed the first button; then one of us called out 'jello', and the eldest child didn't hesitate and pushed the second button; then during a brief moment of contemplative silence somebody yelled out 'yellow' (which wasn't me), and then they started laughing really hard. And that was it. In a few seconds we all got the accidental joke; and we all thought it quite clever what had just happened; and we all had a new reason for this being such a good game. Then I thought, I may have a poem out of it too. This three-word combination became the poem that I later put with my first book's title, "A Yellow Jellow, What Did You Say?". ---"If I had a machine, That could make almost anything, I'd make my wish, And pull its switch; Then that machine, Would start to twitch; It might squeak and squawk, Bleep and blop, And out of it would pop, A Yellow Jellow Telephone, Bouncing with a jiggle jiggle, And ringing with a little wiggle giggle. . ." And I have used these same inspirations and my joy of word play to create and complete my second children's book, "Hey, Griddle, Griddle!" --FOOD FIGHT "The eggs planted flowers; Around the cottage cheese, As the black eyed peas, And the eyes of the potato watched. The lettuce was ready to turn a leaf, When the ginger snapped. And the chocolate dipped, And the potato chipped, As the pancake flipped, Over the ears of the corn, That were listening to the toast. The toast was making to them all! Then the lemon dropped right off its chair . . . "