Burgerhead and Mean Jerry Series: Interview and Review

Burgerhead and Mean Jerry Series

Burgerhead and Mean Jerry Series written by Dan Madson and illustrated by Veronika Gonchar are about two memorable friends named Mean Jerry and Burgerhead. Burgerhead lives in a great big house in a very small town. Mean Jerry lives in a very small house in a great big city. The two boys meet and become great friends who go on many adventures together. I enjoyed these books because they are funny and very unique. I also really loved the illustrations, which are interesting and bring the story to life. The characters were also created by Dan’s grandson, Mack Zarling.

I like this series for children who enjoy both picture books and chapter books. The books can be a nice transition for those readers who are moving from picture books to chapter books.

Additionally, there are many language opportunities with the books as well. For example, working on descriptive words and discussing the friendship between the two boys can be an excellent language activity with social skills lessons.

The first two books are available now and the third one will be released soon!

Burgerhead and Mean Jerry Become Friends (Burgerhead & Mean Jerry)
Burgerhead & Mean Jerry Visit the Farm

affiliate link in post

Interview with Author, Dan Madson

Dan Madson is a former middle school teacher and basketball coach from Madison, Wisconsin. He has written and published four books previous to his new children’s series featuring Burgerhead and Mean Jerry. Dan is the founder and principal of Skrive Publications, an independent publishing company. In addition to his writing and publishing activities, Dan loves to golf, ride bikes, read, cook and travel the world with his wife, Lisa. He has three grown children and six grandchildren. Dan currently lives in Miramar Beach, FL, on the beautiful Emerald Coast.

Can you tell me about your company, Skrive Publications?

I started Skrive Publications 18 months ago quite by accident. Two of my books had gone out of print and I was looking for a way to publish 2nd editions of them without relying on somebody else. I didn’t know anything about starting a company, so I signed up for a class at a local community college and met with the instructor. Turns out she was also a writer and had started a small publishing company of her own. She inspired me to try the same thing. I hired a local business consultant to help me design a website, set up an LLC with the state of Florida, and was in business. I learned a lot about self-publishing those first few months and then started helping other first-time authors navigate the publishing process as well. We’ve had three successful launches of new books from first-time authors in addition to my own books.

What inspired you to write the series, Burgerhead and Mean Jerry?

When we would visit my daughter and family, I would usually put Mack to bed at night and tell him stories. One night he asked, “Buppa, can you tell me a story about when you were a little boy?” I started telling him stories about all the shenanigans I got into when I was a kid, and he loved them and wanted to hear them over and over again. When Mack was 5, he came home from kindergarten one day and started telling his mom about these two characters that he had came up with…Burgerhead and Mean Jerry. He had all the details about both in his mind. She told me about them and we just started laughing because we thought the names sounded so funny. Then it dawned on me that they could be great characters in some stories for children. I made a list of 10 of the stories I had told Mack and started working on the first story about how the two boys become friends. All the stories are loosely based on my childhood exploits and all the characters, including the dogs, are based on characters that I recall from my childhood.

Can you talk about your collaboration with your grandson?

Mack is an unusually sweet, gifted kid. Very smart. Very creative. Just a wonderful little boy. He and I have always had a special relationship. It’s been so fun working with him, sharing ideas, learning more about publishing and marketing. He loves signing author copies and he loves getting the royalty checks that I send to him every month as the co-creator of the series. He’s even started writing his own book already called ’The Kid.’

Why did you name the characters Burgerhead and Mean Jerry?

As Mack tells it, he and his classmates were doing some writing projects in school and he just thought these characters up. He wrote about the clothes they wore, the bikes they rode, the food they liked, etc. Every one of those original ideas was incorporated into the first book, ‘Burgerhead and Mean Jerry Become Friends.

I love your illustrations. They are very unique and interesting. Can you talk more about your illustrator and how you collaborated together?

Since I didn’t have experience writing and formatting children’s picture books, I sought help from another publisher from Vermont (Dartfrog Publishing) who had done a lot of these kinds of books. The owner of that company recommended one of the artists they had used before named Veronika Gonchar. Veronika is a talented artist from Belarus. I loved her first renderings of the characters and she has done a terrific job of interpreting the stories the way I imagined them to be and has also managed to give the stories somewhat of a Midwestern feel, which is where I grew up. At the same time, working with an illustrator can also be the most frustrating part of the process. I’ve learned that you can’t hurry the creative mind and our publishing schedule is always based on her illustration schedule. We’ve just gotten started on Book 3, which I think will be the best one yet.