Jef Czekaj

author, illustrator

Jef Czekaj is a cartoonist, children’s book author and illustrator, musician and hip hop DJ who lives and works in Somerville, Massachusetts. Running in English and Spanish in Nickelodeon Magazine for more than ten years, his adventure comic strip, Grandpa and Julie: Shark Hunters, is read by over a million children each month. A Xeric-award-winning collection of the first 3 years of this strip was collected in a book of the same name and published by Top Shelf Productions. He is the co-founder of The Somerville Comics Collaborative and is a founding member of the Handstand Command music collective. In 2003, Boston Magazine included him on their list of "hot" visual artists. His debut picture book, Hip and Hop Don't Stop!, has been called “a rollicking read aloud that kids will want to hear over and over.”