What Would Joey Do?

Description: Joey tries to keep his life from degenerating into total chaos when his mother sends him to be home schooled with a hostile blind girl, his divorced parents cannot stop fighting, and his grandmother is dying of emphysema.

Brief description: Jack Gantos has written books for people of all ages, from picture books and middle-grade fiction to novels for young adults and adults. His works include Hole in My Life, a memoir that won the Michael L. Printz and Robert F. Sibert Honors, Joey Pigza Swallowed the Key, a National Book Award Finalist, and Joey Pigza Loses Control, a Newbery Honor book. Jack was born in Mount Pleasant, Pennsylvania, and when he was seven, his family moved to Barbados. He attended British schools, where there was much emphasis on reading and writing, and teachers made learning a lot of fun. When the family moved to south Florida, he found his new classmates uninterested in their studies, and his teachers spent most of their time disciplining students. Jack retreated to an abandoned bookmobile (three flat tires and empty of books) parked out behind the sandy ball field, and read for most of the day. The seeds for Jack's writing career were planted in sixth grade, when he read his sister's diary and decided he could write better than she could. He begged his mother for a diary and began to collect anecdotes he overheard at school, mostly from standing outside the teachers' lounge and listening to their lunchtime conversations. Later, he incorporated many of these anecdotes into stories. While in college, he and an illustrator friend, Nicole Rubel, began working on picture books. After a series of well-deserved rejections, they published their first book, Rotten Ralph, in 1976. It was a success and the beginning of Jack's career as a professional writer. Jack continued to write children's books and began to teach courses in children's book writing and children's literature. He developed the master's degree program in children's book writing at Emerson College and the Vermont College M.F.A. program for children's book writers. He now devotes his time to writing books and educational speaking. He lives with his family in Boston, Massachusetts.

Review Quotes:

"Joey . . . is an impossible, contradictory, glorious creation." --Liz Rosenberg, The Boston Sunday Globe

"* Joey isn't leading the easiest of lives, but he's a tough and triumphant kid with an absorbing story." --The Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books, starred review

"In Joey Pigza, Mr. Gantos has meticulously crafted the voice of a troubled kid with a solid center of goodness. Joey tells his own story, and it reads like a ride in a car without brakes." --Sue Corbett, Knight Ridder News Service

"* Joey emerges as a sympathetic hero, and his heart of gold never loses its shine." --Publishers Weekly, starred review

"* Readers will cheer for Joey, and for the champion in each of us." --School Library Journal, starred review

"Stepping into Joey Pigza's skin isn't easy . . . But it's worth the discomforting fit." --Deirdre Donahue, USA Today