From Norvelt to Nowhere

Description:

Young Jack accompanies Miss Volker on a wild pursuit of the chief suspect in the Norvelt murders, while being pursued themselves.

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:

"Gantos employs gothic humor, scene-crafting mastery, and Jack's querulous voice to offer a wild and challenging road-trip novel, murder mystery, meditation on American history, and love story all in one." --The Horn Book

"The book is fast paced and laced with both history lessons and hilarity." --School Library Journal

"A hilarious havoc-ridden road trip." --BCCB, starred review

"Dollops of history and mystery, plus gross to wickedly barbed comical set pieces set in a talky, ambling, amiable odyssey." --Kirkus Reviews

"Fans of Dead End in Norvelt won't want to miss this lively sequel." --Booklist, starred review

"Gantos's sequel to his Newbery-winning Dead End in Norvelt offers less history, more murder, and another hefty helping of zaniness." --Publishers Weekly, starred review

"A bumper-car ride through history . . . Wonderfully wacky . . . darkly comic." --The Washington Post on DEAD END IN NORVELT

"This is a story like no other." --Jon Scieszka, founder of guysread.com on DEAD END IN NORVELT

"* Laugh-out-loud gothic comedy." --The Horn Book, starred review on DEAD END IN NORVELT

"* [A] wildly entertaining meld of truth and fiction." --Publishers Weekly, starred review on DEAD END IN NORVELT

"A brilliant book, full of history, mystery, and laughs." --Dave Barry, coauthor of the Peter and the Starcatchers series on DEAD END IN NORVELT