Dead End in Norvelt
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In the historic town of Norvelt, Pennsylvania, twelve-year-old Jack Gantos spends the summer of 1962 grounded for various offenses until he is assigned to help an elderly neighbor with a most unusual chore involving the newly dead, molten wax, twisted promises, Girl Scout cookies, underage driving, lessons
… More »In the historic town of Norvelt, Pennsylvania, twelve-year-old Jack Gantos spends the summer of 1962 grounded for various offenses until he is assigned to help an elderly neighbor with a most unusual chore involving the newly dead, molten wax, twisted promises, Girl Scout cookies, underage driving, lessons from history, typewriting, and countless bloody noses.
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Publisher:
New York - Farrar Straus Giroux
Pages:
341
Edition:
1st ed
ISBN:
9780374379933, 0374379939
Language:
English
Awards & Distinctions:
Newbery Medal winner, 2012
Statement of responsibility:
Jack Gantos
Physical description:
341 p. ; 21 cm.
Author misc:
Gantos, Jack
Call number:
GAN
Topical term:
[Boys, Conduct of life, Older women]
Lccn:
2010054009
Comment
Add a CommentI enjoyed this Newbery winner though not as much as past winners. It was different, had interesting characters, great black humour but some events were odd - for example, the Hell's Angels coming to town and burning down houses. I don't know where it fit in the story.
This would make a good read aloud for an upper elementary teacher who wanted a story that stresses history and writing.
Jack does it again. This latest of Jack-the-Author's books about Jack falls somewhere between autobiography and pure fiction, a land where Mr. Gantos seems always at home. The story's alternately weirdly funny and just plain weird. Its young narrator proves dead-on as an authentic kid. Somehow or other, Mr. Gantos turns the last quarter of the book into a mystery, though who needed more than his usual totally entertaining episodic riffs on being a kid? And, if you're looking for morals, there's one here about preserving history, and a theme that takes us back to America's early 1960s.