Jack Gantos shares advice for how to be the best brilliant writer in this funny and practical writing guide perfect for all kids who dream of seeing their name on the spine of a book.
Rotten Ralph is a very very nasty cat who enjoys playing pranks on his human family.
Dead End in Norvelt is the winner of the 2012 Newbery Medal for the year’s best contribution to children’s literature and the Scott O’Dell Award for Historical Fiction.
The series begins when Jack’s mom loans him out to help a feisty old neighbor with a most unusual chore—typewriting obituaries filled with stories about the people who founded his utopian town.
Jack’s life is a crazy roller-coaster ride. His family is always moving, he suffers under desperate crushes, and he’s constantly facing crazy teachers, pesky siblings, and weird neighbors. To help him get through the good days and bad days, Jack writes in his diary. As The School Library Journal put it, Jack’s “a survivor, an ‘everyboy’ whose world may be wacko but whose heart and spirit are eminently sane.”
Joey Pigza’s got heart, he’s got a mom who loves him, and he’s got “dud meds,” which is what he calls the ADHD pills that are supposed to even out his wild mood swings. Sometimes Joey makes bad choices. He learns the hard way that he shouldn’t stick his finger in the pencil sharpener, or swallow his house key, or run with scissors. As Joey knows, if he keeps making bad choices, he could just fall between the cracks for good. But he is determined not to let that happen.
