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Gantos, Jack. 2011. Dead End in Norvelt. New York: Farrar Straus Giroux. ISBN: 978-0-374-37993-3.
Also available in audio from Macmillan. Produced by Laura Wilson. Read by the author. ISBN: 978-1-4272-1356-3.
Dead End in Norvelt is an autobiographical historical fiction novel from Jack Gantos recounting two months in the summer of 1962 when he was "grounded for life" by his parents for accidentally shooting his father's Japanese rifle, a souvenir from WWII. He only gets to leave the house to help an aging neighbor who is the town historian and obituary writer. Incidents that are in turn funny and disgusting ensue, leaving Jack with a new appreciation for Norvelt and its citizens.
Jack Gantos has a gift for offbeat, slightly gross tales with characters and situations that have readers laughing out loud. Dead End in Norvelt recounts the summer that he acted as scribe for Miss Volker, an elderly neighbor who suffers from severe arthritis and can no longer write the obituaries of the quickly declining population of town elders. Gantos weaves into his story the history of Norvelt, a town designed in 1934 as part of the National Industrial Recovery Act, a New Deal homestead act instituted by President Franklin D. Roosevelt. The town is named in honor of First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt who Gantos calls the Godmother of the town. Young readers may need a brief history lesson to understand the political and social climate of the time, but they will have no trouble relating to Jack's reaction to being grounded or his attempts to get out of the punishment. His interactions with the older members of the town will remind children of holidays spent with relatives who seem to be from another world, yet have some insight that sticks with them for years afterward. Surprises abound as Jack visits his first funeral home, dresses as the Grim Reaper to determine if a neighbor is dead, suffers massive nose bleeds, learns about the past and offers historical asides through the books he reads, and discovers a murder mystery all in one short summer.
The audio version read by Gantos is a delight. Listening to him tell his story is like sitting down with family to recount stories from when they were young. I was reminded of family reunions with my mother who is from a family of fourteen brothers and sisters. Listening to them tell stories of growing up on the farm in the fifties and sixties is having history revealed in the best possible way.
Dead End in Norvelt is the 2012 Newbery Medal Winner, won the 2012 Scott O'Dell award for Historical Fiction and was named an ALA Notable Children's Book and ALA Best Fiction for Young Adults Book.
Jack Gantos is the author of the Rotten Ralph series of picture books, the Joey Pigza series for middle grade readers, and also writes for young adult and adult audiences. For more information about this award winning author visit his website http://www.jackgantos.com/.
“A bit of autobiography works its way into all of Gantos’s work, but he one-ups himself in this wildly entertaining meld of truth and fiction by naming the main character . . . Jackie Gantos.” —Publishers Weekly, starred review
“A fast-paced and witty read.” —School Library Journal
“There’s more than laugh-out-loud gothic comedy here. This is a richly layered semi-autobiographical tale, an ode to a time and place, to history and the power of reading.” —The Horn Book, starred review
“Gantos, as always, delivers bushels of food for thought and plenty of outright guffaws.” —Booklist
“An exhilarating summer marked by death, gore and fire sparks deep thoughts in a small-town lad not uncoincidentally named ‘Jack Gantos.’ The gore is all Jack’s, which to his continuing embarrassment ‘would spray out of my nose holes like dragon flames’ whenever anything exciting or upsetting happens. And that would be on every other page, seemingly. . . . Characteristically provocative gothic comedy, with sublime undertones.” —Kirkus Reviews, starred review
Mary Quattlebaum of the Washington Post called Dead End in Norvelt, "…wonderfully wacky…The darkly comic mystery and oddball characters make for some good laughs, but the riffs on history raise the consciousness as well…"
If Dead End in Norvelt leaves you wanting more, the sequel From Norvelt to Nowhere has recently been released and has received a starred review from Booklist:
http://www.jackgantos.com/#sthash.czxtNJLa.dpuf.
Barnes and Noble. Editorial reviews. http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/dead-end-in-norvelt-jack-gantos/1100167540?ean=9781250010230. (Accessed November 4, 2013.)
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