American Born Chinese

American Born Chinese

Written and Illustrated by Gene Luen Yang

Image Accessed 12/04/2013 http://geneyang.com/american-born-chinese

Summary

Jin was born in America to Chinese immigrant parents. When Jin’s family moves away from San Francisco, Jin finds himself the only Chinese American boy in his school - a lonely and isolating experience. One day a boy from Taiwan enters his class, and while Jin is embarrassed by Wei-Chen’s immigrant ways, they become best friends – until Jin betrays him in a fit of frustration and embarrassment. The Monkey King justly rules all the monkeys and reins over the lovely Flower Fruit Mountain. One night, the Monkey King gets wind of a dinner party of the gods and decides to attend, but upon arrival the Monkey King is humiliated by the party’s doorman and is not allowed in because he is not a human. Angry, the Monkey King leaps into the party, and using his phenomenal Kung Fu, beats everyone up. The Monkey King returns to his mountain and does everything he can to improve himself and prove to the other gods his own worth – but in the process he tries to stop being a monkey. Danny is a white-bread American boy who just wants to fit in, but every time he settles into a new school, his over-the-top Chinese cousin Cin-Kee (who embodies every Asian stereotype) comes to visit and ruins everything. All three stories struggle with identity and all three stories are connected – weaving together to show that being who you are is better than anything you could fake.

Critical Analysis

Its not easy being different, but in American Born Chinese Gene Luen Yang weaves three separate stories that struggle with identity together to resolve with one beautiful ending that shows that accepting yourself will bring infinitely more happiness than trying to be something you are not.

            Yang’s style is fresh and full of stories within stories – filled with parables that hint at the plot twists to come! Yang’s characters embody traits that every person, from every nationality can relate to. Jin, Danny and the Monkey King all struggle against their true identity with the mistaken notion that they will not find acceptance if they are truly themselves. Jin, Danny and the Monkey King all end up hurting the people they care for as well as themselves in this struggle to fit in and end up pushing people away as they push their natural identity deeper and deeper inside themselves.

            Set in the fantastical world of mythical China as well as modern America, Yang uses his settings to show that fitting in is difficult across the board. The colorful illustrations are clean and clear allowing the message of the story to be carried by the characters expressions and words. Yang’s illustrations also reflect his own unique style – neither overtly manga influenced nor based on classic American comic book style, Yang’s illustrations are wholly his own.

            As readers follow Jin, Danny and the Monkey King on their own individual quests to become their own misguided ideal, the characters reach a moment when they are faced with who they truly are – and that’s when the masks come off. The humble monk Wong Lai-Tsao offers the Monkey King a piece of advice that set him free from his self imposed prison. Wong Lai-Tsao said that “to find your true identity is the highest of all freedoms" (Yang, 2006) and that is exactly what each character does. In the end, the Monkey King learns the freedom and pleasure of being a monkey; Jin casts off his alter ego Danny and takes the advice of “Cin-Kee” and sets about to make amends to his old friend Wei-Chen.

Connections

The Absolutely True Diary of a Part Time Indian by Sherman Alexie is an ideal bookend for American Born Chinese, in that it too is centered on race and self-acceptance. Junior, a Spokane Indian, decides to leave the reservation school in the effort to improve himself by attending the wealthy white school where the only other Indian is the school’s mascot. Reflective of American Born Chinese, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part Time Indian is an illustrated humorous, heartbreaking story of identity and acceptance.

Awards

National Book Award Finalist

Winner of the Michael L. Printz Award

Eisner Award Winner

Reviews

School Library Journal - “Like Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye and Laurence Yep’s Dragonwings, this novel explores the impact of the American dream on those outside the dominant culture in a finely wrought story that is an effective combination of humor and drama.”— Starred Review

Booklist - “Each of the characters is flawed but familiar, and, in a clever postmodern twist, all share a deep, unforeseen connection. Yang helps the humor shine by using his art to exaggerate or oppose the words, creating a synthesis that marks an accomplished graphic storyteller. The stories have a simple, engaging sweep to them, but their weighty subjects––shame, racism, and friendship––receive thoughtful, powerful examination.”

Publishers Weekly - “Yang accomplishes the remarkable feat of practicing what he preaches with this book: accept who you are and you'll already have reached out to others.”

References

Alexie, Sherman. 2007. The Absolutely True Diary of a Part Time Indian. New York, NY: Little Brown. ISBN 9780316013680

Publishers Weekly 06/12/2006 pg. 36 (EAN 9781596431522, Paperback)

School Library Journal 09/01/2006 pg. 240 (EAN 9781596431522, Paperback) - *Starred Review

Booklist 09/01/2006 pg. 114 (EAN 9781596431522, Paperback)

Yang, Gene Luen. 2006. American Born Chinese. New York, NY: First Second. ISBN 9781596431522

When You Reach Me

When You Reach Me

Written By Rebecca Stead

Image accessed 12/03/2013 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:When_you_reach_me.jpg

Summary

Set in late 1970s New York, 12 year old Miranda is dealing with the everyday issues of life in in the big city. Miranda lives with her single mother in a rundown apartment complex, is struggling to come to terms with her best friend turning his back on her, navigating the hazards of walking home from school and learning to make new friends when she starts to receive cryptic notes that predict the future.

Critical Analysis

            Miranda is a down to earth, likable girl who reflects the issues that so many of us face when growing up. Completely relatable, Miranda navigates the mundane and the fantastical with a genuine earnestness that lends credibility to the story Stead weaves. Set in New York City, When You Reach Me achieves a gritty, genuine foundation that seamlessly meshes the regular occurrences of urban life with a fantastical spark that takes the readers preconceived notions and turns them on their head. These once everyday encounters with New York’s darker elements (the homeless, the mentally ill, the pervert streakers, the urban bullies) become illuminated by Stead’s unique writing style. Readers uncover an entirely different reason explaining why people are they way they are.

Wholly believable, Stead introduces the fantastical elements of her story slowly and mysteriously. She builds and interweaves both elements together so believably, that when true fantasy emerges, the reader is already completely and utterly invested in the journey. Witnessing Miranda begin to understand the letters she has received, getting to know her circle of friends and then finally making the connection between the two, readers begin to grasp some of the story’s universal themes of friendship and acceptance. By looking beyond our assumptions and by leaving our comfort zone, we are able to form amazing friendships that we might be inclined to brush aside. It is only when Sal stops being friends with Miranda that she is able to seek out new friends. It is only when she lets go of her long held assumptions about Julia that is she able to transform from enemy into a fast companion. By getting to know the young man who punched Sal, Miranda is able to help save Sal’s life.  By looking beyond the surface of what we expect, we can find the extraordinary.

Connections

John Green’s Paper Towns is another story that heavily references a published work, but rather than Madeline LEngles’ A Wrinkle in Time, Paper Towns relies on Walt Whitman’s Leaves of Grass. While Paper Towns does not have any fantastical elements there is, however, a mystery that flows through the book, keeping the reader guessing.  Paper Towns is also shaped by the setting of the story – overdeveloped Florida, much as When You Reach Me is grounded by its gritty New York setting.

Awards

Winner of the 2010 John Newbery Medal

Reviews

School Library Journal (07/01/2009):
Gr 5-8Sixth-grader Miranda lives in 1978 New York City with her mother, and her life compass is Madeleine LEngles "A Wrinkle in Time". When she receives a series of enigmatic notes that claim to want to save her life, she comes to believe that they are from someone who knows the future. Miranda spends considerable time observing a raving vagrant who her mother calls the laughing man and trying to find the connection between the notes and her everyday life. Discerning readers will realize the ties between Mirandas mystery and LEngles plot, but will enjoy hints of fantasy and descriptions of middle school dynamics. Steads novel is as much about character as story. Mirandas voice rings true with its faltering attempts at maturity and observation. The story builds slowly, emerging naturally from a sturdy premise. As Miranda reminisces, the time sequencing is somewhat challenging, but in an intriguing way. The setting is consistently strong. The stores and even the streets in Mirandas neighborhood act as physical entities and impact the plot in tangible ways. This unusual, thought-provoking mystery will appeal to several types of readers

Kirkus Review - Children (06/01/2009):
When Miranda's best friend Sal gets punched by a strange kid, he abruptly stops speaking to her; then oddly prescient letters start arriving. They ask for her help, saying, "I'm coming to save your friend's life, and my own." Readers will immediately connect with Miranda's fluid first-person narration, a mix of Manhattan street smarts and pre-teen innocence. She addresses the letter writer and recounts the weird events of her sixth-grade year, hoping to make sense of the crumpled notes. Miranda's crystalline picture of her urban landscape will resonate with city teens and intrigue suburban kids. As the letters keep coming, Miranda clings to her favorite book, A Wrinkle in Time, and discusses time travel with Marcus, the nice, nerdy boy who punched Sal. Keen readers will notice Stead toying with time from the start, as Miranda writes in the present about past events that will determine her future. Some might guess at the baffling, heart-pounding conclusion, but when all the sidewalk characters from Miranda's Manhattan world converge amid mind-blowing revelations and cunning details, teen readers will circle back to the beginning and say, "Wow...cool."

Booklist (06/01/2009):
Grades 4-7 *Starred Review* If this book makes your head hurt, youre not alone. Sixth-grader Miranda admits that the events she relates make her head hurt, too. Time travel will do that to you. The story takes place in 1979, though time frames, as readers learn, a rerelative. Miranda and Sal have been best friends since way before that. They both live in a tired Manhattan apartment building and walk home together from school. One day everything changes. Sal is kicked and punched by a schoolmate and afterward barely acknowledges Miranda. Which leaves her to make new friends, even as she continues to reread her ratty copy of A Wrinkle in Time and tutor her mother for a chance to compete on The$20,000 Pyramid. She also ponders a puzzling, even alarming series of events that begins with a note: I am coming to save your friends life, and my own . . . you must write me a letter. Mirandas first-person narrative is the letter she is sending to the future. Or is it the past? Its hard to know if the key events ultimately make sense (head hurting!), and it seems the whys, if not the hows, of a pivotal characters actions are not truly explained. Yet everything else is quite wonderful. The 70s New York setting is an honest reverberation of the era; the mental gymnastics required of readers are invigorating; and the characters, children and adults, are honest bits of humanity no matter in what place or time their souls rest. Just as Miranda rereads LEngle, children will return to this

Publishers Weekly (06/22/2009):
Twelve-year-old Miranda, a latchkey kid whose single mother is a law school dropout, narrates this complex novel, a work of science fiction grounded in the nitty-gritty of Manhattan life in the late 1970s. Mirandas story is set in motion by the appearance of cryptic notes that suggest that someone is watching her and that they know things about her life that have not yet happened. Shes especially freaked out by one that reads: Im coming to save your friends life, and my own. Over the course of her sixth-grade year, Miranda details three distinct plot threads: her mothers upcoming appearance on "The $20,000 Pyramid"; the sudden rupture of Mirandas lifelong friendship with neighbor Sal; and the unsettling appearance of a deranged homeless person dubbed the laughing man. Eventually and improbably, these strands converge to form a thought-provoking whole. Stead ("First Light") accomplishes this by making every detail count, including Mirandas name, her hobby of knot tying and her favorite book, Madeleine LEngles "A Wrinkle in Time". Its easy to imagine readers studying Mirandas story as many times as shes read LEngles, and spending hours pondering the provocative questions it raises.

References

Booklist 06/01/2009 pg. 66 (EAN 9780385737425, Hardcover) - *Starred Review

Green, John. 2008. Paper Towns. New York, NY: Dutton Books. ISBN 9780525478188

Kirkus Review - Children 06/01/2009 (EAN 9780385737425, Hardcover) - *Starred Review

Publishers Weekly 06/22/2009 pg. 45 (EAN 9780385737425, Hardcover) - *Starred Review

School Library Journal 07/01/2009 pg. 93 (EAN 9780385737425, Hardcover) - *Starred Review

Stead, Rebecca. 2009. When You Reach Me. New York, NY: Random House Children's Books. ISBN 0385737424

Ship Breaker

Ship Breaker

Written by Paolo Bacigalupe
Image Accessed 11/30/2013 http://austin.bibliocommons.com/item/show/771453067_ship_breaker

Summary

            In the not-to-distant future the earth’s climate has changed and humanity has changed along with it. City-killer sized storms have carved apart continents and the sea has risen, reshaping the globe and ripping apart countries.  Survival is a constant struggle and if you do not have work, do not have a crew that will vouch for you, your only other option is to sell everything you have, including yourself, in order to live one day longer.

Nailer is at a dangerous age. He is small enough to be valuable to the “light crews” as he can crawl down into the bellies of ships to bring back the small treasures of wire and materials hidden in pipes - but Nailer is growing fast. Soon Nailer will be too big for “light” crew and too small for “heavy” crew – a position that haunts his future. One night after a massive storm Nailer discovers a wrecked clipper ship. Amid the wreckage Nailer finds Nita, the wealthy daughter of a corporate CEO who is fleeing from deadly corporate espionage. In a desperate gamble, Nailer swears Nita in as crew and together, with the help of the dog man Tool, they make for the city and the safety of those still loyal to Nita’s family.

Critical Analysis

            The world of Ship Breaker is wholly believable with a foundation based on the scientific predictions of the environmental future of our Earth. Bacigalupi carefully weaves the meteorological catastrophes of the present with the humanitarian crisis that exist outside of the first world and amplifies them with the environmental predictions of what is to come if the world does not change it’s ways.

Bacigalupi’s grim setting for Ship Breaker provides a compelling backdrop for the plot of this story – survival. By saving Nita, Nailer takes a humble first step in attempting to better his life permanently rather than just scrapping Nita for her “parts” and earning a quick buck to better his life immediately. By swearing Nita as crew, Nailer binds himself to her and she to him and together they attempt to escape the volatile, drug addled savagery of life on the edge of the world. In Nita, readers witness adaptation, growth and strength. In Nailer, readers see the best traits of humanity struggling to reach their fullest potential, but it is in Tool, the dog-man that readers see humanity at it’s most honest. Tool, the genetic soldier creation who has broken free of his loyalty conditioning allows no words or good intentions to warp the truth. Tool acts as the filter of Ship Breaker, stripping down the characters actions and intention into the bare, unadulterated truth and allowing the characters to have a rare chance to make a true choice – free of the influence of others or the lies they tell themselves.

 The quest to reunite Nita with her people brings to light haunting questions of right and wrong. Nailer and Nita must ask themselves what detonates true loyalty, what does the bond of family really mean and ultimately, what is the value of a human life? Traveling to the city of Orleans, Nailer struggles to take control of his future; to educate himself, earn a trade and a life of relative safety, but in order for Nailer to rise out of the savagery he was born into and defeat his sociopathic, drug addicted father, Nailer is forced to commit his own acts of savagery in order to break free.

Awards

Michael L. Printz Award

National Book Award Finalist

Connections

            Patrick Ness’ The Knife of Never Letting Go is a post apocalyptic science fiction set on a planet where all the men can hear one another’s thoughts – and all the women have died. The Knife of Never Letting Go provides an interesting companion piece to Ship Breaker in that the main character must also confront the darkness within him before he can hope to rise above the horrors of the world he was raised in, and that the choice to save another human life can end up saving your own.

Reviews

Kirkus Review - A gritty teen betrays his father and flees his grim existence in a post–global-warming Gulf Coast village to protect a young woman he barely knows in this gripping futuristic thriller. Fifteen-year-old Nailer works on the"light crew" as a ship breaker, salvaging metals from abandoned oil tankers. Nailer's vicious father routinely beats him. In this violent world where people do anything for money, Nailer's future seems bleak until he discovers Nina, the wealthy, attractive survivor of a shipwreck. Rather than kill Nina and steal the salvage, Nailer opts to save her, triggering a harrowing journey to the submerged cities of Orleans to find people loyal to Nina. As Nailer experiences brutal betrayals, he relies on his wits and learns the people worth calling family are the ones who"[cover] your back.... Everything else [is] just so much smoke and lies." In Bacigalupi's defiled, depressing landscape populated by mercenary humans and mechanical dog-men, Nailer's loyalty offers hope. Told in the third person, this stark, surreal story sends an alarm to heed the warning signs of climate change or suffer a similar fate.

Publishers Weekly - SF novelist Bacigalupi ("The Windup Girl") makes a stellar YA debut with this futuristic tale of class imbalance on the Gulf Coast. Teenage Nailer scavenges ships with his crewmates, eking out a poverty-filled existence while avoiding dangers that range from giant city killer hurricanes to his vicious, drug-addicted father. When a storm strands a beautiful shipping heiress on the beach (earning her the nickname Lucky Girl), Nailer manages both to infuriate members of his camp (including his father) and to become embroiled in upper-class trade disputes that he barely comprehends. As Nailer and Lucky Girl escape toward the drowned ruins of New Orleans, they witness rampant class disparity on individual and international levels (tribes whose lands were flooded have taken to the seas as pirates, attacking multinational shipping firms). Bacigalupi's cast is ethnically and morally diverse, and the book's message never overshadows the storytelling, action-packed pacing, or intricate world-building. At its core, the novel is an exploration of Nailer's discovery of the nature of the world around him and his ability to transcend that world's expectations.

Booklist - Grades 8-12 *Starred Review* This YA debut by Bacigalupi, a rising star in adult science fiction, presents a dystopian future like so many YA sf novels. What is uncommon, though, is that although Bacigalupis future earth is brilliantly imagined and its genesis anchored in contemporary issues, it is secondary to the memorable characters. In a world in which society has stratified, fossil fuels have been consumed, and the seas have risen and drowned coastal cities, Nailer, 17, scavenges beached tankers for scrap metals on the Gulf Coast. Every day, he tries to make quota and avoid his violent, drug-addicted father. After he discovers a modern clipper ship washed up on the beach, Nailer thinks his fortune is made, but then he discovers a survivor trapped in the wreckage the swank daughter of a shipping-company owner. Should he slit the girls throat and sell her for parts or take a chance and help her? Clearly respecting his audience, Bacigalupi skillfully integrates his world building into the compelling narrative, threading the backstory into the pulsing action. The characters are layered and complex, and their almost unthinkable actions and choices seem totally credible. Vivid, brutal, and thematically rich, this captivating title is sure to win teen fans for the award-winning Bacigalupi.

School Library Journal - Gr 7 UpA fast-paced postapocalyptic adventure set on the American Gulf Coast. Nailer works light crew; his dirty, dangerous job is to crawl deep into the wrecks of the ancient oil tankers that line the beach, scavenging copper wire and turning it over to his crew boss. After a brutal hurricane passes over, Nailer and his friend Pima stumble upon the wreck of a luxurious clipper ship. It's filled with valuable goodsa "Lucky Strike" that could make them rich, if only they can find a safe way to cash it in. Amid the wreckage, a girl barely clings to life. If they help her, she tells them, she can show them a world of privilege that they have never known. But can they trust her? And if so, can they keep the girl safe from Nailer's drug-addicted father? Exciting and sometimes violent, this book will appeal to older fans of Scott Westerfeld's "Uglies" series (S & S) and similar action-oriented science fiction.

References

Bacigalupi, Paolo. 2010. Ship Breaker. New York, NY: Little Brown & Company. ISBN 0316056219

Booklist 05/15/2010 pg. 50 (EAN 9780316056212, Hardcover)

Kirkus Review - Children 04/01/2010 (EAN 9780316056212, Hardcover)

Ness, Patrick. 2008. The Knife of Never Letting Go. Cambridge, MA: Candlewick Press. ISBN 9780763639310

Publishers Weekly 04/19/2010 pg. 54 (EAN 9780316056212, Hardcover) - *Starred Review

School Library Journal 06/01/2010 pg. 93 (EAN 9780316056212, Hardcover)

Dead End In Norvelt

Dead End In Norvelt

Written By Jack Gantos
Image Accessed 11/13/2013 http://haerr.blogspot.com/2012/08/dead-end-in-norvelt.html

Summary

As writer/protagonist Jack Gantos spends his summer grounded for mowing down his mom’s cornfield (under his father’s orders), he befriends the enigmatic Miss. Volker; the local obituary columnist and medical examiner. Through his association with Miss. Volker, Jack comes to learn the history of his home town of Norvelt, PA and realize that while the town is drying up, all the old ladies who live there are dying at a suspicious rate!

Critical Analysis

Norvelt is an actual town, established by Eleanore Rossevelt during the Great Depression as a community where low income American’s were suppose to be able to receive a home that would nurture their families and values and provide enough land to support them when times got rough. In Dead End in Norvelt, time has not been kind to the town of Norvelt and in the summer of 1962, the town is dying due to a lack of jobs and no new families moving into the community. While still trying to cling to their founding values of community and sharing, Norvelt slowly begins to fade away in the face of commercialism and independence that became prevalent after World War II. Gantos paints the picture of the fading Norvelt beautifully and allows the sense of history to permeate the pages by setting the time period with facts, like Armstrong’s orbit of the Earth, rather than by setting out dates.

Hapless author and main character Jack Gantos is a nosebleed prone boy, sandwiched between his community driven mother and his progressive minded father. As the story begins, Jack is grounded by his mother for the whole summer because he plowed under her cornfield at the request of his father. Thus begins Jack’s isolated summer that allows Jack to get to know the eccentric, arthritic old Miss. Volker. Through Jack’s assistance with Miss. Volker, readers get an exquisitely painted view of the town, its history and the people of Norvelt and how change comes to everyone, whether they want it or not. While helping Miss. Volker Jack is introduced to both the living and the dead residents of Norvelt and the wide variety of people who make up this community – including the tricycle riding, slightly creepy Mr. Edwin Spizz.

As Jack and Miss Volker learn more about the history of Norvelt, Jack’s father is actively erasing that history through his employment with the local mortician by physically moving the vacant houses of Norvelt to another town upstate. The eradication of Norvelt escalates when Hells Angels invade the town, burning down houses as revenge for a fallen comrade who was killed on the towns highway. History and progress come to an alarming head as it is discovered that as the houses of Norvelt are disappearing, the elderly of Norvelt are passing away before the town’s very eyes. Through an alarming (and slightly silly) array of events, Mr. Edwin Spizz is discovered to be poisoning the old ladies of Norvelt in order to speed up an old promise made by Miss Volker, that she would marry Spizz when they were the last two original Norvelites.

Through Ganto’s quirky, slightly gory style, readers get a unique sense of this time period with a voice that feels absolutely authentic. Knowing that Gantos did indeed live in Norvelt adds an immense feeling of authenticity to the tale and helps lead readers down the offbeat rabbit hole of romance driven murders. The slang and wholesome cursing like “Cheese-us-crust” (Gantos, 2011, pg. 7) add a warm glow to this supposed wholesome time.

As the summer progresses Jack goes from being a “spineless jellyfish” (Gantos, 2011, pg. 63) of a boy who gets nosebleeds when a car backfires, to a young man who can drive a car, face life head on and take the history he has learned and use it to plot his own unique path in life. Miss Volker states that we will “all be judged by our history” (Gantos, 2011, 23:9) and as Dead End In Norvelt comes to a close, readers see that history is one of the connecting forces of our community and while change is inevitable, history will shape the changes to come.

Awards

·      2012 Newbery Award

·      2012 Scott O’Dell Award for Historical Fiction

Connections

Hoot by Carl Hiaasen is the story of Roy and how he decides to actively work against the generations of Floridians who came before him and assaulted the natural beauty of the Everglades in the name of “progress”. Like Dead End in Norvelt, Hoot illustrates the need to understand the history of our past and use it to actively correct our future. Roy and his friends decide to take a stand to protect a nest of burrowing owls from a commercial development and show people that through preservation we can all grow.

Reviews

Publishers Weekly (07/25/2011):
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. Like the author, Jackie lives for a time in Norvelt, a real Pennsylvania town created during the Great Depression and based on the socialist idea of community farming. Presumably (hopefully?) the truth mostly ends there, because Jackie's summer of 1962 begins badly: plagued by frequent and explosive nosebleeds, Jackie is assigned to take dictation for the arthritic obituary writer, Miss Volker, and kept alarmingly busy by elderly residents dying in rapid succession. Then the Hells Angels roll in. Gore is a Gantos hallmark but the squeamish are forewarned that Jackie spends much of the book with blood pouring down his face and has a run-in with home cauterization. Gradually, Jackie learns to face death and his fears straight on while absorbing Miss Volker's theories about the importance of knowing history. "The reason you remind yourself of the stupid stuff you've done in the past is so you don't do it again." Memorable in every way.

Booklist (08/01/2011):
Grades 5-8 Looks like a bummer of a summer for 11-year-old Jack (with a same-name protagonist, it's tempting to assume that at least some of this novel comes from the author's life). After discharging his father's WWII-souvenir Japanese rifle and cutting down his mom's fledgling cornfield, he gets grounded for the rest of his life or the rest of the summer of 1962, whichever comes first. Jack gets brief reprieves to help an old neighbor write obituaries for the falling-like-flies original residents of Norvelt, a dwindling coal-mining town. Jack makes a tremendously entertaining tour guide and foil for the town's eccentric citizens, and his warmhearted but lightly antagonistic relationship with his folks makes for some memorable one-upmanship. Gantos, as always, deliver bushels of food for thought and plenty of outright guffaws, though the story gets stuck in neutral for much of the midsection. When things pick up again near the end of the summer, surprise twists and even a quick-dissolve murder mystery arrive to pay off patient readers. Those with a nose for history will be especially pleased

Kirkus Reviews (08/15/2011):

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, as even though Jack's feuding parents unite to ground him for the summer after several mishaps, he does get out. He mixes with the undertaker's daughter, a band of Hell's Angels out to exact fiery revenge for a member flattened in town by a truck and, especially, with arthritic neighbor Miss Volker, for whom he furnishes the "hired hands" that transcribe what becomes a series of impassioned obituaries for the local paper as elderly town residents suddenly begin passing on in rapid succession. Eventually the unusual body count draws the—justified, as it turns out—attention of the police. Ultimately, the obits and the many Landmark Books that Jack reads (this is 1962) in his hours of confinement all combine in his head to broaden his perspective about both history in general and the slow decline his own town is experiencing.

References

Booklist 08/01/2011 pg. 49 (EAN 9780374379933, Hardcover)

Gantos, Jack. 2011. Dead End In Norvelt. New York, NY: Farrar Straus Giroux. ISBN 9780374379933

Hiaasen, Carl. 2002. Hoot. New York, NY: Alfred A. Knopf. ISBN 9780375821813.

Kirkus Reviews 04/15/2011 (EAN 9780374379933, Hardcover) - *Starred Review

Publishers Weekly 07/25/2011 (EAN 9780374379933, Hardcover) - *Starred Review