Jack Gantos
Author
Series
Norvelt volume 1
Accelerated Reader
IL: MG - BL: 5.7 - AR Pts: 12
Language
English
Description
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.
Author
Series
Accelerated Reader
IL: MG - BL: 5.4 - AR Pts: 6
Language
English
Formats
Description
The fifth and final book in the groundbreaking Joey Pigza series brings the beloved chronicle of this wired, wacky, and wonderful boy to a crescendo of chaos and craziness, as everything goes topsy-turvy for Joey just as he starts to get his feet on the ground. With his dad MIA in the wake of appearance-altering plastic surgery, Joey must give up school to look after his new baby brother and fill in for his mom, who hospitalizes herself to deal with...
Author
Accelerated Reader
IL: MG - BL: 6.1 - AR Pts: 5
Language
English
Formats
Description
The Newbery Award—winning author of Dead End in Norvelt shares advice for how to be the best brilliant writer in this funny and practical creative writing guide perfect for all kids who dream of seeing their name on the spine of a book.
With the signature wit and humor that have garnered him legions of fans, Jack Gantos instructs young writers on using their "writing radar" to unearth story ideas from their everyday lives. Incorporating his own...
Author
Series
Publisher
Books on Tape
Pub. Date
2006
Accelerated Reader
IL: MG - BL: 4.9 - AR Pts: 5
Language
English
Description
To the constant disappointment of his mother and his teachers, Joey has trouble paying attention or controlling his mood swings when his prescription meds wear off and he starts getting worked up and acting wired.
Author
Series
Accelerated Reader
IL: MG - BL: 4.6 - AR Pts: 6
Language
English
Description
Jack's life is a crazy roller-coaster ride. At his fifth school in six years, he has a crackpot teacher who won't give him a break about his lousy handwriting and a secret crush who wants to be a policewoman. At home, he has a pesky little brother with a knack for getting hurt whenever Jack's supposed to be looking after him, a terror for an older sister, all sorts of weird neighbors, and, last but not least, ferocious alligators in the canal behind...
Author
Series
Publisher
Penguin Random House Audio Publishing Group
Pub. Date
2002
Accelerated Reader
IL: MG - BL: 5.1 - AR Pts: 8
Language
English
Description
Joey tries to keep his life from degenerating into total chaos when his mother sends him to be home-schooled with a hostile blind girl, his divorced parents cannot stop fighting, and his grandmother is dying of emphysema.
Author
Series
Accelerated Reader
IL: MG - BL: 4.3 - AR Pts: 8
Language
English
Description
Jack Henry has moved to the island of Barbados with his offbeat family and his secret diary. But still, he can't escape his penchant for wacky misadventure. Because of a headless chicken, he gets a violent case of blood poisoning. In a pepper-eating contest with his father, he discovers the perils of male bonding. And then, he has his heartstrings twanged by an older woman who just happens to be his sister's best friend.
These are just a few of...
Author
Series
Accelerated Reader
IL: MG - BL: 4.8 - AR Pts: 6
Language
English
Description
According to his new motto- A WRITER'S JOB IS TO TURN HIS WORST EXPERIENCES INTO MONEY- Jack Gantos's alter ego Jack Henry is going to be filty rich even before he gets out of junior high, for his life is filled with the worst experiences imaginable. For instance, in the course of the few months covered in this closing cycle of interlinked stories, Jack is humiliated by a gorgeous synchronized swimmer, gets a tattoo the size of an ant on his big toe,...
Author
Series
Accelerated Reader
IL: MG - BL: 4.9 - AR Pts: 6
Language
English
Description
As the Henry family sets sail for a new life on Cape Hatteras, fourth-grader Jack is struggling to chart a course between his parents' contradictory advice on making friends and influencing people. Just tell people what they want to hear, Dad advises. Just tell the truth, Mom cautions. Jack finds there are no easy answers as he drifts through his crazy school year, falling desperately in love with his young teacher, getting suckered into becoming...
Author
Language
English
Description
On an unseasonably warm Easter Sunday, a young girl named
Ivy discovers a chilling secret in the basement of the Rumbaugh
pharmacy across the street from the hotel where she lives with
her mother. The discovery reveals a disturbing side to the
eccentric lives of family friends Abner and Adolph Rumbaugh,
known throughout their small western Pennsylvania town
simply as the Twins. It seems that Ab and Dolph have been
compelled by a powerful mutual...
13) Desire Lines
Author
Language
English
Description
When sixteen-year-old Walker gets caught up in a witch-hunt against homosexuals, he is left to stand by and watch as a tragedy unfolds.
Author
Series
Language
English
Description
Rotten Ralph's owner, Sarah, is fed up with her red rascal's behavior. Ralph is tired of Sarah trying to change him. He misses his cat family, which never made him alter a thing about himself. But in this gag- and guffaw-filled adventure for newly independent readers, the world's favorite rotten red cat gets tripped up when he runs away for a journey down memory lane.
Author
Series
Language
English
Description
Jack isn't like the Pagoda brothers. He knows the difference between fun and stupid. Launching yourself across the backyard in a makeshift Roman catapult? Fun. Smoking an entire pack of cigarettes as fast as possible? Stupid. But when it comes to emergency self-surgery…Jack still has something to learn. A short story from the acclaimed collection Guys Read: Funny Business, edited by Jon Scieszka.
Author
Series
Norvelt volume 2
Accelerated Reader
IL: MG - BL: 6 - AR Pts: 10
Language
English
Description
After an explosion, a new crime by an old murderer, and the sad passing of the founder of Norvelt, Pennsylvania, twelve-year-old Jack accompanies his slightly mental elderly mentor, Miss Volker, on a cross-country run as she pursues the oddest of outlaws.
Author
Series
Language
English
Description
In this first in a series of Rotten Ralph readers, Jack Gantos reads his tale of the irrepressible cat with a penchant for disaster. When Ralph tries to help Sarah with her class project on ancient Egypt, he wreaks havoc first at the library and then continues his "assistance" at home. As usual, Ralph overcomes his rotten-ness and ultimately rescues Sarah's project by dressing up as the Sphinx. In Practice makes Perfect for Rotten Ralph, when the...
Author
Series
Language
English
Description
In this first in a series of Rotten Ralph readers, Jack Gantos reads his tale of the irrepressible cat with a penchant for disaster. When Ralph tries to help Sarah with her class project on ancient Egypt, he wreaks havoc first at the library and then continues his assistance" at home. As usual, Ralph overcomes his rotten-ness and ultimately rescues Sarah's project by dressing up as the Sphinx. Listeners will not only learn interesting tidbits about...
Author
Series
Publisher
Books on Tape
Pub. Date
2007
Language
English
Description
“I’m a brand-new man with a brand-new plan.”
Joey Pigza is knocked for a loop when his good-for-nothing dad shows up on his doorstep as a recycled person. After a lucky lotto win, Carter Pigza truly believes he’s somebody else. He’s even renamed himself Charles Heinz–and he insists that Joey and his mother join his happy Heinz family plan.
“My head felt like it was full of bees, and they were busy in...
Joey Pigza is knocked for a loop when his good-for-nothing dad shows up on his doorstep as a recycled person. After a lucky lotto win, Carter Pigza truly believes he’s somebody else. He’s even renamed himself Charles Heinz–and he insists that Joey and his mother join his happy Heinz family plan.
“My head felt like it was full of bees, and they were busy in...