Dead End in Norvelt

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Dead End in Norvelt
From Norvelt to Nowhere
 

Dead End in Norvelt is an autobiographical novel by the American author Jack Gantos, published by Farrar, Straus, and Giroux in 2011. It features a boy named Jack Gantos and is based in the author's hometown, Norvelt, Pennsylvania. According to one reviewer, the "real hero" is "his home town and its values", a "defiantly political" message.[2]

The

Transworld Publishers imprint Corgi Books, it was one of eight books on the longlist for the annual Guardian Children's Fiction Prize.[6]

Newbery medal judges called the book "achingly funny"[4] and one British reviewer called it "rib-splitting".[7]

Plot

Dead End in Norvelt takes place during the summer of 1962, after the American schoolboy Jack Gantos fires his father's war trophy, a Japanese

Hells Angel gang member is hit by a cement truck near the Norvelt pants factory after crazily dancing a three-mile stretch from a Mt. Pleasant
bar. This ends up causing the rest of the Hells Angel gang to cause mayhem in the town, lighting unoccupied houses on fire and stealing the most expensive casket from Mr. Huffer's funeral parlor for their fallen brother.

Later, Jack's dad acquires a

thin mint Girl Scout cookies given out to the original Norvelters through the Community Center may have something to do with it because many of those people rely on it, along with his mom's homemade casseroles, for food. Soon, Miss Volker is placed under house arrest when the police find chocolates, gifted to her by her one-way lover Mr. Spizz, poisoned with 1080
(to kill rodents) in her basement and accuse her of feeding them to the old Norvelters. Later, Jack gets a call from Mr. Spizz, who was supervising Miss Volkers house arrest, to come down to her house. When Jack gets there, Miss Volker says that Mr. Spizz had admitted to secretly poisoning the Original Norvelters to try to get her to marry him, and that he had stolen Jack's car to get a six-hour headstart on the county police.

The book concludes with Jack being picked up in his dad's J-3 and doing some "bombing runs" with paint-filled balloons on the Viking drive-in theater, during which he decides it isn't that fun and asks to be let down back on the ball field. Finally, an inset paragraph (styled after the "In this day in history" section that Miss Volker employed Jack to type along with the obits in the Norvelt news) talks about Jack being ungrounded.

Themes

In the book Dead End in Norvelt, people use power to control others. The Newbery Medal judges, who are American children's librarians, cited the importance of history and reading.[4] The Guardian Prize judges, who are British children's novelists, cited "self-sufficiency, community, and neighbourliness".[6]

One reviewer of Dead End in Norvelt, children's writer Josh Lacey, called it "defiantly political"; one of its messages is "don't forget the narratives of American life that have been neglected or deliberately buried by the dominant culture." "[T]he real hero of the novel isn't Jack himself, but his home town and its values. Norvelt was a New Deal town built by the US government to house poor families and named after Eleanor Roosevelt, described by Miss Volker as 'the greatest American woman who has ever lived'."[2]

Level

Another Irish reviewer suggested that "every Elder will be able to relate to Jack's character" and recommended the book for readers age 9 to 13.[7] The Guardian Prize judges recommended it for ages 12 and up.[6]

See also

References

  1. LCCN 2010054009
    .
  2. ^ a b Josh Lacey. "Dead End in Norvelt by Jack Gantos - review: A defiantly political tale". The Guardian, June 29, 2012. Retrieved 2012-10-27.
  3. ^ "2012 ALSC book and media award winners". Association for Library Service to Children. Retrieved 2012-01-24.
  4. ^ a b c Alison Flood. "'Screwball mystery' by Jack Gantos wins oldest children's books prize". guardian.co.uk, January 23, 2012. Retrieved 2012-10-27.
  5. ^ Roger Sutton (January 17, 2012). "2012 Scott O'Dell Award for Historical Fiction". The Horn Book. Retrieved 2012-01-26.
  6. ^ a b c "Discover the Guardian children's fiction prize 2012 longlist - gallery". guardian.co.uk, June 8, 2012. Retrieved 2012-10-27.
  7. ^ a b Krazy Kesh. "Dead End in Norvelt by Jack Gantos - review: every child will be able to relate to Jack's character". Krazy Kesh. guardian.co.uk, May 13, 2012. Retrieved 2012-10-27.

External links

Awards
Preceded by Newbery Medal recipient
2012 		Succeeded by
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