Empowering Bright & Gifted Children

 

 

 

Joey Pigza can't sit still. He can't pay attention, he can't follow the rules, and he can't help it -- especially when his meds aren't working. Joey's had problems ever since he was born, problems just like his dad and grandma have.

 

And whether he's wreaking havoc on a class trip or swallowing his house key, Joey's problems are getting worse. In fact, his behavior is so off the wall that his teachers are threatening to send him to the special-ed center downtown.

 

Joey knows he's really a good kid, but no matter how hard he tries to do the right thing, something always seems to go wrong. Will he ever get anything right?

 

The Horn Book (Starred Review): "In this roller-coaster of a ride, ingenuously and breathlessly narrated by Joey himself, readers are treated to an up-close introduction to life with ADD - or being wired, as Joey puts it...Readers of this compelling tragicomedy will know almost from the start that Joey's not just a good kid -- he's a great kid."

 

 

"He was wired. No dought about it...Now I know what Mom meant when she said he was like me, only bigger."

 

Joey Pigza really wants his six-week visit with his dad to count, to show him he's not as wired as he used to be, to show his dad how much he loves him. But Carter Pigza's not an easy guy to love. He's eager to make it up to Joey for past wrongs and to show him how to be a winner, to take control of his life. With his coaching, Joey's even learned how to pitch a baseball, and he's good at it. The trouble is, Joey's dad thinks taking control means giving up the things that "keep Joey safe. And if he wants to please his dad, he's going to have to play by his rules, even when the rules don't make sense.

 

Publishers Weekly (Starred Review): "Like its predecessor, this high-voltage, honest novel mixes humor, pain, fear and courage with deceptive ease. Struggling to please everyone even as he sees himself hurtling toward disaster, Joey emerges as a sympathetic hero, and his heart of gold never loses its shine."

 

 

Joey's dad just roared into town on a motorcycle, his mom is chasing her ex-husband away with a broomstick, and his grandma's camped out on the couch behind a plastic shower curtain. What's more, Joey's chihuahua has been dognapped, and his mom insists that he be homeschooled with a mean blind girl and her super-religious mother. Welcome to Joey's world.

 

With his new self-assumed role as "Mr. Helpful," Joey's on a mission to make everything and everyone better. Can Joey accomplish all this or will his wild, wired behavior spin him out of control all over again?

 

The Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books (Starred Review): "Joey...is an impossible, contradictory, glorious creation."

 

School Library Journal (Starred Review): "Readers will cheer for Joey, and for the champion in each of us."

 

TKnight Ridder News Service: "In Joey Pigza, Mr. Gantos has meticulously crafted the voice of a troubled kid with a solid center of goodness. Joey tells his own story, and it reads like a ride in a car without brakes."

 

USA Today: "Stepping into Joey Pigza's skin isn't easy...But it's worth the discomforting fit."

 

 

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.

 

Joey has little choice but to embrace a head-spinning series of changes, which include having to leave school to help out at the beat-up roadside diner his dad has purchased. But Joey is afraid that in going with the flow he will go over the falls and end up in a place far away from who he really is.

 

In this seriously comic new novel, Jack Gantos pushes his acclaimed hero into entirely new territory, where he wrestles with issues of identity and forgiveness, and teaches himself how to triple-flip a turkey burger while shouting out his new favorite phrase..."Do you want fries with that?"

 

 

Book Group Guide: Click here for Reading Group Guide for "Joey Pigza Swallowed the Key" by Jack Gantos