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Jack Gantos

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Jack Gantos (born July 2, 1951) is an American author of children's books. He is best known for the fictional characters Rotten Ralph and Joey Pigza. Rotten Ralph is a cat who stars in ten picture books written by Gantos and illustrated by Nicole Rubel from 1976 to 2011. Joey Pigza is a boy with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), featured in four novels from 1998 to 2007.

Gantos won the 2012 Newbery Medal from the American Library Association (ALA), recognizing Dead End in Norvelt as the previous year's "most distinguished contribution to American literature for children".[1] Dead End also won the 2012 Scott O'Dell Award for Historical Fiction[2] and made the Guardian Prize longlist in Britain.[3]

His 2002 memoir Hole in My Life was a runner up for the ALA Printz Award and Sibert Medal. Previously Gantos was a finalist for the U.S. National Book Award[4] and a finalist for the Newbery Medal for two Joey Pigza books.

Biography

Jack Gantos was born in Mount Pleasant, Pennsylvania near Pittsburgh to construction superintendent John Gantos and banker Elizabeth (Weaver) Gantos. The seeds for Gantos's writing career were planted in sixth grade, when he read his sister's diary and decided he could write better than she could. Raised in South Florida and the Caribbean, he began collecting anecdotes in grade school and later Gantos’ path forward in his life including his young adult life, when he was older, and also life in jail. Right from the start of the book we find out that Gantos went to jail and used his time there to write at the best of his ability. Then the rest of the book guides us through his life as he describes it from highschool to ending up in jail. First thing that should be known, is that is all he wanted to do his whole life was write. That is very important for the way his life turned out. He was a good high school student, but when he lost interest and his family moved, he had no choice but to change. At first Gantos tried staying in Florida alone, but he kept messing up and he did terrible in school, so something had to change. He found a better opportunity to find stuff to write about so he followed his family out of the country. He was desperate as a writer so he had to reinvent himself. That is why he followed his parents to St. Croix in the Virgin Islands. However, he got caught up in the drug game there and through a series of events and bad decisions, including sailing a boat of hash for $10,000, Jack Gantos ends up in jail. That is where the violence in prison leads him to rethink his beliefs and he works hard there with writing and being good, and potentially getting out of a six year sentence after only a year, unharmed. Then he continued his life in writing and that is where this memoir came from.

People said joey pigza loses control was the best book ever.

Comments on the Book

“His account is remarkably free of both self-pity and self-censorship. . . . This is a tale of courage and redemption, proving that a bad start in life does not have to lead to a bad life story.”—The New York Times Book Review

“Gantos really is Everyman, but an Everyman who has landed himself into a deeper pit than most. What separates Gantos is the determination that took him out of his dreams and into a successful life as a writer. Those writerly skills are in full evidence here, in this thoughtful and provocative memoir as valuable to those who have never heard of Gantos as to those who have read all of his books.”—Hyde Park Review of Books

“This true tale of the worst year in the author’s life will be a big surprise for his many fans. . . .This is a story of mistakes, dues, redemption, and finally success at what he always wanted to do: write books.”—Kirkus Reviews, Starred Review [5]

Book Awards

-Hole in My Life is a 2003 Bank Street - Best Children's Book of the Year.

-Was also runner up for the ALA Printz Award and Sibert Medal.

-Won the Michael L. Printz

-Robert F. Sibert Honors

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Personal life

Jack Gantos received both his BFA and his MA from Emerson College in Boston.

During that time he began to work on picture books with Nicole Rubel, a student at the Boston Museum School. Rotten Ralph was the first to be published, by Houghton Mifflin in 1976. Within ten years Gantos and Rubel completed some twenty picture books including two more in the Rotten Ralph series.[6] Meanwhile Gantos began teaching about writing children's books. He was professor of creative writing and literature (1978–95) and a visiting professor at Brown University (1986), University of New Mexico (1993) and Vermont College of Fine Arts (1996).[7] He developed master's degree programs in children's book writing at both Emerson College and Vermont College.[citation needed]


Awards and honors

  • Best Books for Young Readers citation, American Library Association (ALA), 1976–93, for the "Rotten Ralph" series.
  • Children's Book Showcase Award, 1977, for Rotten Ralph
  • Emerson Alumni Award, Emerson College, 1979, for Outstanding Achievement in Creative Writing
  • Massachusetts Council for the Arts Awards finalist, 1983, 1988
  • Gold Key Honors Society Award,1985, for Creative Excellence
  • National Endowment for the Arts grant, 1987
  • Quarterly West Novella Award, 1989, for X-Rays
  • Children's Choice citation, International Reading Association, 1990, for Rotten Ralph's Show and Tell
  • Batavia Educational Foundation grant, 1991
  • West Springfield Arts Council (WESPAC) grant, 1991
  • Parents' Choice citation, 1994, for Not So Rotten Ralph
  • New York Public Library Books for the Teenage, 1997, for Jack's Black Book
  • Silver Award, 1999, for Jack on the Tracks
  • finalist, 1998 National Book Award for Young People's Literature, for Joey Pigza Swallowed the Key[4]
  • Great Stone Face Award, Children's Librarians of New Hampshire, ALANNA Notable Children's Book, NCSS and CBC Notable Children's Trade Book in the Field of Social Studies, School Library Journal Best Book of the Year, Riverbank Review Children's Book of Distinction, and New York Public Library "One Hundred Titles for Reading and Sharing," all 1999, for Joey Pigza Swallowed the Key
  • Iowa Teen Award, Iowa Educational Media Association, Flicker Tale Children's Book Award nomination, North Dakota Library Association, and Sasquatch Award nomination, all 2000, for Joey Pigza Swallowed the Key
  • Newbery Honor, ALANNA, 2001, for Joey Pigza Loses Control
  • California Young Reader Medal, 2002, for Joey Pigza Swallowed the Key
  • Printz Honor, 2003, for Hole in My Life
  • Sibert Honor, 2003, for Hole in My Life
  • National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship for Creative Writing, m fiction
  • Newbery Medal, 2012, for Dead End In Norvelt[1]
  • Scott O'Dell Award for Historical Fiction, 2012, for Dead End in Norvelt[2]
  • Guardian Children's Fiction Prize longlist, 2012, for Dead End in Norvelt[3]

Selected works

Hole in my Life (2002), a memoir

Picture books

Gantos is the author of dozens of published picture books including about twenty illustrated by Nicole Rubel. Rotten Ralph was the first published book for both creators and the first of about ten in the Rotten Ralph series as of 2012.[6]

Rotten Ralph series by Gantos and Rubel
  • Rotten Ralph (Houghton Mifflin, 1976, ISBN 978-0-395-24276-6) —introducing the "very, very, nasty cat"[8]
  • Three Strikes for Rotten Ralph (Farrar Strauss and Giroux, 2011, ISBN 978-0-374-36354-3) —the latest of about ten[6]

Novels

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References

  1. ^ a b "Welcome to the Newbery Medal Home Page!". Association for Library Service to Children. Retrieved 2012-01-26.
  2. ^ a b Roger Sutton (17 January 2012). "2012 Scott O'Dell Award for Historical Fiction". The Horn Book. Retrieved 2012-10-27.
  3. ^ a b "Discover the Guardian children's fiction prize 2012 longlist - gallery". theguardian 8 June 2012. Retrieved 2012-10-27.
  4. ^ a b "National Book Awards – 1998". National Book Foundation. Retrieved 2012-01-26.
  5. ^ "Hole in My Life." Macmillan. N.p., n.d. Web. 28 Nov. 2012.
  6. ^ a b c (Nicole Rubel search report). Library of Congress Online Catalog. Retrieved 2012-10-27. Select "Rubel, Nicole" and Sort by "Date (oldest to youngest)".
  7. ^ JRank Biography of Gantos
  8. ^ "Formats and Editions of Rotten Ralph". WorldCat. Retrieved 2012-10-27.

Sources

  • Contemporary Authors Online, Gale, 2006. Reproduced in Biography Resource Center. Farmington Hills, Mich.: Thomson Gale. 2006.
  • Gantos, Jack. Hole in My Life. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux (Books for Young Readers). 2002.

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