Dead End in Norvelt by Jack Gantos
Summary:
Melding the entirely true and the wildly fictional, Dead End in Norvelt is a novel about an incredible two months for a kid named Jack Gantos, whose plans for vacation excitement are shot down when he is “grounded for life” by his feuding parents, and whose nose spews bad blood at every little shock he gets. But plenty of excitement (and shocks) are coming Jack’s way once his mom loans him out to help a feisty old neighbor with a most unusual chore—typewriting obituaries filled with stories about the people who founded his utopian town. As one obituary leads to another, Jack is launched on a strange adventure involving molten wax, Eleanor Roosevelt, twisted promises, a homemade airplane, Girl Scout cookies, a man on a trike, a dancing plague, voices from the past, Hells Angels . . . and possibly murder.
Endlessly surprising, this sly, sharp-edged narrative is the author at his very best, making readers laugh out loud at the most unexpected things in a dead-funny depiction of growing up in a slightly off-kilter place where the past is present, the present is confusing, and the future is completely up in the air.
Review: I LOVED this book! It brought me back to a time when life was simpler and children made their own adventures instead of being entertained by computer and video games, when actually building an surplus airplane in the barn and flying it from a make shift runway that used to be the garden was possible. I loved the quirkiness of the town and the intimacy of the people in it. Jack Gantos' writing just sucked me into his world of the 1960's
Who to recommend it to... Although this book is listed for readers grades 5 - 9 according to Amazon.com, I'm not sure they would enjoy this as much as an adult would. This novel offers no epic battles, there's no scandalous romances, there's no fairies, vampires or werewolves, just imaginative fun and quirky characters. I would recommend it to people, children and adults, who enjoy books like Gary Paulsen's How Angel Peterson Got His Name.
Dead End in Norvelt is the winner of the 2012 Newbery Medal and the Scott O’Dell Award for Historical Fiction!
