Dead End in Norvelt

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More About This Book

Overview

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 fiesty 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 launced 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.

Dead End in Norvelt is a Publishers Weekly Best Children's Fiction title for 2011 and one of Horn Book’s Best Fiction Books of 2011.

Winner of the 2012 Newbery Medal
Winner of the 2012 Scott O'Dell Award for Historical Fiction

  • Dead End in Norvelt
    Dead End in Norvelt

Editorial Reviews

Publishers Weekly
A bit of autobiography works its way into all of Gantos's work, but he one-ups himself in this wildly entertaining meld of truth and fiction by naming the main character... Jackie Gantos. Like the author, Jackie lives for a time in Norvelt, a real Pennsylvania town created during the Great Depression and based on the socialist idea of community farming. Presumably (hopefully?) the truth mostly ends there, because Jackie's summer of 1962 begins badly: plagued by frequent and explosive nosebleeds, Jackie is assigned to take dictation for the arthritic obituary writer, Miss Volker, and kept alarmingly busy by elderly residents dying in rapid succession. Then the Hells Angels roll in. Gore is a Gantos hallmark but the squeamish are forewarned that Jackie spends much of the book with blood pouring down his face and has a run-in with home cauterization. Gradually, Jackie learns to face death and his fears straight on while absorbing Miss Volker's theories about the importance of knowing history. "The reason you remind yourself of the stupid stuff you've done in the past is so you don't do it again." Memorable in every way. Ages 10–14. (Sept.)
Children's Literature
School is out and Jack Gantos is planning to have an adventurous summer. It takes him about two days into his summer vacation to get grounded by his mother for the entire summer. Locked in his room, he escapes by reading books. Norvelt is a small town and as luck would have it his elderly neighbor, Ms. Volker, needs his help and is his only escape. Ms. Volker has some strange habits and an even stranger occupation, but Jack likes assisting her and when he does he gets to see his best friend Bunny. Bunny is Norvelt's mortician daughter, and funeral parlor owner, and Ms. Volker is the medical examiner, so Jack finds himself in the company of the newly dead. It doesn't bother his friend Bunny at all, but it tends to make Jake's noise bleed, like almost anything else. His nose bleeding, getting grounded for the summer, his weird best friend, Ms. Volker, his creatively feuding parents, and the soon-to-be, and newly dead provide Jack with a summer with more adventure and fun than he planned for. This is another funny, mysterious and entertaining novel by author Jack Gantos, which will have readers laughing all the way through. Reviewer: Laura J. Brown
More Reviews (3) Fewer Reviews
School Library Journal
Gr 5–8—In 1962, Jack accidentally discharges his father's war relic, a Japanese rifle, and is grounded for the summer. When a neighbor's arthritic hands get the best of her, his mother lifts the restriction and volunteers the 12-year-old to be the woman's scribe, writing obituaries for the local newspaper. Business is brisk for Miss Volker, who doubles as town coroner, and Norvelt's elderly females seem to be dropping like flies. Prone to nosebleeds at the least bit of excitement (until Miss Volker cauterizes his nose with old veterinarian equipment), Jack is a hapless and endearing narrator. It is a madcap romp, with the boy at the wheel of Miss Volker's car as they try to figure out if a Hell's Angel motorcyclist has put a curse on the town, or who might have laced Mertie-Jo's Girl Scout cookies with rat poison. The gutsy Miss Volker and her relentless but rebuffed suitor, Mr. Spizz, are comedic characters central to the zany, episodic plot, which contains unsubtle descriptions of mortuary science. Each quirky obituary is infused with a bit of Norvelt's history, providing insightful postwar facts focusing on Eleanor Roosevelt's role in founding the town on principles of sustainable farming and land ownership for the poor. Jack's absorption with history of any kind makes for refreshing asides about John F. Kennedy's rescue of PT-109 during World War II, King Richard II, Francisco Pizarro's conquest of Peru, and more. A fast-paced and witty read.—Vicki Reutter, Cazenovia High School, NY
Kirkus Reviews

An exhilarating summer marked by death, gore and fire sparks deep thoughts in a small-town lad not uncoincidentally named "Jack Gantos."

The gore is all Jack's, which to his continuing embarrassment "would spray out of my nose holes like dragon flames" whenever anything exciting or upsetting happens. And that would be on every other page, seemingly, as even though Jack's feuding parents unite to ground him for the summer after several mishaps, he does get out. He mixes with the undertaker's daughter, a band of Hell's Angels out to exact fiery revenge for a member flattened in town by a truck and, especially, with arthritic neighbor Miss Volker, for whom he furnishes the "hired hands" that transcribe what becomes a series of impassioned obituaries for the local paper as elderly town residents suddenly begin passing on in rapid succession. Eventually the unusual body count draws the—justified, as it turns out—attention of the police. Ultimately, the obits and the many Landmark Books that Jack reads (this is 1962) in his hours of confinement all combine in his head to broaden his perspective about both history in general and the slow decline his own town is experiencing.

Characteristically provocative gothic comedy, with sublime undertones.(Autobiographical fiction. 11-13)

Mary Quattlebaum
…wonderfully wacky…The darkly comic mystery and oddball characters make for some good laughs, but the riffs on history raise the consciousness as well…
—The Washington Post

Product Details

  • ISBN-13: 9780374379933
  • Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
  • Publication date: 9/13/2011
  • Edition description: First Edition
  • Edition number: 1
  • Pages: 352
  • Sales rank: 91
  • Age range: 10 - 14 Years
  • Lexile: 920L (what's this?)
  • Product dimensions: 5.90 (w) x 8.30 (h) x 1.20 (d)

Meet the Author

Jack Gantos has written books for people of all ages, from picture books and middle-grade fiction to novels for young adults and adults. His works include Hole in My Life, a memoir that won the Michael L. Printz and Robert F. Sibert Honors, Joey Pigza Swallowed the Key, a National Book Award Finalist, and Joey Pigza Loses Control, a Newbery Honor book.

 

Jack was born in Mount Pleasant, Pennsylvania, and grew up in nearby Norvelt. When he was seven, his family moved to Barbados. He attended British schools, where there was much emphasis on reading and writing, and teachers made learning a lot of fun. When the family moved to south Florida, he found his new classmates uninterested in their studies, and his teachers spent most of their time disciplining students. Jack retreated to an abandoned bookmobile (three flat tires and empty of books) parked out behind the sandy ball field, and read for most of the day. The seeds for Jack’s writing career were planted in sixth grade, when he read his sister’s diary and decided he could write better than she could. He begged his mother for a diary and began to collect anecdotes he overheard at school, mostly from standing outside the teachers’ lounge and listening to their lunchtime conversations. Later, he incorporated many of these anecdotes into stories.

 

While in college, he and an illustrator friend, Nicole Rubel, began working on picture books. After a series of well-deserved rejections, they published their first book, Rotten Ralph, in 1976. It was a success and the beginning of Jack’s career as a professional writer. Jack continued to write children’s books and began to teach courses in children’s book writing and children’s literature. He developed the master’s degree program in children’s book writing at Emerson College and the Vermont College M.F.A. program for children’s book writers. He now devotes his time to writing books and educational speaking. He lives with his family in Boston, Massachusetts.

Customer Reviews
Average Rating 4
( 9 )

Rating Distribution

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  • Anonymous

    Posted February 9, 2012

    Best Book EVA!

    Hi im 11 and i was looking for a fun, humorous book. This is just what i was looking for! This book was recommended by tons of my friends and teachers and i want to spread the word!!!!!! I recommend this book to everyone no matter what age!!!

    2 out of 2 people found this review helpful.

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  • Posted October 7, 2011

    I LOVED THIS BOOK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

    I live near Norvelt, and my mom has told me all about the Eleanor Roosevelt story! Everything I know ties into this book! I would HIGHLY reccomend this book! I couldn't put it down! :)

    2 out of 3 people found this review helpful.

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  • Posted September 23, 2011

    more from this reviewer

    Quirky, Odd, and Fun

    The weird just got weirder. The quirkiness and oddities of the town Jack is living in makes for some fun bits and pieces. Not one of the characters is dull or mundane, everyone is eccentric and interesting. At times I felt that his parents were horrible people for the way they let their son get into trouble when it was their fault and not his own - that was really bothersome that it never changed. The plot was where the problem was with this story. Because everything is about the oddity of the town and the people living in it, the plot.which I didn't even really realize was there till the end.was buried underneath everything else. The story moves around without much rhyme or reason and the characters do not show any growth or change or any intentions of doing anything differently. While it had fun parts to read, there was nothing to walk away from this book with.

    Reviewed by Jessica for Book Sake.

    2 out of 2 people found this review helpful.

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  • Anonymous

    Posted February 7, 2012

    Norvelt

    I finished it, but can not believe it was a Newberry winner. Too political and easily predictable!

    1 out of 2 people found this review helpful.

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  • Anonymous

    Posted January 29, 2012

    Newbery Award Winner

    Come on. It won the Newbery Award.

    1 out of 2 people found this review helpful.

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  • Anonymous

    Posted February 21, 2012

    Good bock

    Xmzmekwcmwe

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  • Anonymous

    Posted September 17, 2011

    No text was provided for this review.

  • Anonymous

    Posted January 31, 2012

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  • Anonymous

    Posted September 13, 2011

    No text was provided for this review.

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