Dead End in Norvelt | Shaw Island | TinyCat |

2024-04-19 3:41 am

Dead End in Norvelt

by Jack Gantos

Hardcover, 2011

Call number

JF GAN

Collection

Children's/YA Fiction

Genres

Children's Books

Series

Publication

Farrar, Straus and Giroux (BYR) (2011), Edition: 1, 352 pages

Description

In the historic town of Norvelt, Pennsylvania, twelve-year-old Jack Gantos spends the summer of 1962 grounded for various offenses until he is assigned to help an elderly neighbor with a most unusual chore involving the newly dead, molten wax, twisted promises, Girl Scout cookies, underage driving, lessons from history, typewriting, and countless bloody noses.

User reviews

LibraryThing member dablackwood

I really liked this book which is aimed at upper elementary and junior high students. Jack Gantos, the author, is also the main character and the story revolves around the summer he turns twelve in Norvelt, PA - an actual town named for Eleanor Roosevelt. Jack is basically grounded for the summer

and ends up spending a great deal of time with an elderly woman who has him type up the obituaries she dictates for the original Norvelters who die during the summer. This is a poignant, funny and very original book. While it is intended for young people, I really think it would appeal to older folks as well. There is a lot of history contained in the book and the story is a great one. Jack Gantos won the Newbery Award for this book.

LibraryThing member ChristianR

This is a great book of quirky characters and seemingly wild situations that Jack Gantos experienced one summer growing up (fictionalized in order to exaggerate or so he wouldn't need to remember perfectly?). The various characters are so well drawn that I really believe they were as described. The

best character is Miss Volker, the elderly neighbor who is determined to fulfill her promise to Eleanor Roosevelt to carefully document the deaths of the founding members of their town, Norvelt. She is feisty, demanding, opinionated, fearless, and doesn't let her almost useless arthritic hands stop her from doing anything. Jack himself is also great fun, as well as his parents and the other almost nutty residents of his town. It also gives quite a good history lesson about how many chores kids used to have to do on a regular basis, as well as how much freedom they had to roam (when they weren't grounded!) I hope kids, especially boys, find this book and enjoy it as much as adults surely will.

LibraryThing member book58lover

I picked up this book because of the connection to Eleanor Roosevelt, who I greatly admire, and the proximity of the community to my hometown. Jack Gantos and I grew up at the same time, in similar communities with similar concerns. But I didn't know anyone like Miss Volker who made Jack's summer

of house arrest a delight. I particularly liked reading her obituaries and wished in a perverse way that there were more of them. A lot is going on in this book with Jack's parents and his own life but our lives are messy and I consider this more of a fictional biography than just a story so I wasn't put off by that. It was a delightful book and I think young boys would appreciate the war talk while young girls might like the writing of the obits. I would target this book at the 10-12 age group.

LibraryThing member abbylibrarian

This autobiographical novel based on Jack Gantos's own childhood hits many of the marks of a great book and audiobook. Jack Gantos narrates his own story as only he can. The reading's a little weird and a little quirky, but if you've ever heard him speak, you know that's just how he is. Since the

story is somewhat based on his own childhood, it's very fitting that he narrates. I love the characters that Mr. Gantos creates here and I love that the town of Norvelt is almost another character in the story. The story has a lot of humor and I think it will appeal to guy readers. I'd hand it to fans of the Grandma Dowdel books by Richard Peck.

LibraryThing member bell7

Young Jack Gantos is growing up in the town of Norvelt, Pennsylvania, a town that was founded by Eleanor Roosevelt as a place where poor people could live with dignity and where folks could trade their services instead of depend on cash. Now, in the decade after World War 2, the Norvelt "originals"

are older and dying, and poor Jack is grounded because he let off his father's gun and caused a scare. Miss Volker, his older neighbor with arthritic hands, is Jack's "get out of jail free" card when she calls and needs his help writing obituaries.

This year's Newbery Award winner is the first book I've read by Jack Gantos, but now I want to go back and read his other books. His narrative follows a typical summer in that it's more episodic a traditional plot line, though Norvelt has its share of quirky, original characters and more than a few of the events are unbelievable. Jack's parents are great, and their interactions ring true, how they disagree fundamentally about some things, but also love each other as much as they drive each other nuts. I was regularly chuckling or even laughing out loud at some of the events (some of the obits in particular stand out memorably). This story was a lot of fun to read, and I'll certainly be recommending it to kids at the library.

LibraryThing member Daniel.Estes

The book is written for children, perhaps ages 10-12, so I'll try to keep that in mind for the review. However, I hear it's also a Newbery Medal winner so maybe it deserves a little bit of criticism.

The writing style is excellent though the story itself has a few problems. Author Jack Gantos has a

flair for expressing silly and absurd moments, but that didn't do much to help me like the characters. The main character, eleven-year-old Jack, is the most honest and endearing, but he spends the whole book getting yelled at or scolded. His mother, his elderly neighbor, Mrs. Volker, and his girlfriend all use him as a verbal punching bag.

LibraryThing member ejmeloche

Jack's summer is filled with problems; his nose bleeds uncontrollably whenever he's startled or scared, he's stuck in the middle of his parents fighting, and he's grounded for the entire summer, meaning he can only leave home to help the weird Mrs. Volker write obituaries.

Gantos does an excellent

job drawing readers into the world of small-town Norvelt, causing his readers to care about the senior residents of the town and their history, as Jack learns to care as well. Jack and his problems are utterly relatable-- grounding, fighting parents, boredom-- but the unusual things that happen keep the book funny and exciting. History is naturally woven into the plot, and readers will learn without feeling lectured. Though the book could have benefited from a page or two at the end discussing the aspects that were true, particularly because the main character shares the same first and last name as the author, Dead End in Norvelt is still a winner.

Recommended for all libraries serving elementary and middle school audiences.

LibraryThing member KimReadingLog

It’s the summer of 1962, and the city of Norvelt is dying, right along with its original residents. Jack Gantos, the fictional protagonist, has a knack for getting into trouble. First, he accidentally shoots a bullet from his dad’s Japanese sniper rifle, which lands him in big trouble with Dad.

Then, Dad asks Jack to mow down his mother’s corn crop in the back yard to clear space for an airplane runway (he’s putting together his very own J-3), which lands him in big trouble with Mom. Combined, this means being grounded for the entire summer…unless it’s to go help his elderly, arthritic neighbor, Miss Volker, type up the Norvelt obituaries, which are coming fast and furious. Quirky, humorous, and sometimes gritty, author Jack Gantos infuses real bits of history about everything from Spanish conquistadors, the city of Norvelt, and its very real founder, Eleanor Roosevelt, into the bizarre lives and deaths of Norvelters. Gantos was born and raised in Norvelt, Pennsylvania, and gives readers a historical glimpse into small town America.

LibraryThing member sleahey

Gantos combines his humor and lovely writing to give us a somewhat autobiographical story of growing up in the early 60's. While much of the plot seems implausible, and the ending is kind of unresolved, the message about the importance of learning from history on a personal level is appealing, and

believable from the pre-teen narrator. Unlike many authors, Gantos does a terrific job of reading his own book for the audio edition.

LibraryThing member swimcoachjill

This partly autobiographical story is about middle schooler Jack who suffers from constant nose bleeds. He disobeys his mother and is grounded for the entire summer. His only escape is when he helps an elderly neighbor write obituaries about original Norvelt residents.

LibraryThing member amybrojo

This was a very good children's book. I love stories about small towns and the people in them; this was even better because of the history of the town. Norvelt, PA was established during the depression as a collective for struggling families. The setting is real, and this story takes place as the

town is losing steam and the original Norvelt residents are dying off. The main character is a likable kid who makes mistakes but learns from history. I liked it.

LibraryThing member Sarahfine

Gantos book is a very entertaining read, with the exception of the frenzied final chapters, which start to exhibit a forced wackiness. Jack Gantos (actually the character's name) is growing up in Norvelt, which is a Cold War era town (founded by Eleanor Roosevelt) with a dying senior population.

When he is grounded for the entire summer, Jack starts to relish the limited interaction he is allowed with Miss Volker, the town coroner/obituary-writer. Their relationship is a sweet one, as is Jack's occasionally strained but usually affectionate bond with his parents. Jack is a slightly nerdy, timid boy, and his adventures are a pleasure to follow. The ending, however, seems to chase after several different genres, and feels false. Overall, a great, historically-passionate book.

LibraryThing member ethel55

One of the reviews on the back of the edition I have calls this a "gothic comedy". I would have to agree that it's a good assessment. Young Jack Gantos has quite a summer of '62 waiting for him. Plagued with nosebleeds, grounded for the whole summer after a misunderstanding with a Japanese firearm,

Jack is only free from his chore of digging at home to assist an elderly neighbor, Miss Volker. Norvelt is a dying town, built up after the Depression to help displaced people get back on their feet, the original Norvelters are dying off and Miss Volker is in charge of the obits. There is a lot of history in the book, both of the town and the world, as Miss Volker and Jack (through his Landmark series of books) tell us many of them via the book. I was glad to read this Newbery winner, but would love to know what someone more of the target age thinks about it.

LibraryThing member laruby

Written with large doses of humor, this book chronicles the summer of an adolescent boy who gets himself grounded the first week of summer- for the entire summer. In spite of his misfortune, Jack finds himself entangled in hilarious misadventures with several senior citizens in his community. While

battling chronic nosebleeds, Jack finds himself involved in and helping to solve a rather sinister mystery.

LibraryThing member cay250

Dead End in Norvelt is Jack Gantos' chronicle of an exciting summer filled with death, blood, and emotional growth.

12 year old Jack spends his summer working with an arthritic neighbor, Miss Volker. He writes a series of impassioned obituaries dictated to him by Miss Volker for the local paper. An

alarming number of Norvelt original homeowners are dying in quick secession. What starts out of an quirky summer turns into a murder mystery.

There are very funny sections of this book and I enjoyed it overall. The depiction on his relationship with his parents and the parents relationship with each other rings true to me. I also like the historical nagets built into the story.

Is it worthy of a Newbery Medal, maybe!

LibraryThing member debnance

There are authors you suspect must be dead. Face it, when you haven’t heard anything from an author in years, you think they must have passed on and perhaps you just missed seeing the obit.

I thought Jack Gantos was dead. Well, I thought he was dead until I saw him at last fall’s Texas Book

Festival, alive, amazingly, with Elvis Costello glasses and shirt and pants, like was an image straight from the Kennedy sixties. Oddly, he wasn’t a geezer, either, just a older fellow, very close to my own age.

He’d just come out with a new Rotten Ralph book and I thought that was it. Then I heard a fan congratulate him on his new YA novel, raving about it in the way that readers often do when confronted with a book author, so I wasn’t terribly sure whether the new book was really worth seeking out. After all, I’d never even checked out any of the Joey Pigza books; I really think I’d forgotten Jack Gantos was even connected with them.

And then Dead End in Norvelt wins the Newbery this week. Then it’s a done deal; I read every Newbery.

It came in for me at the library yesterday and I immediately started to read.

What a yummy book. Hilariously funny in a Richard Peck-ish, A Christmas Story-ish kind of way. You’ve got your main character, a boy Jack Gantos imaginatively names Jack Gantos, living in a town named Norvelt, the town Gantos actually grew up in, in the early sixties, who manages to shoot off a Japanese rifle from WWII and get himself grounded for the entire summer. His parents only give him dispensation to help out an arthritic old lady with her obituary writing for the paper. But this kid somehow, during the course of this summer, meets up with the Hells Angels, a funeral home, murders, digs a bomb shelter, drops water balloons from a vintage plane, gets his blood-dripping nose cauterized, and writes the most incredibly interesting obituaries I’ve ever seen.

Crazy-funny.

LibraryThing member candaceZ

Summary: The book was about the adventures of a boy named Jack Gantos, grounded "for life" by his parents and prone to the most gushing nosebleeds. Jack then goes on to learn the stories about his hometown, Norvelt, a planned community in Pennsylvania founded during the Great Depression.

Personal:

Me and my son enjoyed reading this book together. My son is 12 and it caught his interest so I would say its for his age group. We thought it was neat that the author and the boy in the book shared the same name. I also like that it showed people helping each other out and standing togeather to make it through the hard times. The illistration for the book were fabulous. The pictures made you feel like you were going on the adventure with him.

Extension Idea: I would suggest this book for middle school aged children.

LibraryThing member NanceeL

Great read for a Newbery winner 2012.

LibraryThing member lindamamak

Laughed out loud in so many places. Haven't read a funny book in a long time. The best part is that most of the book is about the author's life. Recomment for all.

LibraryThing member edspicer

Gantos, J. (2011). Dead end in Norvelt. New York: Farrar Straus Giroux. 341 pp. ISBN: 978-0-374-37993-3. (Hardcover); $15.99.

Jack Gantos writes some of the strangest fiction for children/teen readers that one could hope to find. From his Rotten Ralph books, through the Joey Pigza books, to the

exceedingly bizarre Love Curse for the Rumbaughs, Gantos provides readers with a world most of us cannot imagine. Authors are often asked about inspiration and the most common answer is one that involves mining the details of everyday life to flesh out stories. Jack Gantos has lived a very unusual life (and this is putting it mildly). Dead End in Norvelt uses this very real town in Pennsylvania to tell a story based on real events in Gantos’ life. Using his own very real nosebleeds and a fictional version of his very real self, Jack tells a tall tale of his life. Grounded for life (the summer), Jack must assist Mrs. Volker with collecting facts for her obituaries. She is also the town’s medical examiner, which provides her with the expertize, in her mind, to cauterize the veins inside Jack’s nose—once she bakes her poorly functioning, arthritic hands with hot wax to get them working! With each death, a part of the dwindling town drifts away and readers discern that Norvelt is destined for extinction. Mrs. Volker has made a promise to Mrs. Roosevelt that she will take care of the original town members and she is determined to record their stories, which she hopes will save the town. But someone is buying up the houses and moving them to West Virginia. While the mystery is not that mysterious and the plot is not that plot-driven, what elevates this book (or makes it something totally disgusting, depending on your view of humor) is Jack’s amazingly creative and bizarre sense of humor. As an aside that is totally unrelated to this book, which I know Jack would appreciate, I often find myself wondering what would happen if Jack Gantos and Polly Horvath (The Canning Season) had children? Careful readers will discover that among this motley collection of odd and disturbing images, is a very real appreciation for the value of history and the need to preserve family stories and learn from them. Give this book to middle school and high school students who seek the random, appreciate the weird, and believe that odd juxtapositions require laughter.

LibraryThing member nbmars

This is supposed to be a middle grade novel, but I enjoyed it immensely myself. It provides a look back on the early Sixties from a young boy's point of view, and I didn’t feel it was too simplistic for an adult in the least. I listened in the car (the author reads it himself) and often found

myself laughing out loud and repeating anecdotes later to my husband as if it were about a boy we both knew.

The book is touted as semi-autobiographical, sharing with us one memorable summer in 1962 for 11 year-old Jack Gantos, who was grounded for almost the entire period. The only time he was allowed out was to help an elderly neighbor, Mrs. Volker, who composed the local obituaries. As it turned out, Jack got out quite a bit, since all the old ladies in town were dying mysteriously.

Mrs. Volker likes to combine her obituaries with history lessons, so we learn a lot about “this day in history” along with Jack, and how the lessons of the past apply to the present. We also learn about the irony of Jack's particular situation in Norvelt, Pennsylvania, where people were caught up in taking advantage of the opportunities of capitalism even while constantly reviling the threat of the “Commies.” The funny part was that Norvelt (named for EleaNOR RooseVELT) is a real town that was created during the depression by the US government as a model "socialist" community, intended to increase the standard of living of laid-off coal miners.

It is hard not to get caught up in Jack’s enthusiasm as he gets excited over all that he is learning, and when he begins an amateur sleuthing effort to solve the mystery of the rash of deaths in the town. By the end of the summer, he has learned some great lessons about life, and won our hearts as well.

Evaluation: This is a joyous book that will appeal to kids of all ages, including the adult kind.

LibraryThing member elebris

Finally a really great Newbery! I might have my faith in the award renewed based on this winner!

LibraryThing member RefPenny

It is summer holidays but Jack is grounded. His father has bought a plane and needs Jack to help make the runway and dig a bomb shelter. His only escape is when Miss Volker, a neighbouring old lady needs his help – typewriting obituaries and driving her to inspect the corpses.
This book is a

quirky look at life in an oddball, small American town in the 1960’s that would appeal to thoughtful readers aged 11 and up.

LibraryThing member asomers

While I liked some of the quirky characters in this story, I did not think it was Newbery material and in my mind it certainly wasn't better than Okay For Now by Gary Schmidt, which I thought should have won the award. The relationships between Jack and his parents are never fully developed. His

parent's relationship is never fully fleshed out. Women are being murdered all over town and in the final "Who dunnit" moment, the reader is not inclined to drop his jaw as much as yawn.Over all it was very unsatisfying.

LibraryThing member WilliamDabbs

In the historic town of Norvelt, Pennsylvania, twelve-year-old Jack Gantos spends the summer of 1962 grounded for various offenses until he is assigned to help an elderly neighbor with a most unusual chore involving the newly dead, molten wax, twisted promises, Girl Scout cookies, underage driving,

lessons from history, typewriting, and countless bloody noses.
Jack Gantos, Mom, Dad, Miss Volker,Mr. Spizz, Mr. Greene, Bunny Huffer, Mr. Huffer.
Don't like is subtitute obsenity "Cheese-Us-Crust." maybe 10 times in book.

Awards

A Horn Book Fanfare Best Book (Fiction — 2011)

Wyoming Indian Paintbrush Award (Nominee — 2013)

Sequoyah Book Award (Nominee — Intermediate — 2014)

Pennsylvania Young Reader's Choice Award (Nominee — Grades 6-8 — 2014)

William Allen White Children's Book Award (Nominee — Grades 6-8 — 2013-2014)

Newbery Medal (Medal Winner — 2012)

Guardian Children's Fiction Prize (Shortlist — 2012)

Oregon Reader's Choice Award (Nominee — 2014)

Scott O'Dell Award (2012)

Volunteer State Book Award (Nominee — Middle School — 2014)

Massachusetts Book Award (Must-Read (Longlist) — 2012)

The White Ravens (2012)

Best Fiction for Young Adults (Selection — 2012)

The Best Children's Books of the Year (2012)

Capitol Choices Noteworthy Book for Children and Teens (2012)

Books From All 50 States (and Washington, D.C.!) (Pennsylvania)

Notable Children's Book (2012)

NCTE/CLA Notable Children's Book in the English Language Arts (2012)

OYAN Book Rave (2012)

Chicago Public Library Best of the Best: Kids (Fiction for Older Readers — 2011)

Pages

352

ISBN

0374379939 / 9780374379933

More

Amazon.comLibraryThingMARC view

Page: 2.5046 seconds