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Jack Gantos

Goodreads Author

Born

Mount Pleasant, Pennsylvania, The United States

Website

https://www.jackgantos.com/

Genre

Books For Young Readers, Fiction, Memoir

Influences

Every library I've entered. Every book I've read. Every person I've me ...more

Member Since

September 2015

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Jack Gantos is an American author of children's books renowned for his portrayal of fictional Joey Pigza, a boy with ADHD, and many other well known characters such as Rotten Ralph, Jack Henry, Jack Gantos (memoirs) and others. Gantos has won a number of awards, including the Newbery, the Newbery Honor, the Scott O'Dell Award, the Printz Honor, and the Sibert Honor from the American Library Association, and he has been a finalist for the National Book Award.

Gantos was born in Mount Pleasant, Pennsylvania to son of construction superintendent John Gantos and banker Elizabeth (Weaver) Gantos. The seeds for Jack Gantos' writing career were planted in sixth grade, when he read his sister's diary and decided he could write better than she could. Jack Gantos is an American author of children's books renowned for his portrayal of fictional Joey Pigza, a boy with ADHD, and many other well known characters such as Rotten Ralph, Jack Henry, Jack Gantos (memoirs) and others. Gantos has won a number of awards, including the Newbery, the Newbery Honor, the Scott O'Dell Award, the Printz Honor, and the Sibert Honor from the American Library Association, and he has been a finalist for the National Book Award.

Gantos was born in Mount Pleasant, Pennsylvania to son of construction superintendent John Gantos and banker Elizabeth (Weaver) Gantos. The seeds for Jack Gantos' writing career were planted in sixth grade, when he read his sister's diary and decided he could write better than she could. Born in Mount Pleasant, Pennsylvania, and raised in Barbados and South Florida, Mr. Gantos began collecting anecdotes in grade school and later gathered them into stories.

After his senior year in high school (where he lived in a welfare motel) he moved to a Caribbean island (St Croix) and began to train as a builder. He soon realized that construction was not his forté and started saving for college. While in St. Croix he met a drug smuggler and was offered a chance to make 10 000 dollars by sailing to New York with 2,000 pounds of hash. With an English eccentric captain on board they set off to the big city. Once there they hung out at the Chelsea hotel and Gantos carried on dreaming about college. Then, in Jacks own words, "The **** hit the fan" and the F.B.I. burst in on him. He managed to escape and hid out in the very same welfare motel he was living during high school. However, he saw sense and turned himself in. He was sentenced to six years in prison, which he describes in his novel -HOLE IN MY LIFE-. However, after a year and a half in prison he applied to college, was accepted. He was released from prison, entered college, and soon began his writing career.

He received his BFA and his MA both from Emerson College. While in college, Jack began working on picture books with an illustrator friend. In 1976, they published their first book, Rotten Ralph. Mr. Gantos continued writing children's books and began teaching courses in children's book writing. He developed the master's degree program in children's book writing at Emerson College in Boston. In 1995 he resigned his tenured position in order to further his writing career (which turned out to be a great decision).

He married art dealer Anne A. Lower on November 11, 1989. The couple has one child, Mabel, and they live in Boston, Massachusetts.

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Jack Gantos’s books

Average rating: 3.74 · 63,326 ratings · 8,628 reviews · 70 distinct works • Similar authors

	Dead End in Norvelt (Norvelt, #1) 3.72 avg rating — 21,798 ratings — published 2011 — 31 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Joey Pigza Swallowed the Key (Joey Pigza, #1) 3.76 avg rating — 16,907 ratings — published 1998 — 53 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Hole in My Life 3.76 avg rating — 7,926 ratings — published 2002 — 33 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Joey Pigza Loses Control (Joey Pigza, #2) 3.82 avg rating — 5,116 ratings — published 2000 — 53 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	From Norvelt to Nowhere (Norvelt, #2) 3.62 avg rating — 1,890 ratings — published 2013	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	What Would Joey Do? (Joey Pigza, #3) 3.95 avg rating — 1,148 ratings — published 2002 — 40 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	I Am Not Joey Pigza (Joey Pigza, #4) 3.76 avg rating — 884 ratings — published 2007 — 24 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Love Curse of the Rumbaughs 3.24 avg rating — 939 ratings — published 2006 — 18 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Trouble in Me 3.32 avg rating — 666 ratings — published 2015 — 10 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Key That Swallowed Joey Pigza (Joey Pigza, #5) 3.71 avg rating — 559 ratings — published 2014 — 13 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

More books by Jack Gantos…

Series by Jack Gantos

Joey Pigza (8 books)
by

Jack Gantos (Goodreads Author)

3.78 avg rating — 25,058 ratings

Norvelt (2 books)
by

Jack Gantos (Goodreads Author)

3.72 avg rating — 23,688 ratings

Rotten Ralph (20 books)
by

Jack Gantos (Goodreads Author),

Nicole Rubel (Goodreads Author) (Illustrator)

3.64 avg rating — 1,724 ratings

Jack Henry (5 books)
by

Jack Gantos (Goodreads Author)

3.76 avg rating — 771 ratings

Hidden Files of Joey Pigza (3 books)
by

Jack Gantos (Goodreads Author)

3.80 avg rating — 445 ratings

More series by Jack Gantos…

Quotes by Jack Gantos (?)

“Someone once said anyone can be great under rosy circumstances, but the true test of character is measured by how well a person makes decisions during difficult times.”
― Jack Gantos, Hole in My Life

tags: decisions, life

50 likes

“Since I was trying so hard to make books lead my life, I didn’t want to read them and then just put them back on the shelf and say, “good book,” as if I was patting a good dog. I wanted books to change me, and I wanted to write books that would change others.”
― Jack Gantos, Hole in My Life

tags: books-reading, inspirational, writing-books

33 likes

“Do you think I'm weird because I'm wired, or wired because I'm wierd?”
― Jack Gantos, What Would Joey Do?

tags: adhd

24 likes

See all Jack Gantos's quotes »

Polls

What book would you choose for our Mock Newbery winner?

Be sure to write in your honor choices in the comments below.

Okay for Now by Gary D. Schmidt

29 votes 37.7%

A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness

14 votes 18.2%

Amelia Lost: The Life and Disappearance of Amelia Earhart by Candace Fleming

7 votes 9.1%

Breadcrumbs by Anne Ursu

6 votes 7.8%

Words in the Dust by Trent Reedy

6 votes 7.8%

The Trouble with May Amelia by Jennifer L. Holm

4 votes 5.2%

Inside Out and Back Again by Thanhha Lai

3 votes 3.9%

True... Sort of by Katherine Hannigan

3 votes 3.9%

Liesl and Po by Lauren Oliver

2 votes 2.6%

Hound Dog True by Linda Urban

2 votes 2.6%

Dead End in Norvelt by Jack Gantos

1 vote 1.3%

77 total votes

26 comments

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