2012 Newbery Medal Winner
2012 Scott O'Dell Award Winner

A fictionalized autobiography in which the young Gantos, living in 1960s Norvelt, PA, is grounded for firing his Dad's Japanese rifle and ends up helping his elderly friend Miss Volker write obituaries of the town's original residents as they croak one by one.

I liked the dark humor in the book--how Miss Volker, having been charged by Eleanor Roosevelt herself to be the town's medical examiner, wants to outlive all the other original residents. She has an ulterior motive, but even that turns out to be funny and integral to the plot.

Another of Jack's friends was the daughter of the town funeral home director, so there is some good kid-style-humor about corpses and whatnot.

What I didn't like so much about the book was that many of the mini-history-lessons felt shoe-horned in and a little too preachy from a liberal perspective. It was a perspective that I happen to agree with for the most part, but I didn't need to be beaten with it.

Maybe it was done just to illustrate the connection the real-life town has with Eleanor Roosevelt and her progressive vision, but it came off in a pushy, didactic way sometimes.

All the nosebleeds were a little much for me, too. I got that it was part of Jack's character, but just the image of him spewing blood all the time... bleh. It was kind of cool, though, that I thought that was just something that happened in Japanese anime stories, but now I realize maybe it's a real issue.

I listened to the audiobook version of this read by the author, and he did a great job. Very expressive, and conveyed very well the sense of sardonic humor in his writing. ( )

Clever, funny, engaging. Strangely believable. ( )

An interesting newberry award winning book. While the older neighbor / kid friendship may be overdone, it’s still worth doing. At least the author gives a semi-plausible excuse for why a twelve year old would spend so much time with an elderly lady. Enjoyed the historical bits, but felt the murder plot wasn’t as strong as it could be ( )

YA book club read. Enjoyable. KIRKUS REVIEWAn 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 outÂ¥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.

Jack Gantos is the author of this book. "Jack Gantos" is also the name of the main character. Both the real Gantos and the fictional Gantos grew up in little town called Norvelt in the early 1960s. But did the real Gantos get nosebleeds whenever his emotions ran high? Was he really grounded for a whole summer for shooting his dad's Japanese rifle and mowing down his mom's corn field? Did he really type obituaries for the town's medical examiner because she had terrible arthritis? Was his best friend the daughter of the town undertaker? The answers to these questions are unknown to me, but I'll tell you one thing for certain: This book has some moments that are truly hysterical. Like, set the book down and catch your breath from laughing hysterical.

I was dismayed to hear from a school librarian that many of her students would check this book out and bring it back unfinished. And it's true that it gets a little slow in the middle. I wish that Gantos had brought in the mystery of all the old ladies dying earlier in the story. That's why I give this 4 stars instead of 5. It's truly got some 5-star laughs, but suffers a bit from under-editing. I personally really enjoyed all the history told by Miss Volker, but it slowed down the plot.

UPDATE: And now this has won the Newbery Medal! Hooray for funny man Jack Gantos. ( )