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Rotten Ralph
Worse Than Rotten, Ralph
Rotten Ralph makes an earnest attempt at good behavior but is enticed, not too reluctantly, into a series of misadventures by some ruffian alley cats.
32 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1978
32 people want to read
About the author
Jack Gantos
84 books551 followersJack 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.
www.jackgantos.com
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.
www.jackgantos.com
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
February 19, 2023
Rotten Ralph returns in this follow-up to his debut, the eponymous
Rotten Ralph
, now a reformed feline. Or is he? When his human girl Sarah goes out to run some errands, she tells Ralph to be good, an order he reluctantly obeys, until some rough alley cats happen by and taunt him as "soft." All bets are off, as Ralph proceeds to show those cats who the real rotten one is. But what will Sarah say when she returns home...?
We owned a copy of Rotten Ralph when I was a girl, and I read and reread it many times, amused by its tale of a thoroughly rotten cat, whose only real redeeming quality was his love for his little girl. I don't think I ever picked up this sequel, first published in 1978, but I am glad that I now have, as it features the same amusingly and unrepentantly bad kitty, one who enjoys his (mis)adventures, but also the love of his human girl. The artwork from Nicole Rubel has that same trippy 70s feeling as the original, and while not exactly to my taste, aesthetically speaking, has a nostalgic appeal for me, given me fondness for the first book about these characters.
Recommended to fans of Rotten Ralph and his other adventures, as well as to picture-book readers who like to read humorous, less-than-sweet stories.
We owned a copy of Rotten Ralph when I was a girl, and I read and reread it many times, amused by its tale of a thoroughly rotten cat, whose only real redeeming quality was his love for his little girl. I don't think I ever picked up this sequel, first published in 1978, but I am glad that I now have, as it features the same amusingly and unrepentantly bad kitty, one who enjoys his (mis)adventures, but also the love of his human girl. The artwork from Nicole Rubel has that same trippy 70s feeling as the original, and while not exactly to my taste, aesthetically speaking, has a nostalgic appeal for me, given me fondness for the first book about these characters.
Recommended to fans of Rotten Ralph and his other adventures, as well as to picture-book readers who like to read humorous, less-than-sweet stories.
October 5, 2020
Great book pictures were amazing
March 11, 2010
Again, this text is one that was produced toward the beginning of the partnership between Gantos and Rubel. As such, the drawings are not as sophisticated. Because I am an artist myself, I notice the imperfections. In Worse than Rotten, Ralph, Sarah leaves for the day and Ralph tries desperately to behave himself. But when the alley cats call him a softy, he needs to prove them wrong. He knocks over garbage cans, steals hats off of people in the park by dangling from a tree, scares domestic cats, tries on costumes at Frankenstein's Costume Shop, runs through Pierre's Poodle Parlor, throws pies around a bakery, breaks Sarah's bed, paints the walls and furniture in a mix of awful colors, and bangs on pots and pans. When Sarah comes back home, she sees the alley cats banging on pots and tells them to leave Ralph alone. After they have gone, she says, "You poor thing. You must have been so frightened [...:] It wasn't very nice of those horrible alley cats to lead you astray and make you do so many rotten things." Little does Sarah know, Ralph was the ringleader.
March 16, 2011
Another classic by the man Jack Gantos. I laughed a lot from the funny pictures and the halarious plot. In this series Rotten Ralph is visited by an alley cat and the alley cat took Ralph to meet his gang of friends. What Ralph and his new alley cat crew do in the city is halarious! They tried on every costume in Frankenstein's Costume Shop. Then they ran out all the poodles from a beauty parlor. Next they had a pie fight hitting each other in the face with pies at a bakery. Finally they drew the last straw by splatter painting the inside of Sarah's house with multiple colors and Sarah chased the cats out with a broom. Once again Ralph is off the hook with the ever forgiving Sarah, because of how much she loves her rotten Ralph.
January 7, 2012
Ralph proves to the alley cats that he isn't a softy. It does cause a great mess, but Sarah loves him still.
July 5, 2014
This was cute. I probably identified too much with Rotten Ralph. :D
July 9, 2014
Ralph struggles to be a good cat, but his alley cat acquaintances pull him back into the bad life.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews