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It's Never too Early to Start...
By Kristen · 214 posts · 780 views
By Kristen · 214 posts · 780 views
last updated Jan 02, 2014 08:10AM
What Members Thought
This is another one that is simply Not My Thing. And I feel like it's a decent enough book if it IS your thing, but it's not mine. Plot: kid in a small town populated by quirky people in, um, late 1950s? early 1960s? is grounded for the summer and his main opportunity to leave his house is when he assists an elderly neighbor with writing obituaries for other elderly townsfolk.
Never, in my life, have I been able to "get" this kind of exaggeration for comic effect. It has that American Tall Tales ...more
Never, in my life, have I been able to "get" this kind of exaggeration for comic effect. It has that American Tall Tales ...more
I waited anxiously for the ASLA to announce the awards in January and was surprised that
won. It seemed to sneak in from nowhere, possibly due to it being published later in the year. After picking it up from the library I excitedly started reading right away. Since I view the Newbery Award as being the best and most elite children's book of the year, I have to disagree with the ASLA on this choice.
* * spoiler alert* *
This book just really left a bad impression on me. While I loved the sma ...more
won. It seemed to sneak in from nowhere, possibly due to it being published later in the year. After picking it up from the library I excitedly started reading right away. Since I view the Newbery Award as being the best and most elite children's book of the year, I have to disagree with the ASLA on this choice. * * spoiler alert* *
This book just really left a bad impression on me. While I loved the sma ...more
Poor Jack Gantos. Only out of school for the summer for a few days and he gets grounded for shooting a loaded rifle (which he didn't know was loaded) and mowing down his mothers field of corn (on the orders of his father). He is destined to spend the summer stuck inside reading history books and missing out on baseball and other summertime hi-jinks. He gets a pass, though, when his elderly and arthritic neighbor, Mrs. Volker, asks for his help typing up obituaries for the local paper. What at fi
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I just finished Dead end in Norvelt and I really liked it. The characters were so interesting. I loved the connections between the kids and the older adults of the community. I really liked the historical connections even to the setting. I loved the way the author had the main character reading about history during his confinement which added a great historical piece to the story and I could really see some of the middle grade boys really getting into this particularly if you tell them the real
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In Dead End in Norvelt, Jack Gantos has written a richly detailed and infinitely quirky coming-of-age memoir about the summer of 1962, which he spent grounded. What I appreciate most about this book is, despite the fictionalized elements Gantos admits to up front, it's the real deal: a finely-crafted piece of writing. A piece of writing worth studying for structure, character development, beautifully concise snapshot scenes, and individual sentences worthy of serving as miniature mentor texts.
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I'll have to read over the criteria for what makes a Newbery Winner but this novel fell flat for me. It had so many great elements - delightful and quirky characters, charming small-town setting, fascinating historical information - but they weren't merged together in a compelling way for me. I should have loved this book, particularly since I grew up in Pennsylvania around the same time as Jack Gantos (and had a grandfather who died of black lung from working in the coal mines). I forced myself
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Winner of the 2012 Newbery Medal for the year's best contribution to children's literature and the Scott O'Dell Award for Historical Fiction. I have begun applying two questions to books that I read: 1) Would I like to know any of these characters in real life? (yes, please.. I'd love to meet a Miss Volker) and 2) Does this book deliver life lessons in nicely put sentences that I will want to remember and use to help my children grow in some way? This book delivers nicely on number 2 as well, s ...more
I haven't laughed this hard reading a book in a long time! I'm dying to know which parts were fictional and which were "semi-autobiographical". Jack Gantos can tell a great story! Loved the references to the Lost Worlds and explorers. And the historical obituaries were inspiring! Loved this one!
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Although full of funny scenes and memorable characters, this Newbery Medal just didn't grab emotionally like some other books from this past year. Whereas Okay for Now by Gary Schmidt suffered from a preponderance of plot lines, this book seems to wander a bit in search of a plot. The narrative takes place in a1960's summer in a patch town founded by Eleanor Roosevelt, which is in danger of dying. The narrator, Jack Gantos, is grounded at the beginning of the summer and his only relief is when h
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Recommended by a boy reader in my class, I knew Jack Gantos wouldn't let me down before even cracking open the cover. True to form, his book is full of quirky characters and deeply embedded plot twists. Set in the town he grew up in during the Cold War, Gantos' writing invites the reader in with his oddball humor.
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Like Alyson I listened to the audio book. I laughed & slapped my knee more times than I can count! While I loved this tale, I'm not sure about the child-reader. Would be curious to hear of successes with putting this book in students' hands.
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mock newbery blog - won 2012 newbery
Jack Gantos writes a semi-autobiographical tale about growing up in the Midwest, being grounded all summer and writing obituaries for all of the old people who dropping like flies. Laugh out loud funny!
Dec 29, 2011
Katie I
marked it as to-read
Feb 20, 2012
Kate Farrell
marked it as to-read
May 24, 2012
Liz
marked it as to-read-kid-lit
