DEAD END IN NORVELT- A book review for Children's Literature Class

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Gantos, Jack. 2011.  DEAD END IN NORVELT. Harrisonburg, VA: RR Donnelley & Sons Company. ISBN 0374379933

PLOT SUMMARY

Jack is excited for a summer of baseball and hanging out with his best friend Bunny.  But when his dad comes home and forces him to mow down his mother’s corn field, Jack is grounded for the summer- or maybe the rest of his life.  The only things he is allowed to do are to help his old neighbor, Mrs. Volker, write obituaries and to read in his room.  This leads to an interesting summer of boredom, sneaking out, learning through books that history is full of bizarre and terrible facts, and that dressing up as the grim reaper is not all it is cracked up to be.  Meanwhile, the old ladies of Norvelt are dropping dead at an alarming rate.  Is someone helping them along?  Jack will be right there in the midst of the action when we find out.

CRITICAL ANALYSIS

Set in Cold War America, DEAD END IN NORVELT tells the grotesquely hilarious story of Jackie Gantos, named after the author, and shows the reader what life was like to be a poor American during this time period.   Gantos creates a believable setting in his old, dying town of Norvelt, a coal mining town.

Between murder and mayhem, Gantos shares with the reader the reality of the times.  He shows the horrors of a coal mining town and the “black lung” disease the men died from through the eyes of their families.  He also shows how people simply went without when there was no money.  Jackie suffers with chronic nosebleeds because there is no medical help available to the poor. However, the action of the story is not quite so believable.  

The story is gory and morbid.  This is shown in Jackie’s constant bloody noses, the horrific episode where he watches Mrs. Volker “cook” her hands, several trips to the morgue, and the nose cauterizing episodes.  The story becomes even more macabre when the townspeople realize that someone is killing all the old ladies, and the story morphs into a murder mystery.  Jackie is waist deep in the entire adventure, and the story entertains those of us who don’t mind the gruesome humor.  

I also listened to the audiobook of this novel, read by the author and published by Audible (2011).  It was enjoyable to listen to the author read the novel himself, and he made the characters come to life with his unique voice and style.

AWARDS AND REVIEWS

·        Newbery Award

·        Scott O’Dell Award

·        BOOKLIST:  “Gantos, as always, delivers bushels of food for thought and plentry of outright guffaws.”

·        THE HORN BOOK REVIEW: “There’s more than laugh-out-loud gothic comedy here.  This is a richly layered semi-autobiographical tale, an ode to a time and place, to history and the power of reading.”

CONNECTIONS

·        Cross-curricular history lesson

·        Writing assignment- have students write about a time they had to make an impossible choice (coincide this with the time that Jackie had to mow down the corn on his father’s orders in direct opposition to his mother’s wishes).

·        Read more by Jack Gantos:  the JOEY PIGZA series or ROTTEN RALPH series.

·        Students can read the obituaries and analyze what is typically in them.

Images taken from www.amazon.com