Jack Gantos

Jack Gantos
Award
  • National Book Awards Finalist
  • Newbery Medal Winner
  • Newbery Honor Book

Jack Gantos has written books for people of all ages, from picture books and middle-grade fiction to novels for young adults and adults. His works include Hole in My Life, a memoir that won the Michael L. Printz and Robert F. Sibert Honors, Joey Pigza Swallowed the Key, a National Book Award Finalist, and Joey Pigza Loses Control, a Newbery Honor book.
 
Jack was born in Mount Pleasant, Pennsylvania, and when he was seven, his family moved to Barbados. He attended British schools, where there was much emphasis on reading and writing, and teachers made learning a lot of fun. When the family moved to south Florida, he found his new classmates uninterested in their studies, and his teachers spent most of their time disciplining students. Jack retreated to an abandoned bookmobile (three flat tires and empty of books) parked out behind the sandy ball field, and read for most of the day. The seeds for Jack’s writing career were planted in sixth grade, when he read his sister’s diary and decided he could write better than she could. He begged his mother for a diary and began to collect anecdotes he overheard at school, mostly from standing outside the teachers’ lounge and listening to their lunchtime conversations. Later, he incorporated many of these anecdotes into stories.
 
While in college, he and an illustrator friend, Nicole Rubel, began working on picture books. After a series of well-deserved rejections, they published their first book, Rotten Ralph, in 1976. It was a success and the beginning of Jack’s career as a professional writer. Jack continued to write children’s books and began to teach courses in children’s book writing and children’s literature. He developed the master’s degree program in children’s book writing at Emerson College and the Vermont College M.F.A. program for children’s book writers. He now devotes his time to writing books and educational speaking. He lives with his family in Boston, Massachusetts.


Connect with the Author

Jack Gantos

Official Sites

Related Links

Sign Up for
Author Updates

Macmillan Newsletter

Sign up to receive information about new books, author events, and special offers.

Sign up now

Media

Watch and Listen

Jack Gantos thanks 2012 Newbery Committee

Jack Gantos thanks the 2012 Newbery Committee for selecting DEAD END IN NORVELT as the winner!

Share This

Jack Gantos Talks Audiobooks

Bestselling YA author Jack Gantos talks about audiobooks and the challenges of reading his book Dead End in Norvelt aloud.

Share This

Dead End in Norvelt Book Trailer

Has Jack's summer hit a dead end?

Share This

Author Jack Gantos talks about his book Dead End in Norvelt

Bestselling young adult author Jack Gantos discusses his book, Dead End in Norvelt, reading audio books and other favorite topics.

Share This

Author Jack Gantos on his book I Am Not Joey Pigza--Author Interview

Listen to this author interview and hear author Jack Gantos talk about his children's book I Am Not Joey Pigza. In this installment of Gantos' Newbery Honor-winning middle-grade fiction series, Joey Pigza's good-for-nothing dad pops back into his life. After a lucky lotto win, Carter Pigza has a crazy new outlook on life, and he's even changed his name to Charles Heinz. He thinks Joey and his mom should become new people, too.

Share This

Dead End in Norvelt by Jack Gantos--Audiobook Excerpt

Listen to Jack Gantos read from his Newbery Medal-winning children's book Dead End in Norvelt in this audiobook excerpt. Melding the entirely true and the wildly fictional, Dead End in Norvelt is a novel about an incredible two months for a kid named Jack Gantos, whose plans for vacation excitement are shot down when he is "grounded for life" by his feuding parents, and whose nose spews bad blood at every little shock he gets.

Share This
Back

Author on the Web

 

Latest on Facebook

Back

books
by the author

Dead End in Norvelt
Dead End in Norvelt

Jack Gantos
Square Fish

Dead End in Norvelt is the winner of the 2012 Newbery Medal for the year’s best contribution to children’s literature and the Scott O’Dell Award for Historical...


Available In:

Book Audio Book eBook
Buy
Hole in My Life
Hole in My Life

Jack Gantos
Square Fish

In the summer of 1971, Jack Gantos was an aspiring writer looking for adventure, cash for college tuition, and a way out of a dead-end job. For ten thousand...


Available In:

Book eBook
Buy
Rotten Ralph Helps Out (My Readers Level 3)
Rotten Ralph Helps Out (My Readers Level 3)
Rotten Ralph Rotten Readers
Jack Gantos; Illustrated by Nicole Rubel
Square Fish

Rotten Ralph’s attempts to help Sarah with her school project on ancient Egypt are now repackaged in a brand-new format for beginning readers.


Available In:

Book
Buy
What Would Joey Pigza Do?
What Would Joey Pigza Do?
Joey Pigza
Jack Gantos
Square Fish

Joey’s trying to make friends—with the meanest girl he knows.


Available In:

Book eBook
Buy
I Am Not Joey Pigza
I Am Not Joey Pigza
Joey Pigza
Jack Gantos
Square Fish

Joey’s world is turned upside down when his deadbeat dad wins the lottery.


Available In:

Book eBook
Buy
Joey Pigza Loses Control
Joey Pigza Loses Control
Joey Pigza
Jack Gantos
Square Fish

In this Newbery Honor winner, Joey finds out his dad is just as wired as he is.


Available In:

Book eBook
Buy
Joey Pigza Swallowed the Key
Joey Pigza Swallowed the Key
Joey Pigza
Jack Gantos
Square Fish

In this National Book Award finalist, Joey Pigza tries hard to be a good kid trapped in a wired body.


Available In:

Book eBook
Buy
Three Strikes for Rotten Ralph
Three Strikes for Rotten Ralph
Rotten Ralph Rotten Readers
Jack Gantos; pictures by Nicole Rubel
Farrar, Straus and Giroux

On the Flying Squirrels baseball team, Rotten Ralph dreams of becoming a superstar but ignores Sarah's example of working hard to learn the fundamentals....


Available In:

Book
Buy
Practice Makes Perfect for Rotten Ralph
Practice Makes Perfect for Rotten Ralph
Rotten Ralph Rotten Readers
Jack Gantos; Pictures by Nicole Rubel
Farrar, Straus and Giroux

"Themes of jealousy, boasting, cheating, and getting one's comeuppance are all touched on ij this second book in the easy-reader series." --School Library...


Available In:

Book
Buy
The Love Curse of the Rumbaughs
The Love Curse of the Rumbaughs

Jack Gantos
Square Fish

Love is a terrible and wonderful thing.


Available In:

Book eBook
Buy
Desire Lines
Desire Lines

Jack Gantos
Farrar, Straus and Giroux BYR Paper

Sixteen-year-old Walker has discovered something potentially scandalous—two of his female classmates are having an affair. It is a secret he has no problem...


Available In:

Book eBook
Buy
Best in Show for Rotten Ralph
Best in Show for Rotten Ralph
Rotten Ralph Rotten Readers
Jack Gantos; Pictures by Nicole Rubel
Farrar, Straus and Giroux

“To thine own self be true.” The cat show is coming to town and Rotten Ralph is hungry for glory – and desperate to defeat his perfect cousin Percy,...


Available In:

Book
Buy
Jack Adrift: Fourth Grade Without a Clue
Jack Adrift: Fourth Grade Without a Clue
Jack Henry
Jack Gantos
Square Fish

From the Newbery Medal–winning author of Dead End in Norvelt, eight side-splitting stories about a boy who is doing his best to keep his head above water As...


Available In:

Book eBook
Buy
Rotten Ralph Helps Out (My Readers Level 3)
Rotten Ralph Helps Out (My Readers Level 3)
Rotten Ralph Rotten Readers
Jack Gantos; Pictures by Nicole Rubel
Square Fish

"Rotten Ralph is one cat who can make reading fun for kids. And he does!" --Marc Brown Sarah needs a topic for her school project on ancient Egypt. Her...


Available In:

Book
Buy
Rotten Ralph Feels Rotten
Rotten Ralph Feels Rotten
Rotten Ralph Rotten Readers
Jack Gantos; Pictures by Nicole Rubel
Farrar, Straus and Giroux

Rotten to the core! When Sarah serves up a healthy, home-cooked meal chock-full of fruits and vegetables, Rotten Ralph turns up his nose and refuses to eat....


Available In:

Book
Buy
Jack on the Tracks
Jack on the Tracks
Jack Henry
Jack Gantos
Square Fish

From the Newbery Medal–winning author of Dead End in Norvelt, nine semi-autobiographical stories that will make you laugh so hard it hurts...


Available In:

Book eBook
Buy
Jack's Black Book
Jack's Black Book
Jack Henry
Jack Gantos
Square Fish

From the Newbery Medal–winning author of Dead End in Norvelt,  the uproarious final volume of Jack Henry stories


Available In:

Book eBook
Buy
Jack's New Power
Jack's New Power
Jack Henry
Jack Gantos
Square Fish

From the Newbery Medal–winning author of Dead End in Norvelt, life for Jack Henry in a brand-new place is filled with the same old craziness...


Available In:

Book eBook
Buy
Heads or Tails
Heads or Tails
Jack Henry
Jack Gantos
Square Fish

From the Newbery Medal–winning author of Dead End in Norvelt, eight more hysterical semi-autobiographical Jack Henry stories about a sixth grader’s trials and...


Available In:

Book eBook
Buy
view all works by this author
Back

{ About }

{ Services }

{ Store }

{ Publishers }

Children's

Macmillan Global

© 2013 Macmillan