I’m not sure what to make of Dead End in Norvelt, by Jack Gantos. On one hand, it’s an interesting story of a small town in Pennsylvania with deep history coming towards an end of something. On the other hand, I wasn’t all that smitten with the writing, even though I wanted to like the main character — Jack — and I wanted to be drawn into the shenanigans of the town.
I know Dead End in Norvelt won the most 2012 Newbery Award, but I’m not quite convinced it was the best YA book out there.
Still, Gantos weaves some funny lines and paints a descriptive picture of the small town nurtured by Eleanor Roosevelt herself (she hovers in the distance like some fairy godmother) as the original members of the town of Norvelt start to drop like flies in the summer of 1962. Jack, grounded for the summer after shooting a hole in the town movie screen and destroying his mother’s corn crop, is only released from his “captivity” (of reading history books) to help an elderly woman (Miss Volker, an oddball character full of life and history and perspective) write the obituaries of the elderly citizens when they kick the bucket.
A mystery ensues, and Jack is caught up in it all.
Jack’s voice as the narrator is dry and funny, and his interactions with his mother and some of the elderly people around town are amusing. But his constant nosebleeds turned me off (I still don’t quite understand the purpose of it) and I never really connected to the character of Jack’s dad, who desperately wants to leave Norvelt for Florida.
Again, I have mixed feelings. I don’t feel like I wasted my time with Dead End in Norvelt, but I was left feeling like I wanted something more out of Jack and his story of the summer when everything seemed to change. Gantos, who grew up in Norvelt and whose main character is Jack Gantos, doesn’t quite deliver.
Peace (in the small town),
Kevin
Hi Kevin,
I’m currently reading this aloud to my fourth graders and am appreciating it even more than when I read it myself. It was on my long list for possible Newbery winners and so I’m glad it won.
I’m writing because it is also a contender for SLJ’s Battle of the Kids’ Books. Don’t know if you or anyone else who follows you knows about this, but it is a March Madness-like event featuring children’s and YA books. Each bracket is judged by a distinguished writer. It started last week and you can read Sara Zarr’s judgement on the match between Dead End up and Laini Taylor’s Daughter of Smoke and Bone on the site (http://battleofthebooks.slj.com/2012/03/16/round-1-match-4-daughter-of-smoke-and-bone-vs-dead-end-in-norvelt/). This year we’ve got two kid commentators, a 7th grade boy and 6th grade girl. We’d love to get more kids involved and so if you and/or your readers have ideas please let us know.