The town was almost a character in this novel. This is historical fiction taking place in the summer of 1962 about a young boy named Jack Gantos is a poor Pennsylvania town.

I, for one, have no idea which were which. It is supposed to be a melding of events that are entirely true and wildly fictional. It is hard to know how to describe this story. and possibly murder.Įndlessly surprising, this sly, sharp-edged narrative is the author at his very best, making readers laugh out loud at the most unexpected things in a dead-funny depiction of growing up in a slightly off-kilter place where the past is present, the present is confusing, and the future is completely up in the air. As one obituary leads to another, Jack is launced on a strange adventure involving molten wax, Eleanor Roosevelt, twisted promises, a homemade airplane, Girl Scout cookies, a man on a trike, a dancing plague, voices from the past, Hells Angels.

But plenty of excitement (and shocks) are coming Jack's way once his mom loans him out to help a fiesty old neighbor with a most unusual chore-typewriting obituaries filled with stories about the people who founded his utopian town. 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. 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 Fiction!

Dead end in norvelt by jack gantos