Dead End in Norvelt -- Jack Gantos
It's the summer of 1962, and 12-year-old Jack Gantos has been grounded for life. It wasn't his fault! He totally didn't know that his father's WWII Japanese sniper rifle was loaded when he shot at the soldier on the drive-in screen!
Mowing down his mother's corn crop wasn't really his fault, either! Sure, she told him not to, but since his father told him to do it, well, he was going to get in trouble either way—and since his chances for hitching a ride in his father's army surplus plane depend on staying in his father's good graces, the corn lost out.
His fault or no, he's grounded for life. He's only allowed to leave the house to help out arthritic Mrs. Volker, the town's medical examiner and obituary author. But when all the old ladies of Norvelt start dropping like flies, Jack's summer gets a lot busier than expected.
Hells Angels, Girl Scouts, Eleanor Roosevelt, and nosebleeds also factor in.
There's a minor drawback to winning the Newbery Medal*. Once the winners are announced, rather than just reading the book as... you know, a book, everyone who reads it, ever after, will at the very least flirt with the whole "Now, what made this book stand out over all of the other candidates?" question. It's impossible not to. I mean, I really, really tried.
But, once I'd finished the book, I distinctly remember thinking, "Huh. Really? I kind of... don't get it."
Which isn't to say that it isn't a good book! It totally is! But as a Stand Out of the Year? I dunno. But, then, I'm less familiar with books geared towards this age range.
Anyway. It's funny** and quirky—without trying too hard—and filled with oddball characters who aren't defined by their oddball qualities. The historical tidbits are entertaining (though they occasionally feel more like lectures than part of the story), Jack himself is immediately likable, and the family interactions feel funny:
"And put on clean socks, pants, a belt, an undershirt, comb your hair, brush your teeth, and put on your shoes, and when you do all of that I'll be waiting at the door with your perfectly ironed white shirt and then you can leave the house."
"How do you remember all that stuff?" I asked over my shoulder as I ran back down the hall.
"I have it memorized," she shouted behind me, "because I've forced to say it every day of your animal boy life!"
Jack and his parents made me think, more than once, of Ralphie and Co. in A Christmas Story. I'd recommend it to fans of Tim Wynne-Jones' Rex Zero books, and I think it's likely to go over well with fans of Richard Peck's Grandma Dowdel stories—though there's far more blood—and Jack Gantos, of course, has a distinctly darker flavor.
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*Dead End in Norvelt won the Scott O'Dell Award for Historical Fiction, too.
**And it's so nice to see the award go to a funny book, as I tend to associate the Newbery with sobbing uncontrollably.
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Book source: ILLed through my library.