Dead End in Norvelt by Jack Gantos

Bibliographic Information:
Print:
Gantos, Jack. 2011. Dead end in Norvelt. New York: Farrar Straus Giroux. ISBN  0374379939
Spoken Recording:
Gantos, Jack. 2011. Dead end in Norvelt. Read by the author. New York: Macmillan Audio. ISBN 1427213569

Plot:
In what is described as a melding of "the entirely true and the wildly fictional," the historical novel, set in Norvelt, Pennsylvania in 1962, tells the story of eleven-year-old Jack Gantos whose summer plans are derailed when he is grounded for life for disobeying his mother.  His mother does allow him out of the house to help their elderly neighbor Miss Volker, the town's nurse, medical examiner, and historian who writes obituaries for the last of the town's original residents as they die off.  Coping with frequent nose bleeds when he's nervous or scared, Jack has quite a bit about which to be nervous:  Hell's Angels with a grudge against the town, a best friend who's always trying to shock him with gruesome stories from her father's funeral parlor, a not-so-secret airplane that his father is rebuilding, houses that are vacating Norvelt to move to another town, and a string of mysterious deaths of the old ladies of the town.  

Analysis:
The quirky cast of characters that inhabit Norvelt add humor and conflict to the story from Jack's diminutive but fiery friend Bunny to crotchety, tricycle-riding, and ultimately sinister Mr. Spizz to opinionated, history-loving Miss Volker.  The feuds, friendships, and foibles of the town's inhabitants vividly depict small-town-America in a way that's engaging instead of patronizing.  The town itself, is as much a character in the story as it is setting, a former utopia that has fallen on difficult times, a place that is attempting to establish its identity just as much as Jack is.  Jack's love of history is something he shares with Miss Volker, and the pair of them manage to pass along a wealth of historical facts to the reader through their reading and obituary-writing, and as Jack learns his history, he is figuring out how the past creates the present which will create the future.  Death permeates the book, Bunny's funeral parlor, the obituaries, a dead deer, the dying town, even the looming death of Eleanor Roosevelt who founded the town.As the story progresses, Jack learns to deal with death and life with an authenticity that will resonate with young readers.

The author narrates the audio version of the book in an engaging way but without some of the polish that might be expected of a voice actor.  The vivid descriptions, absurdities, and drama are brought to life in the recording in an appealing way.

Awards & Reviews:
2012 Newbery Medal
2012 Scott O'Dell Award for Historical Fiction
Publisher's Weekly, starred review:  "wildly entertaining"
Horn Book, starred review:  "This is a richly layered semi-autobiographical tale, an ode to a time and place, to history and the power of reading."
Starred review, Kirkus Reviews:  "Characteristically provocative gothic comedy, with sublime undertones."

Connections:

• Explore the author website (jackgantos.com) for book discussion guide and author interviews
• Research historical Norvelt and other towns that were founded during the Depression as cooperative communities.
• Write obituaries for something lost, not necessarily a person, using the house and deer obits from the story.
• Other books by Jack Gantos:

Joey Pigza series published by Farrar Straus Giroux

Jack Henry story collections

Rotten Ralph picture books