Image: BarnesandNoble.com
Bibliographic data: Gantos, Jack. 2000. Joey Pigza loses control. New York: Farrar, Straus, and Giroux. ISBN 0-37439989-1
Summary:
IT IS summer and Joey Pigza finally gets to visit his dad for the first time in many years. Joey and his mom are on their way to his dad’s house, but Joey cannot keep still and his mind cannot stop going over all the what if’s about his dad. question after question just sprouts in his brain, in this high-energy sequel to Joey Pigza Swallowed the KEY; JOEY has to decide whether he wants to be like the grown up version of his old hyperactive self. Joey wants to please his dad, but at what cost? Joey fears what could happen… “All I could imagine was the worst part of me getting on a train a long ways off. That old Joey was coming to get me and I couldn’t do anything about it…There was nothing to do but wait, and worry.”
Critical analysis:
Joey Pigza’s language in the story feels fresh and believable. We are able to see through Joey and his father what a hyperactive child or adult does or feels. Their father and son dialogue is important and allows us to see the turmoil both of them are going through. “I know I wasn’t there for you your whole life,” he started. “And I been struggling with how to make it up to you. Like what would be the greatest gift I could give you? …I’ve been thinking about those patches,” he said, “I bet if you didn’t war them you’d never know the difference.” I split into the sink. “You’d know the difference,” I said. “And so would I.” (p. 91-92) [1]Joey’s language is fresh and believable and reflects the way children think and talk at that age and stage of their life.
The events in the story are plausible and true to life, which keep the story engaging. It is also fresh and original with unexpected twists and turns. “Then he stood up and lifted the lid of the toilet. And one by one he took my patches out of the box and balled them up in his fist and dropped them into the bowl. I tried to reach for them but he held me back with one hand.”(p.95) [1]
The conclusion of the story seems inevitable and hopeful, but not obvious. “Do you think he’ll ever really turn himself around?” Mom’s driving got all curvy again and she pulled the car over on the side of the road. “Family hug.” she said and put her arm around me and Pablo.”(p.196) [1]
The setting of the story is believable and is set in a time that we recognize as the present. The story transcends the setting and has universal implications for readers in many different situations.
The story has themes that the readers may be able to relate to Joey’s parents being separated, dad having a new girlfriend, grandma being ill, and even Joey’s hyperactivity. They emerge naturally from the story without moralizing or didacticism. “And one time I kept sinning until everything was blurry like when you tape bottle bottoms to your eyes and when I stopped I threw a dart at the first animal I saw and heard Pablo yelp and when I could get my balance back and focus my eyes I found him quivering in a corner of the couch with a dart through his ear.” (p 13) [1]
The dialogue is natural and believable and the point of view is appropriate. The tone, mood, and the physical organization of the novel reflect the author’s personality.
Gender and culture are not typecast or stereotyped and they are neither positive nor negative. The story presents real people and real problems.
Review excerpt(s): [3]
BookList, 09/01/2000
Gr. 4-7. Joey's life has improved since Joey Pigza Swallowed the Key (1998); patches containing his "good meds" control his hyperactivity, and though he would never be mistaken for a calm child (well illustrated by the incident when he accidentally pierces his dog's ear with a dart), he is usually able to stop and think before he gets into trouble. Joey isn't crazy about spending time with the father he has never met, but he hopes that his Dad "will love me." Carter Pigza is "wired" just like Joey, but the patch he wears is for nicotine, and he regularly peels it off to smoke. He likes to think deep thoughts while gazing at the Humpty Dumpty at the miniature golf course late at night, and he comes to the conclusion that both he and Joey need to do the manly thing and get rid of their patches. Joey remembers all too well how he felt before he got his medicine, but he tries hard to make his dad proud. In tremendously poignant scenes, he struggles valiantly to do what his mother has told him: think just one thought at a time. But as his medicine wears off, he gradually loses control. Gantos has given Joey a remarkably vivid personality, and, blending irrepressible humor with a powerful depiction of a child's longing for normalcy, he has written a dead-on portrayal of a young person assessing the often self-serving behavior of the adults who control his life. Few children these days don't know someone wrestling with ADHD; meeting up with Joey is a fine way to gain insight into the problems "hyper" children face. But the story is more than message. Ganto's skillful pacing, sly humor, and in-depth characterization make it a truly memorable read. -- Susan Dove Lempke. Booklist, published by the American Library Association.
School Library Journal, 09/01/2000
Gr 4-8-At the end of Joey Pigza Swallowed the Key (Farrar, 1998), this endearing, but incredibly challenging kid was adjusting to his new medicine patches for his ADHD. Now he is flung from the frying pan into the fire when he visits his father and grandmother for the summer. Both adults suffer from hyperactivity, which is further aggravated by their distorted senses of reality; his grandmother's deteriorating health and his father's drinking provide a perfect recipe for disaster. Joey's dad is an initially appealing mixture of high spirits, unpredictability, and good times. He instructs the boy on the essence of life through his interpretations of the characters at Storybook Land and the strategies he applies as a Little League coach. When Carter realizes his son's potential as a pitcher, though, not even his sensible girlfriend can control him. Deciding that Joey should be self-reliant, he flushes the patches down the toilet and turns him loose in downtown Pittsburgh for a day. As his father's behavior slides, Joey finds himself in the driver's seat of the car, as well as of his self-determination. Readers will be drawn in immediately to the boy's gripping first-person narrative and be pulled pell-mell through episodes that are at once hilarious, harrowing, and ultimately heartening as Joey grows to understand himself and the people around him. The ride home isn't smooth, but it is hopeful and loving. Does this mean that he is on the way to a happy, "normal" life? As Joey himself would say, "Can I get back to you on that?"-Starr LaTronica, Four County Library System, Vestal, NY Copyright 2000 Cahners Business Information.
Publishers Weekly, 08/11/2000
First introduced in Joey Pigza Swallowed the Key, Gantos's hyperactive hero Joey Pigza has not lost any of his liveliness, but after undergoing therapy and a stint in special ed., he now can exercise a reasonable amount of self-controlDprovided he takes his meds. His mother has reluctantly agreed to let him spend the summer three hours from home with his father, an alcoholic who, so he claims, has taken steps to turn his life around. Readers will sight trouble ahead long before Joey's optimistic perception of his father grows blurry. Mr. Pigza is at least as "wired" as the old Joey, and when he resorts to his drinking habits and becomes belligerent, Joey (who still wants to win his father's favor) feels scared. Then Mr. Pigza, telling Joey his medicine patches are a "crutch" that Joey doesn't need, summarily flushes them down the toilet: "You are liberated... You are your own man, in control of your own life," he announces. Joey is torn between wanting to call his mom immediately and sticking with his father. "Even though I knew he was wrong," Joey says, "he was my dad, and I wanted him to be right." Like its predecessor, this high-voltage, honest novel mixes humor, pain, fear and courage with deceptive ease. Struggling to please everyone even as he sees himself hurtling toward disaster, Joey emerges as a sympathetic hero, and his heart of gold never loses its shine. Ages 10-up. (Sept.) Copyright 2000 Cahners Business Information.
Kirkus Reviews, 06/15/2000
As if Joey didn't get into enough trouble in his unforgettable debut, Joey Pigza Swallowed the Key (1998), Gantos has him wig out again in this sad, scary, blackly funny sequel. His hyperactivity under control thanks to new meds, Joey is looking forward to a six-week stay with his father Carter, hoping for some bonding. Unfortunately, his mother's warning: ". . . he can be, you know, wired like you, only he's bigger." understates the case. As a father, not to say a human being, Carter turns out to be appallingly dysfunctional: irresponsible, utterly self-centered, domineering, callous, and ominously short-fused. Smart enough to see through his father's loud assertions that he's turned over a new leaf, Joey nonetheless struggles to please, even when Carter flushes Joey's medication down the toilet, insisting that real men only need willpower to solve their personal problems. Joey tries to tough it out, hoping (despite bitter experience) that this time he won't go spinning off. Swept along by Joey's breathless narrative, readers will share his horrified fascination as, bit by bit, he watches the bad old habits and behavior come back. Joey's emphysemic Grandma, alternating drags on a cigarette with whiffs of oxygen as she trundles about the neighborhood in a shopping cart, and his Chihuahua Pablo, who survives both being locked in a glove compartment and having his ear pierced by a dart, provide the closest thing to comic relief here. The situation takes a dangerous turn when Joey eggs Carter into a wild rage; fortunately, his mother is just a phone call away, waiting in the wings to bail him out. Carter is truly frightening, a vision of what Joey could grow up to be, did he not possess the inner honesty to acknowledge his limitations (eventually), and caring adults to help him. A tragic tale in many ways, but a triumph too. (Fiction. 11-13) Copyright 2003, VNU Business Media, Inc. All Rights Reserved
Connections:
Students can create a double bubble thinking map and compare/contrast Joey and his dad’s behaviors.
Students can illustrate and analyze their favorite character in the book.
Students can create an alternate ending for the story.
Students can create a flip book where they will illustrate the beginning, the middle, and the end of the story.
Students can write a three sentence summary.
This book is about WHO.
It takes place WHEN and WHERE.
WHAT happens because WHY.
awards: [2]
American Library Association Notable Children's Books; New York Times Book Review Notable Children's Books of the Year; Newbery Honor Book; Children's Books: 100 Titles for Reading and Sharing, New York Public Library; Parents' Choice Award Winner; Booklinks Lasting Connection; Booklist Editors' Choice; Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books Blue Ribbon Award; Horn Book Magazine Fanfare List; Publishers Weekly Best Children's Books of the Year; School Library Journal Best Books of the Year; Massachusetts Children's Book Award; Vermont Dorothy Canfield Fisher Award
Bibliographies:
Gantos, Jack. 2000. Joey Pigza loses control. New York: Farrar, Straus, and Giroux.
Gantos, Jack. Joey Pigza loses control. Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2000. Book Index with Reviews, EBSCOhost (accessed August 8, 2011).
Citations:
[1] Gantos, Jack. 2000. Joey Pigza loses control. New York: Farrar, Straus, and Giroux.
[3] Gantos, Jack. Joey Pigza loses control. Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2000. Book Index with Reviews, EBSCOhost (accessed August 8, 2011).
