Every year for the past five years, my 5th grade students read Joey Pigza Swallowed the Key by Jack Gantos. They fall in love with Joey, and often, check out the rest of Joey's adventures in the library. So, you can imagine my excitement when Jack Gantos' award-winning auto-biography appeared on this week's reading list: biography and non-fiction! I had to choose Hole in My Life this week, as I just finished Gantos' Newbery winner, Dead End in Norvelt (see Module #3). Yet again, Gantos did not disappoint!Summary
When readers first meet Jack in Hole in My Life, it is 1972 and 21 year-old Gantos has just been released from Federal Prison. What?!? How did that happen?!? readers no doubt wonder... Jack takes us back to his Junior year in high school 4 years before to explain his extraordinary (and illegal) adventures that led to his imprisonment.
During his junior year in high school, Jack and his family move to Puerto Rico. After moving, Jack is unable to enroll in school, as he doesn't speak Spanish. So, Jack works construction and gets involved with drugs and alcohol (it is the 70s, after all). Jack quickly realizes this life isn't for him and convinces his family to allow him to move back to Florida alone and finish high school. Jack's senior year is a blur- from partying to struggling to become the world's next great writer, Jack grows up quickly during his time alone in Florida.
After graduation, Jack decides college isn't yet for him (mostly due to issues with money), sets out on a quest to find inspiring things to write about, and ends up in St. Croix in the Virgin Islands reunited with his family. Once again, Jack realizes that island life isn't for him and grabs the opportunity to sail a boat filled with precious cargo to New York City. Despite the fact that the boat's precious cargo is a ton of marijuana, Jack is convinced that the $10,000 he'll make is worth the risk (and allow him to attend college with the cash he'll earn).
Jack sails up the coast with the eccentric Captain Hamilton, but not without hilarious incident. The two experience many failed docking attempts, sail rough seas, and eventually, make it to New York. Unfortunately, Jack's time in New York is shortened by the FBI. After a quick stint on the run, Jack finds himself terrified and in prison. By a stroke of luck, Jack is able to work as an x-ray tech in the medical ward and narrowly escapes many of the horrors that go along with living in a prison.
After 15 months, many odd medical emergencies, and a college acceptance, Jack is released from prison. Finally, after years of striving to write but only ending up frustrated (and high), Jack finds inspiration and his niche- writing for children (marijuana-free!).
My thoughts
Of all of the possible lives I think Jack Gantos could lead, I would never have expected this! I am completely taken aback- how could one of the amazing children's writers live a life of crime, drugs, and prison? Perhaps the shock-value of Hole in My Life is exactly what makes this auto-biography so good? It's definitely a page-turner, that's for sure....
Hole in My Life won the coveted Michael L. Printz Award for outstanding young adult literature, but I have to be honest, Gantos' auto-biography definitely pushes the boundaries of what I think is appropriate for teens. However, despite the controversial topics, the book is a testament to the idea that people learn from their mistakes and, that people can learn from other's mistakes, too.
What have others said?
From School Library Journal (2002):
Much of the action in this memoir- some of it quite raw and harsh- will be riveting to teen readers. However, the book’s real strength lies in the window it gives into the mind of an adolescent without strong family support and living in the easy drug culture of the 1970s. Gantos looks for role models and guidance in the pages of the books he is reading, and his drive to be a writer and desire to go to college ultimately save him.And, from the Bulletin Of The Center For Children's Books (2002):
Gantos writes with his usual energy and crispness, and there's a devastating low-key precision to his observations about the situation, his acquaintances and cohorts, and himself ("Dad's keen eye for spotting criminals of all stripes was impressive. But it wasn't perfect. He never pegged me for being one of them"). He paints his young self as realistically clueless (Gantos poured out all his thoughts about drug smuggling and the ethics thereof into the ship's log book, which was, of course, used against him in his trial), but he's never retroactively indulgent, instead keeping a keen eye on the issue of culpability….Readers will be relieved and glad that he found his way back, and high-schoolers who devoured the Jack books in their middle-grade youth will savor the acerbic exploration of their author's formative time.
Without a doubt, Hole in My Life is not for the middle grades. However, high school students are sure to enjoy reading about Gantos' life, which makes the book a perfect candidate for a book talk with the upper-grades. All too often, high school students stop reading in the midst of sports, college applications, and homework. By promoting Michael L. Printz Award winners such as Hole in My Life to students, teens are more likely to read for pleasure. In addition, teens like to read about characters they can relate to- and while Gantos' life in the 1970s is certainly adventurous, his risk-taking behavior, desire to become a writer, and college-mindset are all things teens of today can relate to.
The opportunities for using biographies in the classroom are endless and one of my favorite genres to collaborate with teachers on. By reading a biography of a historical figure, famous celebrity or author (i.e. Jack Gantos), students can learn a lot about history and research skills, too. If each student chooses a different person to read about, research and present the information they learned, they can learn from each other, too. A project on historical/influential figures is especially powerful when students start out by reading a biography and then use other sources to verify and extend the information they learned. My favorite idea for extending the study of biographies is a "dress up day." Not only do students love dressing up as the figure they've read about, but creating an authentic "costume" requires a lot of critical thinking! I can just see a "teen" Jack Gantos now...
References
Gantos, J. (2002). Hole in My Life. New York, NY: Farrar,
Straus, and Giroux.
Scotto, B. (2002).[Review of
the book, Hole in My Life by Jack Gantos]. School Library Journal, 48(5),
170.
Stevenson, D. (2002).[Review
of the book, Hole in My Life Jack Gantos]. Bulletin Of The Center For
Children's Books, 55(9), 323.
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