From Norvelt to Nowhere by Jack Gantos

From Norvelt to Nowhere by Jack Gantos, 2013.

This is the hilarious sequel to Dead End in Norvelt and this entry will have spoilers for that book. So be warned!


I will give you some space to avoid accidentally reading things that you don't want to know.










This book picks up with Jack on the Halloween after the events of Dead End in Norvelt . Now that the old lady murders in Norvelt have ended and the killer has confessed, original resident Mrs. Custard moves back home. This means that Miss Volker is no longer the earliest Norvelter in town, so she won't have to honor her promise and marry the dangerous Mr. Spizz. This turns out to be unfortunate for Mrs. Custard, who eats a poison-laced cookie just as Jack and his friend Bunny are trick or treating at her house. Is Spizz back? Who does Jack hear prowling around his former office?

Then Miss Volker suddenly receives word that her sister in Florida has died. Angry Miss Volker, blaming the still- at-large Spizz, sets off on a road trip with Jack in tow. She can bury her twin and also catch and punish Mr. Spizz, who is still in love with her. Things are complicated by two other people trailing along behind them. Will Spizz go to prison? Or to the chapel? Plenty of funny moments and comparisons to Moby Dick make this book a great read.

Dead End in Norvelt by Jack Gantos

Dead End in Norvelt by Jack Gantos, 2011.

Dead End in Norvelt is a big fat award winner, of both the 2012 Newbery Medal and the Scott O’Dell Award for Historical Fiction. If that isn't recommendation enough for you, please allow me to add mine. This odd, amusing story will gross you out, make you laugh and get you to love its young narrator.

Set in Pennsylvania in 1962,  Dead End in Norvelt follows a 12 year old boy, also named Jack Gantos, through a summer that he spends mostly grounded, but seldom bored. His community conscious mom has promised his help to a little old neighbor, Miss Volker, who wants him at her house at 6:00 am. Fortunately for the history-loving Jack, his job is to help her write up obituaries about the original inhabitants of their hometown, Norvelt, and Miss Volker knows how to make history lively.

 After a mishap with his dad's Japanese war souvenir and an unfortunate corn mowing incident, his work with Miss Volker becomes his only hope for excitement. He soon finds himself dressing up like the Grim Reaper to investigate a possible death, tangling with a pack of revenge seeking Hell's Angels and undergoing an operation Miss Volker performs with veterinary tools meant to fix his perpetually bloody nose.

Through his adventures, he describes town characters such as Mr. Spizz, an officious, tricycle riding would-be suitor of Miss Volker's, Bunny Huffer, his tough, baseball loving friend, and his scheming father, who plans to build a runway for his army surplus plane, while assuring his wife that he is putting in a bomb shelter instead.

All the while, the town elders seem to be dropping dead at an accelerated pace.

I can't wait to read the sequel, From Norvelt to Nowhere!

Camp Read-a-Lot 2014 Reading List

I will once again be a "counselor" at Camp Read-a-Lot, this summer held in West St. Paul on August 7. I will be among the librarians leading the book discussions for the 4th-5th grade books. This year's author is Jack Gantos!

 More information here

4th and 5th Grade Reads:

 

Fiction

1. Camper’s Choice – Choose one title below to read and review:

• Serafina’s Promise by Ann E. Burg
• Counting by Sevens by Holly Goldberg Sloan

 
2. Camper’s Choice – Choose one title below to read and review:

 

• The Adventures of a South Pole Pig: A Novel of Snow and Courage by Chris Kurtz
• Escape from Mr. Lemoncello’s Library by Chris Grabenstein  
• The Platypus Police Squad: The Frog Who Croaked by Jarrett J. Krosoczka

3. Camper’s Choice – Choose one title below to read and review:

 

•  Doll Bones by Holly Black
• Jinx by Sage Blackwood

4. Camper’s Choice – Choose one title below to read and review:

 

•  The Great Trouble: A Mystery of London, the Blue Death, and a Boy Called Eel by Deborah Hopkinson  
• The Thing About Luck by Cynthia Kadohata

 

5. Camper’s Choice – Choose one title below to read and review:

 

•  Snicker of Magic by Natalie Lloyd
• Boy on the Porch by Sharon Creech

6. Camper’s Choice – Choose one title below to read and review:

 

•  ChickenHare by Chrise Grine
• Monster on the Hill by Rob Harrell
• The Lost Boy by Greg Ruth

7. Camper’s Choice – Choose one title below to read and review:

 

•  Dead End In Norvelt (Norvelt Series #1) by Jack Gantos
• From Norvelt to Nowhere (Norvelt Series #2) by Jack Gantos

Camper’s Choice

 

8. Camper’s Choice – Any title of your choice (fiction or nonfiction) that meets the following criteria:

 

a. You have not read it before this summer

 

b. Original copyright is no older than 2012

 

c. Ideal for classroom use or free reading

 

d. Avoid highly popular titles, books recently made into movies, major award winners

 

 

Nonfiction

 

 

9. Camper’s Choice – Choose one title below to read and review:

 

•  Eruption!: Volcanoes and the Science of Saving Lives by Elizabeth Rusch
• Scaly Spotted Feathered Frilled: How Do We Know What Dinosaurs Really Looked Like? by Catherine Thimmesh
• The Case of the Vanishing Honeybees: A Scientific Mystery by Sandra Markle

10. Camper’s Choice – Choose one title below to read and review:

 

• Nelson Mandela by Kadir Nelson
• Wild Boy: The Real Life of the Savage of Aveyron by Mary Losure
• Becoming Ben Franklin: How a Candle-Maker’s Son Helped Light the Flame of Liberty by Russel Freedman

11. Camper’s Choice – Choose one title below to read and review:

 

•   Splash of Red: The Life and Art of Horace Pippin by Jen Bryant
• My Weird Writing Tips by Dan Gutman
• When the Beat Was Born: DJ Kool Herc and the Creation of Hip Hop by Laben Carrick Hill
• Pug and Other Animal Poems by Valerie Worth