Jack gantos short stories
Jack Gantos
American author of children's books
Jack Gantos (born July 2, ) is an American author of children's books. He is best known for the fictional characters Rotten Ralph and Joey Pigza. Rotten Ralph is a cat who stars in twenty picture books written by Gantos and illustrated by Nicole Rubel from to Joey Pigza is a boy with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), featured in five novels from to
Gantos won the Newbery Medal from the American Library Association (ALA), recognizing Dead End in Norvelt as the previous year's "most distinguished contribution to American literature for children".[1]Dead End also won the Scott O'Dell Award for Historical Fiction[2] and made the Guardian Prize longlist in Britain.[3]
His memoir Hole in My Life was a runner up Honor Book for the ALA Printz Award and Sibert Medal.
Previously Gantos was a finalist for the U.S. National Book Award[4] and a finalist for the Newbery Medal for two Joey Pigza books.
Jack gantos author biography sample By high school, writing professionally was his career goal; as he told an interviewer for Amazon. Heads or Tails: Stories from the Sixth Grade. Desire Lines , published the following year, is a young-adult novel about sixteen-year-old Walker, a loner who lives in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, and spends much of his time alone on a golf course. Gantos' most critically acclaimed series is Joey Pigza , introduced inBiography
Jack Gantos was born in Mount Pleasant, Pennsylvania, near Pittsburgh to construction superintendent John and banker Elizabeth (néeWeaver) Gantos. He was raised in South Florida and the Caribbean, and followed his parents to St. Croix in the Virgin Islands. He got involved in the drug trade there, and ended up in New York City.[citation needed] After serving one and a half years of a six-year sentence he entered college and continued writing, finally publishing his first book, Rotten Ralph, in The latest Rotten Ralph book was published in ; there are now 20 titles in the series for young readers.
Gantos has written for readers of all ages, including the memoir Hole in My Life, published in
During that time he began to work on picture books with Nicole Rubel, a student at the Boston Museum School. Rotten Ralph was the first to be published, by Houghton Mifflin in Within ten years Gantos and Rubel completed some twenty picture books including two more in the Rotten Ralph series.[5] Meanwhile, Gantos began teaching about writing children's books.
Jack gantos author biography sample for journal He is best known for the fictional characters Rotten Ralph and Joey Pigza. His favorite game at that time was playing his clothes were on fire and rolling down a hill to save himself. Watson noted: "It's no wonder kids love Ralph—what a perfect vicarious way to get back at all those well-meaning adults who make you go to parties where everyone else seems to be having a great time. The Rotten Ralph series has been wildly popular among children, who love his trickery but appreciate the morals of each of the eighteen tales.He was professor of creative writing and literature (–95) at Emerson College in Boston, and a visiting professor at Brown University (), University of New Mexico (), and Vermont College of Fine Arts ().[citation needed] He developed master's degree programs in children's book writing at both Emerson College and Vermont College.[citation needed]
Awards and honors
- Best Books for Young Readers citation, American Library Association (ALA), –93, for the "Rotten Ralph" series.
- Children's Book Showcase Award, , for Rotten Ralph
- Emerson Alumni Award, Emerson College, , for Outstanding Achievement in Creative Writing
- Massachusetts Council for the Arts Awards finalist, ,
- Gold Key Honors Society Award, , for Creative Excellence
- National Endowment for the Arts grant,
- Quarterly West Novella Award, , for X-Rays
- Children's Choice citation, International Reading Association, , for Rotten Ralph's Show and Tell
- Batavia Educational Foundation grant,
- West Springfield Arts Council (WESPAC) grant,
- Parents' Choice citation, , for Not So Rotten Ralph
- New York Public Library Books for the Teenage, , for Jack's Black Book
- Silver Award, , for Jack on the Tracks
- finalist, National Book Award for Young People's Literature, for Joey Pigza Swallowed the Key[4]
- Great Stone Face Award, Children's Librarians of New Hampshire, ALANNA Notable Children's Book, NCSS and CBC Notable Children's Trade Book in the Field of Social Studies, School Library Journal Best Book of the Year, Riverbank Review Children's Book of Distinction, and New York Public Library "One Hundred Titles for Reading and Sharing," all , for Joey Pigza Swallowed the Key
- Iowa Teen Award, Iowa Educational Media Association, Flicker Tale Children's Book Award nomination, North Dakota Library Association, and Sasquatch Award nomination, all , for Joey Pigza Swallowed the Key
- Newbery Honor, ALANNA, , for Joey Pigza Loses Control
- California Young Reader Medal, , for Joey Pigza Swallowed the Key
- Printz Honor, , for Hole in My Life
- Sibert Honor, , for Hole in My Life
- National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship for Creative Writing, m fiction
- Newbery Medal, , for Dead End In Norvelt[1]
- Scott O'Dell Award for Historical Fiction, , for Dead End in Norvelt[2]
- Guardian Children's Fiction Prize longlist, , for Dead End in Norvelt[3]
- Anne V.
Zarrow Award for Young Readers' Literature, , career award[6]
Selected works
Picture books
Gantos is the author of dozens of published picture books including about twenty illustrated by Nicole Rubel. Rotten Ralph was the first published book for both creators and the first of about ten in the Rotten Ralph series as of [5]
- Rotten Ralph series by Gantos and Rubel
- Rotten Ralph (Houghton Mifflin, , ISBN)—introducing the "very, very, nasty cat"[7]
- Three Strikes for Rotten Ralph (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, , ISBN)—the latest of about ten[5]
- Rotten Ralph's Rotten Family (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, , ISBN)
Novels
Nonfiction
- Hole in My Life.
Farrar, Straus and Giroux (BYR). 8 September pp.–. ISBN.
, a memoir - Writing Radar: Using Your Journal to Snoop Out and Craft Great Stories ()
Notes
References
- Contemporary Authors Online, Gale, Reproduced in Biography Resource Center. Farmington Hills, Mich.: Thomson Gale.Jack gantos author biography sample for book The series totals at five books, all of which are inspiring as well as comical. The Rotten Ralph series has been wildly popular among children, who love his trickery but appreciate the morals of each of the eighteen tales. Worse than Rotten, Ralph. Notes [ edit ].
- Gantos, Jack. Hole in My Life. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux (Books for Young Readers).