From Norvelt to Nowhere
by Jack Gantos
Flap Copy Description:
This rocket-paced follow-up to the acclaimed Dead End in Norvelt opens deep in the shadow of the Cuban missile crisis. But instead of Russian warheads, other kinds of trouble are raining down on young Jack Gantos and his utopian town of Norvelt in western Pennsylvania. After an explosion, a new crime by an old crook, and the sad passing of the town's founder, twelve-year-old Jack will soon find himself launched on a mission that takes him hundreds of miles away, escorting his slightly mental elderly mentor, Miss Volker, on her relentless pursuit of the oddest of outlaws. But as their trip turns south in more ways than one, it's increasingly clear that the farther from their off-beat home they travel, the more crazed Jack and Miss Volker's adventure becomes, in this raucous road novel about roots and revenge, a last chance at love, and the power of a remarkable friendship.
My Thoughts:
The last time I laughed out loud while reading a middle grade novel was when I read Dead End in Norvelt, the Newbery Medal winner by the same talented and zany author who wrote From Norvelt to Nowhere - Jack Gantos. He's done it again! As in Dead End in Norvelt, the author whips up a literary delight with the unlikely ingredients of humor and historical fiction creating an insightful, informative, and thoroughly entertaining middle grade novel. Gantos is a genius. I would highly recommend From Norvelt to Nowhere to readers from the ages of eight to eighty!
To learn more about the author - Jack Gantos,
click here: http://www.jackgantos.com/
