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callienicole's review against another edition
2.0
I'm going with two stars, because according to Goodreads, that stands for "it was okay". Which is how I feel about this book. Actually, that’s probably a bit generous.
In this book, Jack is grounded by his parents after accidentally firing his dad's Japanese rifle from WW2. His mother loans him out to an old lady, Miss Volker, who writes obituaries for the newspaper. They live in a Roosevelt town, a town whose founding was funded by the government, and Miss Volker has promised that she would stay in the town until the last original Norvelt resident dies off. However, older people start dying off at an alarming rate, Jack's parents are feuding, the houses are getting sold off to a different Roosevelt town that is doing better, and change is in the air.
I have a few content notes for parents, and then I'll tell you my thoughts on this book.
Language: There is one bad word used in a historical quote, a few uses of God's name in vain. But what really bothered me was that the main character often uses a euphemism for Jesus's name as a swear word (the character says "Cheese-us-crust"). As a Christian parent, this really bothers me. It's obvious what the phrase he uses is replacing, and I just don't appreciate that in middle grade fiction.
Political: In this story, Eleanor Roosevelt is the hero. She is praised constantly by Miss Volker for starting the town, and no one in the town wants to disappoint Mrs. Roosevelt. I don't have anything against Eleanor Roosevelt, but I don't agree with her politics and she's not my favorite first lady, so I felt "meh" about this aspect of the story. Miss Volker is really into history, and gives Jack mini history lectures throughout the book. I was kind of irked by one lecture about Hiroshima, in which she says in reference to America "no other nation has been this cruel and inhumane and killed more people so quickly in the whole bloody history of the world" (pg. 280). Um, what about Germany, which under Hitler exterminated six million Jews in concentration camps during the exact same war? That was pretty cruel and inhumane. Hitler's atrocities were the main reason for WW2 in the first place. Yes, war is terrible and Hiroshima was a very sad event in history. But there were alot of tragic things in that war. I didn't like how this character paints America as this evil cruel nation that dropped bombs for no reason, which is certainly a simplistic misrepresentation of the WW2 history.
Worldview: Several places in the book, Miss Volker talks about how it would be better for the older folks to die off so younger people could come and take their place. As someone who is pro-life from womb to tomb, this didn't sit well. I believe human life is always valuable, and especially older people have much to teach those of us who are younger. I expected this book to show some value and respect for older people since some of the character are elderly, but that's not what was communicated by the attitudes of these characters.
Religious: Miss Volker states that God has nothing to do with winning and losing wars. She talks about how "there are four thousand religions in the world, and it's impossible to claim that one God is more powerful than another God."(pg. 279). Jack daydreams about his own ideas of Heaven. Some references to "the promised land", meaning Heaven, but no explanation of how to get there other than "good behavior". This is NOT the Gospel (the Gospel is that we are all sinners, destined for Hell as a just punishment of our sin, and our good behavior is as filthy rags - which is why we need Christ to take our punishment and save us when we put our trust in Him). Christian parents should be aware to discuss this aspect with their kids.
Violence: Cavalier attitude toward death throughout this book. Descriptions of some corpses that were rather gruesome. Jack's nose bleeds at the slightest provocation, so lots of descriptions of blood (if you are sensitive to blood, you will definitely be grossed out). Just an overall focus on death that was at times supposed to be humorous, other times rather morbid.
Other: Jack goes deer hunting with his dad and purposely foils the hunt because he feels bad for the deer. Legal hunters and poachers are not distinguished, so when a deer is poached later it is not clear why the event was wrong. Jack worries some trigger-happy hunter may accidentally shoot him. I often find hunters and poachers are conflated in modern fiction books, and as a person who comes from a long line of hunters, this bothers me. The hunters I know are very serious about gun safety and are just as upset by poachers as anyone, because we care about the law and conservation. I feel misrepresented here, as a hunter. I also did not love that Jack's parents often used him as a tool against each other and were fighting through pretty much the whole book. It's not a happy portrait of marriage for middle-grade age kids to be reading. Lots of disobedience and lying on Jack's part, and lying/sneakiness between the parents.
Overall, I get the feeling I may be looking too deeply into this book. Maybe it's not meant to be anything but a zany, funny read, and as far as that goes, I will say it was somewhat entertaining. But I do feel the book was trying to make some sort of point through Miss Volker's lectures, and I didn't agree with the points that were made. I did enjoy the reading of it, until I started to get frustrated by some of the political/religious messages that were inserted. The ending was not as solid as I would have liked. I think this book was trying to be zany while also having some depth, but the "depth" here was actually pretty shallow, and not based in Truth. For that reason I wouldn't recommend it or hand it to my kids.
In this book, Jack is grounded by his parents after accidentally firing his dad's Japanese rifle from WW2. His mother loans him out to an old lady, Miss Volker, who writes obituaries for the newspaper. They live in a Roosevelt town, a town whose founding was funded by the government, and Miss Volker has promised that she would stay in the town until the last original Norvelt resident dies off. However, older people start dying off at an alarming rate, Jack's parents are feuding, the houses are getting sold off to a different Roosevelt town that is doing better, and change is in the air.
I have a few content notes for parents, and then I'll tell you my thoughts on this book.
Language: There is one bad word used in a historical quote, a few uses of God's name in vain. But what really bothered me was that the main character often uses a euphemism for Jesus's name as a swear word (the character says "Cheese-us-crust"). As a Christian parent, this really bothers me. It's obvious what the phrase he uses is replacing, and I just don't appreciate that in middle grade fiction.
Political: In this story, Eleanor Roosevelt is the hero. She is praised constantly by Miss Volker for starting the town, and no one in the town wants to disappoint Mrs. Roosevelt. I don't have anything against Eleanor Roosevelt, but I don't agree with her politics and she's not my favorite first lady, so I felt "meh" about this aspect of the story. Miss Volker is really into history, and gives Jack mini history lectures throughout the book. I was kind of irked by one lecture about Hiroshima, in which she says in reference to America "no other nation has been this cruel and inhumane and killed more people so quickly in the whole bloody history of the world" (pg. 280). Um, what about Germany, which under Hitler exterminated six million Jews in concentration camps during the exact same war? That was pretty cruel and inhumane. Hitler's atrocities were the main reason for WW2 in the first place. Yes, war is terrible and Hiroshima was a very sad event in history. But there were alot of tragic things in that war. I didn't like how this character paints America as this evil cruel nation that dropped bombs for no reason, which is certainly a simplistic misrepresentation of the WW2 history.
Worldview: Several places in the book, Miss Volker talks about how it would be better for the older folks to die off so younger people could come and take their place. As someone who is pro-life from womb to tomb, this didn't sit well. I believe human life is always valuable, and especially older people have much to teach those of us who are younger. I expected this book to show some value and respect for older people since some of the character are elderly, but that's not what was communicated by the attitudes of these characters.
Religious: Miss Volker states that God has nothing to do with winning and losing wars. She talks about how "there are four thousand religions in the world, and it's impossible to claim that one God is more powerful than another God."(pg. 279). Jack daydreams about his own ideas of Heaven. Some references to "the promised land", meaning Heaven, but no explanation of how to get there other than "good behavior". This is NOT the Gospel (the Gospel is that we are all sinners, destined for Hell as a just punishment of our sin, and our good behavior is as filthy rags - which is why we need Christ to take our punishment and save us when we put our trust in Him). Christian parents should be aware to discuss this aspect with their kids.
Violence: Cavalier attitude toward death throughout this book. Descriptions of some corpses that were rather gruesome. Jack's nose bleeds at the slightest provocation, so lots of descriptions of blood (if you are sensitive to blood, you will definitely be grossed out). Just an overall focus on death that was at times supposed to be humorous, other times rather morbid.
Other: Jack goes deer hunting with his dad and purposely foils the hunt because he feels bad for the deer. Legal hunters and poachers are not distinguished, so when a deer is poached later it is not clear why the event was wrong. Jack worries some trigger-happy hunter may accidentally shoot him. I often find hunters and poachers are conflated in modern fiction books, and as a person who comes from a long line of hunters, this bothers me. The hunters I know are very serious about gun safety and are just as upset by poachers as anyone, because we care about the law and conservation. I feel misrepresented here, as a hunter. I also did not love that Jack's parents often used him as a tool against each other and were fighting through pretty much the whole book. It's not a happy portrait of marriage for middle-grade age kids to be reading. Lots of disobedience and lying on Jack's part, and lying/sneakiness between the parents.
Overall, I get the feeling I may be looking too deeply into this book. Maybe it's not meant to be anything but a zany, funny read, and as far as that goes, I will say it was somewhat entertaining. But I do feel the book was trying to make some sort of point through Miss Volker's lectures, and I didn't agree with the points that were made. I did enjoy the reading of it, until I started to get frustrated by some of the political/religious messages that were inserted. The ending was not as solid as I would have liked. I think this book was trying to be zany while also having some depth, but the "depth" here was actually pretty shallow, and not based in Truth. For that reason I wouldn't recommend it or hand it to my kids.
keen23's review against another edition
4.0
I liked this book enough that I'm going to get the sequel.
reader4evr's review against another edition
4.0
While attending a BER conference, the presenter read this book aloud from one of the chapters and I was laughing/giggling so I knew that I had to read this. I ended up listening to this (narrated by Jack Gantos) and I felt like he was able to bring the story alive. Overall, I think this book would be a great read aloud for a social studies class.
Jack was a fun main character, totally stereotypical "tween" but entertaining. I loved his fake swearing (cheeze-us crust!). Hands down, Miss Volker is probably one of the best elderly characters from a novel.
The different parts of history were explained well and I felt like I learned more about this certain time period that I did when I was growing up.
I didn't expect the ending, pretty crazy with who was actually killing off the old woman in the town.
Would I recommend this book to a teenager in my high school probably not but it would be still fun to read aloud.
Jack was a fun main character, totally stereotypical "tween" but entertaining. I loved his fake swearing (cheeze-us crust!). Hands down, Miss Volker is probably one of the best elderly characters from a novel.
The different parts of history were explained well and I felt like I learned more about this certain time period that I did when I was growing up.
I didn't expect the ending, pretty crazy with who was actually killing off the old woman in the town.
Would I recommend this book to a teenager in my high school probably not but it would be still fun to read aloud.
katykelly's review against another edition
4.0
I was really enjoying this... Funny story, interesting narrator, quirky town. Then I thought the ending let it down a bit - obvious murderer, some really emotionless reactions to so many deaths (betting who did it, promising to give all the gory details, no sadness at all about it), and it deflated the enjoyment for me a little.
Not sure I'd have said it was a worthy Newbery winner but on the whole an original story and worth a read.
Not sure I'd have said it was a worthy Newbery winner but on the whole an original story and worth a read.
alicebme's review against another edition
4.0
The world needs more interesting people. I want to live in Norvelt.
protoman21's review against another edition
4.0
Though this book didn't thrill me, it was very solid and consistently good. You can really tell that Gantos' Joey Pigza character was based on himself, because sometimes I had to remind myself I wasn't reading the latest book in that series instead of this semi-biographical tale about Gantos' childhood. Also at times this had a very Leave it to Beaver feel, which was perfectly fine with me since that was one of my favorite shows growing up. I appreciate that Gantos doesn't write down to his audience. Though this book has a child's voice, and the content is appropriate, the language and historical content is not dumbed down. Overall an entertaining book and a worthy read.
t8r's review against another edition
3.0
This is a cute book. I like that it encourages reading and studying history. Other than that, the plot is . . . cute. The audiobook is great for family road trips.
gmamartha's review against another edition
3.0
Jack Gantos does not disappoint. Growing up in a small town in the not-too-distant past, being grounded for the summer ends up having unusual "high points" that include helping the neighbor write obituaries. Each character in this town has their own history. I turned the last page wanting the story to keep going.
timna_wyckoff's review against another edition
3.0
Read for 3rd grade book club. At times hilarious, at times poignant, there were lots of small stories (semi-autobiographical) that I enjoyed about Jack Gantos and his adventures during the summer he was grounded for two months. But, the fictional story added on top to give narrative arc (I think) was too much of a stretch for my taste. And, the ending left something to be desired.