Jack Gantos has scored the 2012 Newbery Medal with Dead End in Norvelt. 
This news made me smile. Gantos is, of course, a children’s author as he wouldn’t have won a Newbery if his books weren’t intended for kids, but there is tangible depth and insight to his middle and high school books that I find very appealing.
A couple of years ago I discovered he’d written a memoir, Hole in My Life, which should be required reading for every teenage boy who might be looking for direction. 
Hole in My Life won the Printz award for excellence in Young Adult literature in 2003. Dead End in Norvelt takes the reader further back in Gantos’ life, to the year 1962, when he was 12 and trying to grow up in a small town in western Pennsylvania. Two memoirs, two major awards – way to go, Jack Gantos!
For more information on Jack Gantos click here.
For a complete list of 2012 Newbery, Caldecott and Printz honorees and award winners click here.
Jane
