From Norvelt to Nowhere

Starred review from August 12, 2013
Gantos’s sequel to his Newbery-winning Dead End in Norvelt offers less history, more murder, and another hefty helping of zaniness. An explosion shuts school for repairs, leaving Jackie, 12, free to accompany Miss Volker to Hyde Park, N.Y., to pay last respects to Norvelt’s recently deceased founder, Eleanor Roosevelt. Death (and a detective) seem to shadow Jackie around every bend: Mr. Spizz, the murder suspect from Dead End in Norvelt, is still at large when a new victim dies, and the travelers head to Florida when Miss Volker learns her twin sister has expired (she suspects foul play). During their road trip, Jackie reads Classics Illustrated comics that his mother has forbidden. “Those,” she tells him, “are what cheaters and idiots read.” But Miss Volker uses Jackie’s reading as a springboard to examine the life she’s lived, confessing her own Jekyll and Hyde personality and drawing a hilarious analogy between herself and Spizz to Ahab and his whale. The anxieties of the Cold War recede, overshadowed by these two larger-than-life characters bent on bringing a murderer to justice in the kookiest way possible. Ages 10–14.

September 1, 2013
The chase after a serial killer sparks an eventful, if not particularly life-changing, road trip in this sequel to the Newbery-winning Dead End in Norvelt (2011). Following the poisoning of yet another old lady (see previous episode), 12-year-old Jack--aka "Gantos boy"--finds himself drafted to squire his crusty, arthritic neighbor Miss Volker from Pennsylvania to Florida. The ostensible mission? To kill her lifelong would-be beau and chief suspect, Edwin Spizz. Gantos (the author) displays a dab hand at crafting witty one-liners ("Honestly, without guns how do you think old ladies ever get kissed?") and hilariously improbable situations. He also seems determined to jam in as many references to Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Moby-Dick and other classics as possible, along with Miss Volker's lectures on topics from Anne Hutchinson and the Puritans to Norvelt's founder, Eleanor Roosevelt, and FDR's infidelities. Jack (the boy) may drive the car on the journey, but it's the interactions and back stories of Miss Volker, Spizz and other adults that drive the story itself to its drolly gothic denouement. This occurs in a Miami funeral home, leaving Jack (the boy) perhaps not far from where Jack (the author)'s earlier semifictional avatar, Jack Henry (Heads or Tails, 1994, etc.), resides. Dollops of history and mystery, plus gross to wickedly barbed comical set pieces set in a talky, ambling, amiable odyssey. (Historical fiction. 11-13)

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October 1, 2013

Gr 5-8-Gantos picks up where Dead End in Norvelt (Farrar, 2011) left off. Mr. Spitz is on the run and Miss Volker is the last Norvelt old lady remaining. In the wake of three momentous deaths, young Jack finds himself rushed from one uproarious adventure to another. Accompanying Miss Volker, he traverses the country ostensibly to memorialize Eleanor Roosevelt and Miss Volker's sister. Little does he know, however, that Miss Volker has another agenda. Even though she claims to be a pacifist, she becomes more bloodthirsty at each stop in her efforts to catch the murderous Mr. Spitz. Along the way she teaches Jack (and readers) about the history of the country in colorful and enlightening ways. The book is fast paced and laced with both history lessons and hilarity. The characters, who were so well developed in the first book, return, with perhaps too much reliance on previous developments. This is definitely a follow-up book, rather than one that reads well alone. Fans of Dead End in Norvelt will love reading more about young Jack Gantos and his pal, Miss Volker.-Genevieve Feldman, San Francisco Public Library

Copyright 2013 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from September 15, 2013
Grades 6-9 *Starred Review* Whodunit this time? The murder of yet another old lady starts off this rambunctious sequel to Gantos' Newbery Medalwinning Dead End in Norvelt (2011). Is it old Spizz, who is on the lam after confessing to the murder of nine others? Is it Miss Volker, young Jack's mentor? Could it be Mr. Huffer, the local undertaker? Before the mystery can be solved, Jack finds himself en route to Hyde Park with Miss Volker to pay tribute to the recently deceased Eleanor Roosevelt, who founded Norvelt. Once there, Miss Volker receives word that her twin sister has died (or been murdered?) in Miami, and so the two catch the first train south. When first Spizzwhom Miss Volker has vowed to shoot on sightand then Mr. Huffer show up, our heroes decamp to Washington, D.C.; buy a battered old VW; and hit the long and winding road to the Sunshine State, pursued by the usual suspects, plus a mysterious ferret-faced fellow. Yes, there's more than a little of the outr' in this mystery-cum-farce that unspools episodically, building suspense along the way. Gantos does an excellent job of keeping readers guessing about his characters: are they the good Dr. Jekyll or the evil Mr. Hyde or perhaps a bit of both? Whichever, fans of Dead End in Norvelt won't want to miss this lively sequel.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2013, American Library Association.)

January 27, 2014
In this follow up to the award-winning Dead End in Norvelt, Gantos sends 12-year-old Jack and his elderly mentor, Miss Volker, on a road trip to New York, set against the backdrop of the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962. But with Mr. Spizz—the murderer from the first book—still at large and a new victim dead in Florida, the duo must head south to find justice. As a narrator, Gantos reads with an easygoing approach that works well for the material. He makes little effort to tweak his tone or alter his voice to render voices for the book’s characters. But—perhaps because of his deep knowledge of his own work—his performance is entertaining and effective. Ages 10–14. A Farrar, Straus & Giroux hardcover.

November 1, 2013
Call me Jack. Twelve-year-old Jack Gantos has recently read the Classics Illustrated Moby-Dick, and now his life is eerily paralleling that whaling tale. In the Newbery Medalwinning Dead End in Norvelt (rev. 9/11), Mr. Spizz allegedly poisoned seven old ladies to get to his true love, Miss Volker, and now she is out to get him. I'm going to track down that thick-skulled white whale and then I'm going to kill him. I'll be his Captain Ahab, and she enlists Jack to be her Ishmael. Perhaps not the best decision-making by the duo, but then the Cuban Missile Crisis looms and, as Jack says, Bad choices don't matter anymore. Since we're all going to be blown up anyway. Like a bug-eyed maniac, Jack ends up sailing their Pequoda decrepit VW Beetlealong the back roads of Tennessee and Virginia in pursuit of their quarry, Miss Volker ready with a sharpened harpoon in the roof rack. Drawing imagery from Moby-Dick, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, and Frankenstein, Gantos employs gothic humor, scene-crafting mastery, and Jack's querulous voice to offer a wild and challenging road-trip novel, murder mystery, meditation on American history, and love story all in one. The tale has as many twists and turns as those Tennessee back roads or the heart of Miss Volker, who, as it turns out, only wanted some love before the world blows up. Miss Volker fares a bit better than Captain Ahab did, and readers will be happy to have shared the rich journey that is the Norvelt saga. dean schneider

(Copyright 2013 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)

January 1, 2014
Drawing imagery from Moby-Dick, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, and Frankenstein, Gantos employs gothic humor, scene-crafting mastery, and his Dead End in Norvelt protagonist Jack's querulous voice to offer a wild and challenging road-trip novel, murder mystery, meditation on American history, and love story all in one. The tale has as many twists and turns as those Tennessee back roads.

(Copyright 2014 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)