Dead End in Norvelt (Norvelt Series)

Dead End in Norvelt (Norvelt Series)

By Jack Gantos

38 ratings 49 reviews 52 followers
Interest LevelReading LevelReading A-ZATOSWord Count
Grades 4 - 8Grades 10 - 8Y5.773597

Dead End in Norvelt is the winner of the 2012 Newbery Medal for the year's best contribution to children's literature and the Scott O'Dell Award for Historical Fiction!

Melding the entirely true and the wildly fictional, Dead End in Norvelt is a novel about an incredible two months for a kid named Jack Gantos, whose plans for vacation excitement are shot down when he is "grounded for life" by his feuding parents, and whose nose spews bad blood at every little shock he gets. But plenty of excitement (and shocks) are coming Jack's way once his mom loans him out to help a fiesty old neighbor with a most unusual chore―typewriting obituaries filled with stories about the people who founded his utopian town. As one obituary leads to another, Jack is launced on a strange adventure involving molten wax, Eleanor Roosevelt, twisted promises, a homemade airplane, Girl Scout cookies, a man on a trike, a dancing plague, voices from the past, Hells Angels . . . and possibly murder. Endlessly surprising, this sly, sharp-edged narrative is the author at his very best, making readers laugh out loud at the most unexpected things in a dead-funny depiction of growing up in a slightly off-kilter place where the past is present, the present is confusing, and the future is completely up in the air.

Publisher: Square Fish
ISBN-13: 9781250010230
ISBN-10: 1250010233
Published on 5/7/2013
Binding: Paperback
Number of pages: 384

Book Reviews (46)

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I thought this book was okay. Although it had a good plot, I'm not very into historical-fiction. But if you like historical-fiction, then you will love this book! It is funny and entertaining, as Jack Gantos goes on many adventures with his old lady next-door neighbor and solves many mysteries in their small-town.

This is one of the funniest books ever!!!!!! It is about this kid named Jack Gantos and his two months of being grounded. I would recommend this book to anyone that likes humorous books!

I liked the book a lot and I thought that it should have been a better ending and that my favorite charter was Jack Gantos.

I like the book cause I like how it is in a small town more things happen in small towns then big towns cause better things happen in small towns I would read thins again

This book will keep going in your mind tell the reader finds out why the killings happened and the boy in the middle of it will have the hardest time trying to figure out.

This book was written very well because you'll never predict what will happen next.

The book in the beginning was pretty boring. I personally think that i would recommend it to boys. The book had a really good mystery which is why the book was better. Not my personal favorite, but i would still recommend it!

I read this book to my 6th grade students and they loved it. It includes historical information that is very interesting as well as keeps the kids on the edge of their seats while trying to find out who "did it" ... we loved it!

This book is very interesting and somewhat mysterious. I recommend this book for 5th and 6th grade boys. This book has some historical-fiction and has some references to WWII.

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