Dead End in Norvelt by Jack Gantos

Spotlight on Historical Fiction

Dead End in Norvelt by Jack Gantos

Its summertime in Norvelt and Jack is grounded.  A neighbor, Miss Volker, calls Jack’s mom for his help…and it turns into a summer Jack will never forget!  Let’s shine the spotlight on this work of historical fiction:

Summary

Jack Gantos is grounded.  He accidently fires his Dad’s WWII rifle and gives his mom a scare.  He suffers from chronic nosebleeds.  When his mom hears the rifle and sees the blood, her thinking goes to the extreme scenario.  But, the rifle only fired into the air and the blood was from Jack’s over active nose.  Jack’s homebound status puts a damper on his summer.  He is missing time with his friend, Bunny, and their baseball team.  He is fascinated by history and spends a lot of time reading and thinking in his room.  Jack’s grounding gets even more severe when he mows down his mom’s cornfield (against her directions) in favor of his dad’s plan to build a runway for his J-3 warplane.  Jack follows his dad’s plan, hoping he can have a chance to go for a ride in the plane sometime soon.

Jack is only able to leave the house for two things: to help outside with any projects or yard work or to go to Miss Volker’s house.  Jack’s mom keeps her word with the neighbor, Miss Volker, and “loans” Jack to help her with a project.  He starts working with her after his first incident with the rifle and he’s pleased to find out he gets to continue helping her after his incident with the cornfield. 

Jack learns Miss Volker writes obituaries for the town of Norvelt.  She knows something about everyone in the community and uses her knowledge, along with Norvelt history, to write unique obituaries.  She even has a needlepoint map of the “original Norvelt” where she keeps track of the original homeowners in the community.  She feels pride in her town and wants to take care of it the way Eleanor Roosevelt, the town’s founder, would have.  She enlists Jack’s help with writing down her words for the obituaries because she has arthritis in her hands.  He also gets to deliver the columns to the newspaper.  Anytime Miss Volker finds out someone in the town has passed away, she calls Jack.

Miss Volker’s time spent with Jack draws the attention of Mr. Spizz, the town busybody.  Actually, everything in the town draws the attention of Mr. Spizz.  He is the self-proclaimed deputy of the volunteer police and fire deparments.  Mr. Spizz leaves Miss Volker notes with boxes of chocolates outside her door.  He has always believed he would be the last original Norvelt man living along side Miss Volker, the last original Norvelt woman, and is convinced they are destined to be together.

The town of Norvelt is at a point of transition.  Many of the original homeowners in Norvelt are aging.  Some of the homes in the town are being moved to start a new community in West Virginia.  Then, many of the older women who were original homeowners begin passing away, one by one.  Their deaths seem to be due to natural causes, but as they add up, they become even more mysterious.  Some community members believe a Hells Angel cursed the town when he was hit by a truck and passed away.  Miss Volker is questioned for not performing proper medical autopsies.  Jack’s mom worries she may have poisoned the ladies with bad mushrooms in the meals she prepares and donates to the Community Center.  Jack worries it might have something to do with the 1080 poison being used to kill rats by the town dumpsters and mice in Miss Volker’s basement. 

Soon after Jack’s realization about the poison, Mr. Spizz informs him Miss Volker has been arrested for murder for killing the older women.  Mr. Spizz claims Miss Volker was poisoning the women with 1080 poison, since they found it at her house.  Eventually, its Mr. Spizz who admits to poisoning the older women.  He wanted to kill them in order to get closer to Miss Volker.  Jack rescues Miss Volker and finds out the whole story about Mr. Spizz.  Jack goes home and tells his mom everything.  He ends up ungrounded, makes it to his baseball game and meets his dad in the outfield…for a flight to Florida in the J-3! 

Discussion

This is a historical fiction book set in 1962.  The author weaves real stories from his childhood into his book, like growing up with nosebleeds.  The setting is the real town of Norvelt, Pennsylvania, where Gantos spent part of his childhood.  Miss Volker’s character is based on someone he knows from Norvelt and his dad had also had souvenirs from WWII.

Other historic events are added to the story through Jack’s love of reading.  He is interested in history and reads many books from the Landmark history series about historic events like: Captain Cortez Conquers Mexico, The California Gold Rush, King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table and John F. Kennedy and PT-109.  His thoughts about what he is reading reveal details about the historic events.  He also reads Miss Volker’s “This Day in History” column each day.  She details events from as far back as the 1400’s and 1500’s. The authenticity of this book is enriched through Jack and Miss Volker’s interactions around historic events, as well as through the autobiographical nature of some of the stories and details.

Gantos fills this book with interesting characters.  He uses Jack’s thoughts and actions as the driving force behind the narration.  Jack is written with a strong voice.  It is almost written in Jack’s stream of consciousness with him sharing his thoughts, taking readers off track with his mind deep in thought about history, then bringing readers back to the present situation.  Readers will have a deep understanding of Jack as a character through his thoughts and interactions with the other characters in the book.  Readers will relate to him as a main character.  His relationships with the other characters in the book are genuine and realistic.  The interactions with those around him seem typical for a teenage boy.  He is negotiating his relationship with his parents, friends and neighbors while trying to assert his independence. Throughout the book, readers will see an evolution in thinking and in his interactions. 

Miss Volker is developed as one of the most interesting characters.  Readers will be drawn into the book by Jack’s first encounter with Miss Volker where his imagination gets the best of him.  “You won’t be fine…you won’t ever be fine because you just melted your hands off!” (Gantos, 2011, p. 25)  and “Please don’t eat your own flesh” (Gantos, 2011, p. 25) are quotes from Jack after Miss Volker dips her hands in hot paraffin wax to help with her arthritis.  Miss Volker’s voice is written with a mix of nostalgia and sass in her ‘tell it like it is’ way.  Many other historical details come through Miss Volker and her obituaries.  She relates historic events to the lives of people in Norvelt in a unique way.  She and Jack lay the foundation for the historical details to be interwoven throughout the book.

The plot will keep readers interested as they follow many storylines at once.  The book shifts the readers focus from Jack interacting with one character, then another.  Readers will wonder what the other characters are up to and look for the book to circle back around to find out about those characters again. 

Gantos carries out the theme of the importance of history and knowing where we’ve been throughout the book.  Miss Volker shares, “If you don't know your history you won't know the difference between the truth and wishful thinking," (Gantos, 2011, p. 214) and Jack shares, “The reason you remind yourself of the stupid stuff you've done in the past is so you don't do it again” (Gantos, 2011, p. 340).  The passion Jack and Miss Volker have for history comes through in Gantos’ writing. 

Overall, the strength of this book is in Gantos’ writing style.  He provides vivid characters in Jack and Miss Volker.  He also pulled together stories from his childhood, historical events and fictional stories into an entertaining book.

Awards/Reviews

Jack Gantos has won many awards for his books written for all ages.  His memoir, Hole in My Life, won the Michael L. Printz and Robert F. Sibert Honors.  His book Joey Pigza Swallowed the Key was a National Book Award Finalist and Joey Pigza Loses Control was a Newbery Honor book.

Dead End in Norvelt was the winner of the 2012 Newbery Medal and the Scott O'Dell Award.

Here are examples of a few reviews:

“A bit of autobiography works its way into all of Gantos’s work, but he one-ups himself in this wildly entertaining meld of truth and fiction by naming the main character . . . Jackie Gantos.” — Publishers Weekly

“A fast-paced and witty read.” — School Library Journal

 “There’s more than laugh-out-loud gothic comedy here.  This is a richly layered semi-autobiographical tale, an ode to a time and place, to history and the power of reading.” — The Horn Book

“Gantos, as always, delivers bushels of food for thought and plenty of outright guffaws.” — Booklist

“An exhilarating summer marked by death, gore and fire sparks deep thoughts in a small-town lad not uncoincidentally named ‘Jack Gantos.’  The gore is all Jack’s, which to his continuing embarrassment ‘would spray out of my nose holes like dragon flames’ whenever anything exciting or upsetting happens.  And that would be on every other page, seemingly. . .Characteristically provocative gothic comedy, with sublime undertones.”  —Kirkus Review

Teacher’s Tools

Students can engage in further research about Eleanor Roosevelt’s impact during her husband’s presidency. 

The book references events in United States history occurring at the time of this book.  A time line of the significant events during the 1960’s could be created.

Students could research the events in history for the upcoming week to write a “This Week in History” column like Miss Volker.  The column could be shared in the class newsletter to parents or on a class website.

Students could work in small groups to discuss the relationship Jack shares with one of the characters in the book: Mom, Dad, Miss Volker, Bunny or Mr. Spizz.  Students could discuss how the relationships change throughout the book, then share their understandings with the class.

Bibliographic Information

Gantos, Jack. 2011. Dead End in Norvelt. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux. ISBN: 978-0-374-37993-3.