About Jack Gantos
Jack Gantos is an author of children's books and young adult books. He is the author of the Rotten Ralph and Jack Henry series. Jack Gantos was born in Mount Pleasant, Pennsylvania. He remembers playing a lot of “pass the chalk” in Mrs. Neiderheizer’s class in first grade. He was in the Bluebird reading group, which he later found out was for the slow readers. To this day he’d rather be called a Bluebird than a slow reader. His favorite game at that time was playing his clothes were on fire and rolling down a hill to save himself.
When he was seven, his family moved to Barbados. He attended British schools, where there was much emphasis on reading and writing. Students were friendly but fiercely competitive, and the teachers made learning a lot of fun. By fifth grade he had managed to learn 90 percent of what he knows to this very day.
When the family moved to south Florida, he found his new classmates uninterested in their studies, and his teachers spent most of their time disciplining students. Jack retreated to an abandoned bookmobile (three flat tires and empty of books) parked out behind the sandy ball field, and read for most of the day. His greatest wish in life is to replace trailer parks with bookmobile parks, which he thinks will eliminate most of the targets for tornadoes and educate an entire generation of great kids who now go to schools that are underfunded and substandard.
The seeds for Jack’s writing career were planted in sixth grade, when he read his sister’s diary and decided he could write better than she could. He begged his mother for a diary and began to collect anecdotes he overheard at school, mostly from standing outside the teachers’ lounge and listening to their lunchtime conversations. Later, he incorporated many of these anecdotes into stories.
In junior high he went to a school that had been converted from a former state prison. He thinks the inmates probably fled for their lives once the students showed up. Again, he spent most of his time reading on his own.
In high school he decided to become a writer. But he would have to wait another three years, until he went to college, before he could actually meet other writers and study with teachers who thought writing amounted to more than just cribbing book reports and composing sympathy notes.
While in college, he and an illustrator friend, Nicole Rubel, began working on picture books. After a series of well-deserved rejections, they published their first book, Rotten Ralph, in 1976. It was a success and the beginning of Jack’s career as a professional writer. This surprised a great many people who thought he was going to specialize in rehabilitating old bookmobiles into housing for retired librarians.
Jack continued to write children’s books and began to teach courses in children’s book writing and children’s literature. He developed the master’s degree program in children’s book writing at Emerson College and the Vermont College M.F.A. program for children’s book writers. He now devotes his time to writing books and educational speaking.
His publications can take a reader from “cradle to grave” -- from picture books and middle-grade fiction to novels for young adults and adults.
Mr. Gantos is known nationally for his educational creative writing and literature presentations to students and teachers. He is a frequent conference speaker, university lecturer, and in-service provider.
Jack Gantos is an author of children's books and young adult books. He is the author of the Rotten Ralph and Jack Henry series. Jack Gantos was born in Mount Pleasant, Pennsylvania. He remembers playing a lot of “pass the chalk” in Mrs. Neiderheizer’s class in first grade. He was in the Bluebird reading group, which he later found out was for the slow readers. To this day he’d rather be ca...
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| Title, Creators, Comments / Reviews |
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Date Published |
| 1. Writing Radar: Using Your Journal to Snoop Out and Craft Great Stories (... Author: Jack Gantos Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux (BYR)
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08/29/2017
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84 Reviews |
| 2. The Trouble in Me (Audible Audio Edition) Author: Jack Gantos Publisher: Macmillan Audio
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09/01/2015
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| 3. The Key That Swallowed Joey Pigza (Audio CD) Author: Jack Gantos Publisher: Listening Library (Audio)
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10/28/2014
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| 4. I Am Not Joey Pigza (Paperback) Author: Jack Gantos Publisher: Square Fish
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YA |
09/13/2011
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2 Reviews |
| 5. Joey Pigza Loses Control (Paperback) Author: Jack Gantos Publisher: Square Fish
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9-12 |
07/05/2011
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449 Reviews |
| 6. Guys Read: Funny Business (Paperback) Author: Adam Rex, Christopher Paul Curtis, David Yoo, Eoin Colfer, Jack Gantos, Jon Scieszka, Kate DiCamillo, Paul Feig, Mac Barnett Publisher: Walden Pond Press
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9-12 |
09/21/2010
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517 Reviews |
| 7. Rotten Ralph Book and CD (Read Along Book & CD) (Paperback) Author: Jack Gantos Illustrator: Nicole Rubel Publisher: Sandpiper
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4-8 |
09/20/2010
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88 Reviews |
| 8. This Family Is Driving Me Crazy: Ten Stories About Surviving Your Family... Author: David Lubar, Dian Curtis Regan, Gordon Korman, Jack Gantos, Joan Bauer, John H. Ritter, Mel Glenn, Nancy Springer, SHARON DENNIS WYETH, Walter Dean Myers Publisher: Putnam Juvenile
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9-12 |
10/29/2009
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17 Reviews |
| 9. The Nine Lives of Rotten Ralph (Hardcover) Author: Jack Gantos Illustrator: Nicole Rubel Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Books for Children
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4-8 |
04/20/2009
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31 Reviews |
| 10. Best in Show for Rotten Ralph [With Book] (Rotten Ralph Rotten Readers) ... Author: Jack Gantos Illustrator: Nicole Rubel Publisher: Live Oak Media
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4-8 |
06/01/2008
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| 11. Rotten Ralph Feels Rotten (Hardcover) Author: Jack Gantos Illustrator: Nicole Rubel Publisher: Live Oak Media
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4-8 |
08/31/2007
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3 Reviews |
| 12. I Am Not Joey Pigza (Hardcover) Author: Jack Gantos Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux (BYR)
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9-12 |
07/24/2007
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143 Reviews |
| 13. Jack's Black Book (Hardcover) Author: Jack Gantos Publisher: Thorndike Press
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9-12 |
11/2006
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57 Reviews |
| 14. Peter Pan (Scholastic Classics) (Library Binding) Author: J. M. Barrie Publisher: Franklin Watts
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YA |
08/01/2006
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16,513 Reviews |
| 15. Rotten Ralph Helps Out (Paperback) Author: Jack Gantos Illustrator: Nicole Rubel Publisher: Live Oak Media
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4-8 |
05/2006
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8 Reviews |
| 16. The Love Curse of the Rumbaughs (Hardcover) Author: Jack Gantos Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux (BYR)
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9-12 |
04/18/2006
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255 Reviews |
| 17. Hole in My Life (Lib)(CD) (Audio CD) Author: Jack Gantos, Michael L. Printz Honor, Sibert Honor Publisher: Listening Library
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02/28/2006
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1,604 Reviews |
| 18. What Would Joey Do? : Joey Pigza Trilogy Book 3 (Audio Cassette) Publisher: Listening Library
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01/2006
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39 Reviews |
| 19. Best in Show for Rotten Ralph: A Rotten Ralph Rotten Reader (Hardcover) Author: Jack Gantos Illustrator: Nicole Rubel Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux (BYR)
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4-8 |
08/13/2005
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4 Reviews |
| 20. Hole In My Life (Paperback) Author: Jack Gantos Publisher: Thorndike Press
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YA |
03/14/2005
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877 Reviews |
| 21. What Would Joey Do? (Lib)(CD) (Audio CD) Author: Jack Gantos Publisher: Listening Library
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02/22/2005
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121 Reviews |
| 22. Rotten Ralph's Rotten Romance (Paperback) Author: Jack Gantos Illustrator: Nicole Rubel Publisher: Houghton Mifflin
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4-8 |
01/17/2005
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11 Reviews |
| 23. Rotten Ralph Helps Out: A Rotten Ralph Rotten Reader (Rotten Ralph Rotte... Author: Jack Gantos Illustrator: Nicole Rubel Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux (BYR)
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4-8 |
09/08/2004
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6 Reviews |
| 24. Rotten Ralph's Trick or Treat Book & Cassette (Paperback) Author: Jack Gantos Illustrator: Nicole Rubel Publisher: Houghton Mifflin
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4-8 |
08/30/2004
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22 Reviews |
| 25. Joey Pigza Loses Con (Lib)(CD) (Audio CD) Author: Jack Gantos Publisher: Listening Library
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03/23/2004
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Bestselling order determined by Amazon.com SalesRank(tm) |