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Title details for I Am Not Joey Pigza by Jack Gantos - Available

I Am Not Joey Pigza

#4 in series

by Jack Gantos
Jack Gantos
Audiobook
3 of 3 copies available
Borrow Listen to a sample Listen to a sample
3 of 3 copies available
“I’m a brand-new man with a brand-new plan.”
Joey Pigza is knocked for a loop when his good-for-nothing dad shows up on his doorstep as a recycled person. After a lucky lotto win, Carter Pigza truly believes he’s somebody else. He’s even renamed himself Charles Heinz–and he insists that Joey and his mother join his happy Heinz family plan.
“My head felt like it was full of bees, and they were busy in ways that were bad for me.”
Joey has little choice but to embrace a head-spinning series of changes, which include having to leave school to help out at the beat-up roadside diner his dad has purchased. But Joey is afraid that in going with the flow he will go over the falls and end up in a place far away from who he really is.
In this seriously comic new novel, Jack Gantos pushes his acclaimed hero into entirely new territory, where he wrestles with issues of identity and forgiveness, and teaches himself how to triple-flip a turkey burger while shouting out his new favorite phrase . . .
“Do you want fries with that?”

  • Creators

  • Series

    Joey Pigza

  • Publisher

  • Release date

    July 24, 2007

  • Formats

    • OverDrive Listen audiobook

      • ISBN: 9780739361467
      • File size: 138003 KB
      • Duration: 04:47:30

  • Languages

    • English

  • Levels

    • ATOS Level: 5.3
    • Lexile® Measure: 870
    • Interest Level: 4-8(MG)
    • Text Difficulty: 4-5

  • Reviews

    • AudioFile Magazine
      Joey has come a long way to find himself, but now his dad is back and wants him to become someone totally different. Does he want to? Has Dad really changed? Can Joey forgive him? Gantos knows his character and his problems well enough to read with a jerky rhythm and choppy inflection, reminding us that Joey has to work hard to keep his world, and his brain, under control. Gantos also brings out the sweet, sensitive, loving side of Joey, whose world is starting to fall apart once again. We hear the panic building in his increasingly loud voice--as we know it's building in his head--as he tries to calm and take care of himself because the adults in his life aren't doing their jobs. W.L.S. (c) AudioFile 2008, Portland, Maine
    • Publisher's Weekly

      Starred review from July 23, 2007
      In suitably off-kilter fashion, this fourth installment in what had been previously called a trilogy finds the hyperactive hero reunited with Carter Pigza, his “no-good squinty-eyed bad dad.” Having won a small fortune in the lottery, Carter’s back to reclaim his role as family man. The hilarious “rewedding” vows—his “I forgive you for all the times you called me a lifelong loser” begets wife Fran’s “I forgive you for trying to run me over with your motorcycle”—establish the theme for this episode in Joey’s chaotic childhood: How do you forgive people for being who they are? Especially when who they are is an incredibly lousy parent? Carter, like Joey, is not a man of small gestures; in wiping the slate clean, he changes their names to Charles, Maria and Freddy Heinz, and moves the family to the country where he has bought a roadside diner to renovate and open as The Beehive. Naturally, things do not go according to plan. In one scene, Joey/Freddy plays in traffic in a bee costume to publicize the new restaurant and winds up in police custody. As in the other Joey Pigza books, the plot doesn’t move so much as careen from one over-the-top event to the next, the achievement being that every one of them feels entirely plausible. Gantos exercises complete command of his subject—so thoroughly inside the dented head of his character that readers easily suspend disbelief. Another wild ride–over serious terrain. Ages 10-up.

    • School Library Journal

      March 1, 2008
      Gr 5-7-In this latest installment (Farrar, Strauss 2007) in the series by Jack Gantos, Joey Pigzas life is turned upside down when his father comes back into the picture claiming to be a changed man, with a new nameCharles Heinz. Joeys dad recently won the lottery and is trying to use this new good karma to convince Joey and his mom to join him and become the Heinz family. With a series of humorous and poignant moments, Joey struggles with his new identity as Freddy Heinz, while trying to forgive his father for his past. Gantos treats listeners to a spot-on performance of Joeys scattered and adventurous life. The charming and, at times, whining tones of Gantos vocal patterns are perfect for the spunky Joey, while at the same time clearly conveying the more adult voices in Joeys world. The pacing of the audio is consistently swift, keeping up with Joeys antics and his dads sometimes maniacal scheming to gain more good karma, while frantically trying to select more winning lottery numbers rather than actually having to work. This enjoyable audiobook sill be a treat for school and public libraries."Stephanie A. Squicciarini, Fairport Public Library, NY"

      Copyright 2008 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Formats

  • OverDrive Listen audiobook

subjects

Languages

  • English

Levels

  • ATOS Level:5.3
  • Lexile® Measure:870
  • Interest Level:4-8(MG)
  • Text Difficulty:4-5

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