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. (Aug.)
Copyright 2007 Reed Business Information“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?”
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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?”
I Am Not Joey Pigza
“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?”
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?”
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Product Details
| BN ID: | 2940169406719 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Penguin Random House |
| Publication date: | 07/24/2007 |
| Series: | Joey Pigza Series , #4 |
| Edition description: | Unabridged |
| Age Range: | 10 - 13 Years |
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