Jack Gantos has narrated 11 audiobooks on Listento.it by 1 author, with an average listener rating of 4.5★ across 14 ratings. The most-rated is Hole in My Life.
The Dented Head of Joey Pigza
Summary
Joey Pigza wants to win! In this audio-only adventure, Jack Gantos’s beloved hero races back into kids’ hearts with a tale about running, perseverance, and life’s inevitable crashes. Despite his beat-up old shoes and struggles with ADHD, Joey won’t let anything hold him back—after all, he’s the lightning-fast champion of schoolyard races. But when a high-speed collision leaves him with a dented head and more problems than ever, can our infectiously impulsive hero overcome his hurdles and race to the top? In this zany and surprisingly inspiring listen, perfect for kids ages 8 and up, our chaotic hero realizes he can’t outrun his troubles. Joining him this time around in a series of hyperactive hijinks are his eccentric Granny and his ever-faithful Chihuahua, Pablo. Written and performed by the multi-talented Jack Gantos, and delivered in a wildly energetic voice, this gem is full of the hilarity and heart that made the Joey Pigza creator a Newbery Award-winning children’s book icon. Cover illustration by Laurie Keller.
©2018 Jack Gantos (P)2018 Audible Originals, LLC.
Joey Pigza Swallowed the Key
Summary
Joey Pigza can't sit still. He can't pay attention, he can't follow the rules, and he can't help it -- especially when his meds aren't working. Joey's had problems ever since he was born, problems just like his dad and grandma have. And whether he's wreaking havoc on a class trip or swallowing his house key, Joey's problems are getting worse. In fact, his behavior is so off the wall that his teachers are threatening to send him to the special-ed center downtown. Joey knows he's really a good kid, but no matter how hard he tries to do the right thing, something always seems to go wrong. Will he ever get anything right?
©2000 Jack Gantos (P)2009 Listening Library
Hole in My Life
Summary
In the summer of 1971, Jack Gantos was an aspiring writer looking for adventure, cash for college tuition, and a way out of a dead-end job. For ten thousand dollars, he recklessly agreed to help sail a sixty-foot yacht loaded with a ton of hashish from the Virgin Islands to New York City, where he and his partners sold the drug until federal agents caught up with them. For his part in the conspiracy, Gantos was sentenced to serve up to six years in prison. In Hole in My Life, this prizewinning author of over thirty books for young people confronts the period of struggle and confinement that marked the end of his own youth. On the surface, the narrative tumbles from one crazed moment to the next as Gantos pieces together the story of his restless final year of high school, his short-lived career as a criminal, and his time in prison. But running just beneath the action is the story of how Gantos, once he was locked up in a small, yellow-walled cell, moved from wanting to be a writer to writing, and how dedicating himself more fully to the thing he most wanted to do helped him endure and ultimately overcome the worst experience of his life.
©2002 Jack Gantos (P)2003 Random House, Inc., Listening Library, An Imprint Of Random House Audio Publishing Group
From Norvelt to Nowhere
Summary
This rocket-paced follow-up to the Newbery Medal-winning novel Dead End in Norvelt opens deep in the shadow of the Cuban missile crisis. But instead of Russian warheads, other kinds of trouble are raining down on young Jack Gantos and his utopian town of Norvelt in western Pennsylvania. After an explosion, a new crime by an old murderer, and the sad passing of the town’s founder, 12-year-old Jack will soon find himself launched on a mission that takes him hundreds of miles away, escorting his slightly mental elderly mentor, Miss Volker, on her relentless pursuit of the oddest of outlaws. But as their trip turns south in more ways than one, it’s increasingly clear that the farther from home they travel, the more off-the-wall Jack and Miss Volker’s adventure becomes, in From Norvelt to Nowhere, a raucous road novel about roots and revenge, a last chance at love, and the power of a remarkable friendship.
©2013 Jack Gantos (P)2013 Macmillan Audio
The Key That Swallowed Joey Pigza
Summary
The fifth and final book in the groundbreaking Joey Pigza series brings the beloved chronicle of this wired, wacky, and wonderful boy to a crescendo of chaos and craziness, as everything goes topsy-turvy for Joey just as he starts to get his feet on the ground. With his dad MIA in the wake of appearance-altering plastic surgery, Joey must give up school to look after his new baby brother and fill in for his mom, who hospitalizes herself to deal with a bad case of postpartum blues. As his challenges mount, Joey discovers a key that could unlock the secrets to his father’s whereabouts, a mystery that must be solved before Joey can even hope that his broken family might somehow come back together - if only it doesn’t pull him apart first.
©2014 Jack Gantos (P)2014 Listening Library
A Pain in the Pigza
Summary
Joey Pigza is a boy with big ideas and a heart bigger than his best friend in the whole world - Pablo, his loving chihuahua. Joey returns in a second Audible Original, this time to help rescue all the local dogs that need good homes and to help the animal shelter get the word out about their “Pets Make People Better” adoption event. But in a twist of fate, his own beloved chihuahua, Pablo, has been sent to keep Joey’s mother company in jail to help make her a better person! But how will Joey keep himself from worrying about Pablo’s fate in prison while helping the animal shelter find happy homes for all the local pets? The answer is dog costumes. Lots of them! And when all the barking is over it seems that pets just might make people better after all. Jack Gantos has written books for readers of all ages, from picture books and middle-grade fiction to novels for young adults and grownups. His works include a National Book Award Finalist; a Newbery Honor book; a Printz Honor Book and a Robert F. Sibert Honor Book. Jack is also a proponent for audiobook engagement for children as he believes it sparks their imagination.
©2019 Jack Gantos (P)2019 Audible Originals, LLC.
Joey Pigza Loses Control
Summary
Everything seems to be coming together for Joey Pigza. His new meds are making his ADD more manageable, and he finally feel in control. But will he renewed relationship with his recovering-alcoholic father make him lose it all?
©2008 Jack Gantos (P)2008 Random House, Inc.
Dead End in Norvelt
Summary
Winner of the John Newbery Metal for the best children's book of 2011. 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.
©2011 Jack Gantos (P)2011 Macmillan Audio
I Am Not Joey Pigza
Summary
Just when Joey Pigza's wired world finally seems to be under control, his good-for-nothing dad pops back into his life. This time, though, Carter Pigza is a new man - literally. After a lucky lotto win, he has a crazy new outlook on life, and he's even changed his name to Charles Heinz. He thinks Joey and his mom should become new people, too. Soon Joey finds himself bombarded with changes, including a new name, a new home, and a new family business: running the beat-up Beehive Diner. He knows he should forgive his dad as his mom wants him to, and get with the new family program. But Joey is afraid that in changing names and going with the flow he will lose sight of who he really is. In this rocket-paced new chapter in Joey Pigza's life, a favorite hero discovers what identity and forgiveness really mean, and how to cook a delicious turkey burger.
©2007 Jack Gantos (P)2007 Random House, Inc. Listening Library, an imprint of the Random House Audio Publishing Group.
What Would Joey Do?
Summary
Are they flirting or fighting? This is Joey Pigza's question when the fireworks suddenly start to explode between his long-separated mom and dad, whom he's never really had a chance to see together. The more out of control his parents get, the less in control Joey feels and the more he wants to help make things better. But Joey's ailing, tell-it-like-it-is grandmother wants her grandson to see it like it is with his unpredictable parents. Knowing that she is fading fast, she needs Joey to hurry up and show that he can break the Pigza family mold by making a friend in the outside world. The only potential candidate, however, is Olivia Lapp, Joey's blind home-schooling partner, who brags that she is "blind as a brat" and gets meaner to Joey the more desperate he gets for her friendship.In this final book of the Joey Pigza trilogy, Jack Gantos' acclaimed hero is attempting a breathtaking balancing act as he tries to keep a handle on his wild, weird behavior without letting his hyperactively helpful ways spin him out of control all over again.
©2002 Jack Gantos (P)2002 Random House, Inc., Listening Library, an imprint of the Random House Audio Publishing Group
The Missing Half of Joey Pigza
Summary
It's a whole new school year, and Joey Pigza is determined to leave his wired ways in the past and be the paying attention, focused, straight-A student he believes he can be. But seated next to him is Bean, a new girl who is in foster care and who happens to have many of the same attention issues Joey has. From day one, Joey can see all the parallels in their behavior, and he's worried that her hyperactive secret sauce is going to tarnish his year. After a rocky start, and with some help from the school guidance counselor, Joey and Bean realize that they're "double-trouble soul mates who found each other!" And more than that, they might even be long lost siblings who somehow got separated at birth! And if they're long lost siblings, Joey needs to do everything he can to make sure his maybe-sister gets out of foster care and home with a perfecto adoptive family. With appearances by Pablo the wonder dog, Granny, and even Joey’s Mom, this Audible Original will make you think about family and loyalty in a whole new way. Written and performed by the Award-winning Jack Gantos, the eighth installment of Joey Pigza's antics will make you laugh and warm your heart all at the same time.
©2019 Jack Gantos (P)2020 Audible Originals, LLC.