I read a biography! And this one was quite eye opening. As a former children's librarian of sorts, I was familiar with his books about Joey Pigza and others. His stories were filled with laughter and humor, and to read about his troubled youth made me sad. But he learned his lesson, and it was through his time in jail that he really started focusing on writing. Today his books have won many awards, including the coveted Newbery Award.
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. (description and picture from Amazon)
Be wild and crazy and pick up a different book today!
O:)
Melissa
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