Jack Gantos

Author Information
Jack Gantos's Latest Book

Newest Release

  • Bibliography:
    43 Books (5 Series)
  • First Book:
    January 1978
  • Latest Book:
    December 2020
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Full Series List in Order

Jack Henry

1 - Jack Adrift: Fourth Grade Without a Clue (Jul-2003)
2 - Jack on the Tracks: Four Seasons of Fifth Grade (Jul-1999)
3 - Heads or Tails: Stories from the Sixth Grade (Jun-1994)
4 - Jack's New Power: Stories from a Caribbean Year (Sep-1995)
5 - Jack's Black Book (Sep-1999)

Joey Pigza

1 - Joey Pigza Swallowed the Key (Oct-1998)
2 - Joey Pigza Loses Control (Sep-2000)
3 - What Would Joey Do? (Oct-2002)
4 - I Am Not Joey Pigza (Aug-2007)
5 - The Key That Swallowed Joey Pigza (Sep-2014)

Norvelt

1 - Dead End in Norvelt (Sep-2011)
2 - From Norvelt to Nowhere (Sep-2013)

Rotten Ralph

Rotten Ralph (Mar-1980)
Worse Than Rotten, Ralph (Nov-1982)
Rotten Ralph's Trick or Treat! (Oct-1986)
Rotten Ralph's Rotten Christmas (Oct-1987)
Rotten Ralph's Show and Tell (Nov-1991)
Not So Rotten Ralph (Mar-1994)
Happy Birthday, Rotten Ralph (Oct-1994)
Back to School for Rotten Ralph (Aug-2000)
Rotten Ralph's Rotten Romance (Jan-2005)
The Nine Lives of Rotten Ralph (Apr-2009)

Rotten Ralph (Readers)

1 - Practice Makes Perfect for Rotten Ralph (Apr-2002)
2 - Rotten Ralph Feels Rotten (Oct-2004)
3 - Best in Show for Rotten Ralph (Aug-2005)
4 - Three Strikes for Rotten Ralph (Feb-2011)
5 - Rotten Ralph Helps Out (Mar-2012)
6 - Rotten Ralph's Rotten Family (Mar-2014)

Book List in Order: 43 titles

  • Aunt Bernice

    • / General Fiction
    • Buy Buy

  • Greedy Greeny

  • Rotten Ralph

    Rotten Ralph

  • Worse Than Rotten, Ralph

    Rotten Ralph

  • Rotten Ralph's Trick or Treat!

    Rotten Ralph

  • Rotten Ralph's Rotten Christmas

    Rotten Ralph

  • Rotten Ralph's Show and Tell

    Rotten Ralph

  • Not So Rotten Ralph

    Rotten Ralph

  • Heads or Tails: Stories from the Sixth Grade

    Jack Henry - 3

    From the Newbery Medalâ€"winning author of Dead End in Norvelt, eight more hysterical semi-autobiographical Jack Henry stories about a sixth grader's trials and tribulationsJack's life is a crazy roller-coaster ride. At his fifth school in six years,...



  • Happy Birthday, Rotten Ralph

    Rotten Ralph

  • Jack's New Power: Stories from a Caribbean Year

    Jack Henry - 4

    Jack Henry has moved to the island of Barbados with his offbeat family and his secret diary. But still he can't escape his penchant for wacky misadventure. Because of a headless chicken, he gets a violent case of blood poisoning. In a pepper-eating c...

  • Zip Six

  • Rotten Ralph's Halloween Howl

  • The Christmas Spirit Strikes Rotten Ralph

    Santa Claus is coming to town and Rotten Ralph is determined to make a purr-fect impression. Can the world's naughtiest cat be nice for Christmas.

    Pull back the flaps to see Rotten Ralph's hilarious Christmas catastrophes as he and Sarah dec...

  • Joey Pigza Swallowed the Key

    Joey Pigza - 1

    Wired! 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 whe...

  • Wedding Bells for Rotten Ralph

    Ralph outdoes himself again in this picture book of wedding bliss and bedlam.

    It's Aunt Martha's wedding day and Sarah is the flower girl, but Ralph is determined to turn this celebration into an event only our favorite rotten cat could enjo...

  • Jack on the Tracks: Four Seasons of Fifth Grade

    Jack Henry - 2

    From the Newbery Medalâ€"winning author of Dead End in Norvelt, nine semi-autobiographical stories that will make you laugh so hard it hurts In Jack on the Tracks, fifth-grader Jack Henry is hoping for fresh adventure when he moves to a new home in M...

  • Rotten Ralph's Thanksgiving Wish

    This Thanksgiving, Sarah's cat, Ralph, has something extra to be thankful for: his cat-cousin Percy is cooking the big turkey -- with Ralph as junior chef. Will dinner ever be served?Pull back the flaps to see each of Ralph's deliciously rotten Th...

  • Jack's Black Book

    Jack Henry - 5

    From the Newbery Medalâ€"winning author of Dead End in Norvelt, the uproarious final volume of Jack Henry storiesAccording to his new motto -- A WRITER'S JOB IS TO TURN HIS WORST EXPERIENCES INTO MONEY -- Jack Gantos's alter ego Jack Henry is going ...



  • Back to School for Rotten Ralph

    Rotten Ralph

    The character Rotten Ralph was created more than twenty years ago. Now the worlds most rotten cat and his friend, Sarah, set out again on a variety of capricious capers. In three brand-new boisterously entertaining stories, Rotten Ralph is sure to we...

  • Joey Pigza Loses Control

    Joey Pigza - 2

    "He was wired. No dought about it...Now I know what Mom meant when she said he was like me, only bigger." Joey Pigza really wants his six-week visit with his dad to count, to show him he's not as wired as he used to be, to show his dad how much he l...

  • Practice Makes Perfect for Rotten Ralph

    Rotten Ralph (Readers) - 1

    It's carnival time for Ralph, Sarah, and Percy, Ralph's cousin! Ralph is ready to play games and win prizes. But perfect Percy has been practicing. He keeps beating Ralph and wooing Sarah with his winnings. Fed up with losing, Ralph decides to che...

  • What Would Joey Do?

    Joey Pigza - 3

    "Do my parents seem unusual to you?" When his dad roars into town, the sparks fly between Joey Pigza's long-separated parents. His ailing grandmother is certain that all the feuding (and flirting) will unleash a series of terrible events on the Pigz...

  • Jack Adrift: Fourth Grade Without a Clue

    Jack Henry - 1

    In Jack Adrift, the Henry family sets sail on a new life in Cape Hatteras. Fourth-grader Jack is struggling to chart a course between his father's erratic, headstrong philosophy and his mother's small-town honesty. Just tell people what they want to ...

  • Rotten Ralph Feels Rotten

    Rotten Ralph (Readers) - 2

    Rotten to the core!

    When Sarah serves up a healthy, home-cooked meal chock-full of fruits and vegetables, Rotten Ralph turns up his nose and refuses to eat. With those overflowing, back-alley trash cans in mind, he has more exciting dinner p...

  • Rotten Ralph's Rotten Romance

    Rotten Ralph

    Sarah wakes Ralph up with a great big kiss. ?Happy Valentine’s Day!” she says. Rotten Ralph hides under his pillow. Sarah is very excited to take Ralph to Petunia’s Valentine’s Day Party. But Ralph will do almost anything to avoid the party a...

  • Hole in My Life

    Becoming a writer the hard wayIn 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 l...

  • Best in Show for Rotten Ralph

    Rotten Ralph (Readers) - 3

    "To thine own self be true."


    The cat show is coming to town and Rotten Ralph is hungry for glory â€" and desperate to defeat his perfect cousin Percy, whatever it takes. According to Sarah, Ralph has to stop being a lazy scoundrel and fo...

  • Desire Lines

    When sixteen-year-old Walker gets caught up in a witch-hunt against homosexuals, he is left to stand by and watch as a tragedy unfolds....



  • The Love Curse of the Rumbaughs

    On an unseasonably warm Easter Sunday, a young girl namedIvy discovers a chilling secret in the basement of the Rumbaughpharmacy across the street from the hotel where she lives withher mother. The discovery reveals a disturbing side to theeccentric ...

  • I Am Not Joey Pigza

    Joey Pigza - 4

    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 â€" literally. After a lucky lotto win, Carter Pigza has a crazy new outlook on life,...

  • The Nine Lives of Rotten Ralph

    Rotten Ralph

    Poor Rotten Ralph. His health just isn't what it used to be. Thanks to his rotten ways, he's down to the very last of his nine lives!"One more slip and he'll be gone forever," warns the vet.Sarah, Ralph's doting owner, is fiercely determined to keep ...

  • The Bloody Souvenir

    in Guys Read: Funny Business

    Jack isn't like the Pagoda brothers. He knows the difference between fun and stupid. Launching yourself across the backyard in a makeshift Roman catapult? Fun. Smoking an entire pack of cigarettes as fast as possible? Stupid. But when it comes to eme...

  • Three Strikes for Rotten Ralph

    Rotten Ralph (Readers) - 4

    Before he tries out for the new Fighting Squirrels baseball team, Rotten Ralph is sure he is going to be a superstar. Never mind that he doesnt have any skills and doesnt want to practice. While his owner, Sarah, is doing everything she can to make t...

  • Dead End in Norvelt

    Norvelt - 1

    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, an...

  • Rotten Ralph Helps Out

    Rotten Ralph (Readers) - 5
    My Readers: Level 3

    Sarah is excited about her school project on ancient Egypt. She would like Ralph's help. But Ralph's idea of helping out is no help at all. According to Sarah, the ancient Egyptians believed cats were wise and had special powers. Can Rotten Ralph pro...

  • From Norvelt to Nowhere

    Norvelt - 2

    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 t...

  • Rotten Ralph's Rotten Family

    Rotten Ralph (Readers) - 6

    Rotten Ralph’s owner, Sarah, is fed up with her red rascal’s behavior. Ralph is tired of Sarah trying to change him. He misses his cat family, which never made him alter a thing about himself. But in this gag- and guffaw-filled adventure for newl...

  • The Key That Swallowed Joey Pigza

    Joey Pigza - 5

    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 Trouble in Me

    This fiery autobiographical novel captures a pivotal week or two in the life of fourteen-year-old Jack Gantos, as the author reveals the moment he began to slide off track as a kid who in just a few years would find himself locked up in a federal pen...

  • The Dented Head of Joey Pigza

    From author Jack Gantos comes a brand-new story in the award-winning Joey Pigza series, exclusively on Audible.  Joey Pigza wants to be a winner - at everything! And yet, it seems he cannot win. But why? What is holding him back? How can he work...

  • A Pain in the Pigza

    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 t...

  • The Missing Half of Joey Pigza

    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 ha...

Award-Winning Books by Jack Gantos

Dead End in Norvelt
2012 Newbery Medal -- Children's
2012 Scott O Dell Award for Historical Fiction -- Historical Fiction
Joey Pigza Loses Control
2000 Parents Choice Award (Fall) (1998-2007) -- Gold
Joey Pigza Swallowed the Key
2001 Sasquatch Award -- Children/Young Adult
2001 Virginia Readers Choice Award -- Middle School
What Would Joey Do?
2002 Parents Choice Award (Fall) (1998-2007) -- Silver


Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

Jack Gantos has published 43 books.

Jack Gantos does not have a new book coming out soon. The latest book, The Missing Half of Joey Pigza, was published in December 2020.

The first book by Jack Gantos, Aunt Bernice, was published in January 1978.

Yes. Jack Gantos has 5 series.
Author Series
Publisher Series
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