Rating: 
Summary: A Hole in My Life
Review: A Hole in My Life is the story of a young man, the author, and how he overcomes a walk down the wrong path. The main Character Jack is a basically good kid who is good at finding trouble. He is smart but cares very little about his grades. He wants you to think all he cares about is his writing, which he puts off as much as possible. He has great ambitions of bing a writer and this is the story of how he accomplished those ambitions. The book is the story of what happened to him, when it starts he is in prison and begins writing the story. he has some family problems which allow him to be on his own his senior year when he begins drinking to much and smoking hash. After High school he puts off going to a state college to save some money for a better college. When this doesn't wook out he meets some smugglers and helps them out. You know he's going to get caught since hes in prison, but there is still a fair amount of suspence. I won't get into the ending but I will say you will be happy you've read it when you get there.
Rating: 
Summary: hungry writer takes fork in road
Review: All writers have pasts, before they write the books for which they become known & respected. Before Jack Gantos wrote his children's books (which, by the way, are brilliant, energetic & absorbing reads!) he had to get some experience in living.Not many of us would have chosen the fork in the road which Jack Gantos took, faced with a desperate need for cash for college where he hoped to become "a writer." As a naive smuggler, his career didn't last long. It is, however, out of that struggle & ultimate confinement in prison, that the writer I so enjoy, grew, with his unique, taut & restless language. A super memoir of a youth well spent on ill-gotten gains. Of the chances he got to take other forks in the road on his way to redemption. He paid his dues, did his work, & then got on with his life as a writer.
Rating:
Summary: All I heard was the number-ten thousand dollars, cash
Review: During the time of life when most teenagers are seeking a bit of independence, author Jack Gantos was a bit lost. His parents had moved overseas and Jack was trying to figure out how to afford the next step in his life, college. When an opportunity to help transport drugs into the US presented itself, Jack thought he'd found the answer. Instead, he found out that an adult sentence for drug smuggling meant serious jail time.
During his time in prison, which Jack vividly describes, Gantos found a way to keep as safe as he could and turned to reading to help grow up in jail.
This is ideal and easy reading for grades 8 and up and will appeal to even the most reluctant readers.
Rating:
Summary: Unflinchingly honest
Review: Here's a different side of Jack Gantos! This memoir shows, without beating the reader over the head, how one decision -- a single bad decision, made in an instant -- can affect your life so dramatically. The outcome of Gantos' criminal act is not all bad: this is primarily a book about how he became a writer, and that journey is just as dramatic as Gantos' prison stories (he actually managed to avoid being put in with the general population of the prison; read the book to find out how!), and the juxtaposition of the two makes this a unique and valuable book. Add to that, the fact that Jack Gantos is a plain-old wonderful writer, and you've got a winner.
Rating:
Summary: People Can Change
Review: Hole in my Life is author Jack Gantos' autoboigraphy, and is a gripping novel that i think is very excellent. Jack's family moves to Puerto Rico during his senior year of high school, but after spending some time there, he decides to return to Florida and graduate. His constant binge drinking forces the family he was staying with to kick him out, so he spends the remainder of his senior year in a hotel. He is a reaslly good writer, but never tries to write all his thoughts down. After he graduates, he decides to wait on college and chooses to join his family in st. Croix, where they were now moved to. There he makes the worst decision of his life. He agrees to, with two other men, smuggle 2,000 pounds of hash from St. Croix to New York City in a small yacht. Everything goes fine until they are busted when they begin selling it around the city. Jack is sentenced to six years in prison. While in prison, he writes his thoughts in between the spaces of a book, and around the margins. He fully realizes his need to become a writer and shoughts his thoughts with others. Hole in my Life is an awesome book for mature readers who can handle it, because there are a few graphic secenes and a lot of profane language. I think this book would keep anybody from buying or selling drugs, and it really shows that people can change, no matter how bad they have become.
Rating:
Summary: A riveting, compelling read.
Review: I am a children's librarian who read this book and could hardly put it down. I read my (non children's librarian) husband a couple of paragraphs, and he grabbed it the second I was done. He inhaled it and gave it to his best friend, who does not read children's books. The best friend loved it and cannot understand why it is called a young adult novel. He thinks it is great reading for everyone!
A wonderful read by an intriguing, and obviously stubborn and incredibly gifted human being.
Rating:
Summary: Jack in Trouble
Review: I first need to confess that I know Jack Gantos and have been a fan of his writing for more than 20 years. This made it particularly difficult to read a book about a painful period in his life. However, this is Jack's best writing and is a story that many teenagers (who believe themselves to be invincible) need to read. It is also first and foremost a compelling story that will be hard for anyone to stop reading. Even knowing that all ends well (Jack is an award-winning, highly successful writer), the suspense remains high. It is a harsh tale, and the descriptions of prison life are brutal (as they should be) but ultimately it is a story of a life redeemed. Highly recommended!
Rating:
Summary: Not Just For Teenagers
Review: I just finished Hole in My Life and found it so compelling I devoured it! I am a 7th grade English teacher who tries to keep up on the latest juvenile literaure , but I am also the parent of a teengage boy who spent time in a juvenile facility for drugs. I love memoirs, but especially stories of redemption...stories with hope for the future... that give me hope as a parent...and this book was all that and more. Although teenagers will find this scary and harrowing story fascinating, adults will also appreciate his writing and the honesty with which he tells his story.I can't commend Jack Gantos enough for this book!
Rating:
Summary: A wonderful book
Review: I loved Jack Gantos as an author of children's books, so I decided to give this autobiographical work a try. I absolutely could not put it down. It was a well-written and compelling story, and I admired his ability to tell his story so openly. It's a wonderful book.
Rating:
Summary: hole in my ife
Review: I think that this book is by far one of my favorite. It has a good plot and the whole meanig behind the book is awesome.I have a reason for liking this book; I can relate to some of the things he has done in his life and always wanted to do something like what he did in the story.
|
