Rating: 
Summary: Great autobiography
Review: Jack "Joey Pigza" Gantos writes an autobiography centering on how he became a writer. However, this well written chronicle is not a dissertation on "How to Cook Roast Pig" writer's style. Instead this is a powerfully honest report of why Mr. Gantos chose a life of crime to escape his homeland and how he survived his twentieth year of being caught and incarcerated for smuggling drugs. This harrowing period led Mr. Gantos to concentrate on writing.
This talented author provides his audience with a triumphant biography that his myriad of fans will enjoy. Additionally, anyone who relishes a true life account filled with downfall and deliverance will enjoy Mr. Gantos' message that writing not only saved, but filled the "HOLE IN MY LIFE". Harriet Klausner
Rating:
Summary: Hole in my life
Review: Popular children's book author and National Book Award finalist, Jack Gantos, now offers a compelling story taken from his own life. It is appropriate that we should hear this in his voice. Some thirty years ago Gantos dreamed of becoming a writer - a dream that seemed far-fetched as he was cash poor and a drone in a job that was going nowhere. Quite foolishly the young man made a grab for ten thousand dollars by helping to sail a hashish bearing ship from the Virgin Islands to New York City. Once there, he and his pals sold the drug until they were caught. End result? The young Gantos was sentenced to up to six years in jail. Yet from what was probably the lowest point in his life the author was able to more than salvage himself; he was almost reborn. Once confined in a cell he made his dream of becoming a writer a reality as he toiled with paper and pen. There's much for young people to learn from Gantos's story, and accolades are deserved for his candid telling.
Rating:
Summary: A CANDID STORY
Review: Popular children's book author and National Book Award finalist, Jack Gantos, now offers a compelling story taken from his own life. It is appropriate that we should hear this in his voice. Some thirty years ago Gantos dreamed of becoming a writer - a dream that seemed far-fetched as he was cash poor and a drone in a job that was going nowhere. Quite foolishly the young man made a grab for ten thousand dollars by helping to sail a hashish bearing ship from the Virgin Islands to New York City. Once there, he and his pals sold the drug until they were caught. End result? The young Gantos was sentenced to up to six years in jail. Yet from what was probably the lowest point in his life the author was able to more than salvage himself; he was almost reborn. Once confined in a cell he made his dream of becoming a writer a reality as he toiled with paper and pen. There's much for young people to learn from Gantos's story, and accolades are deserved for his candid telling. - Gail Cooke
Rating:
Summary: Hole in my life
Review: The book hole in my life is about a young man named Jack Gantos. He is an eighteen year old Spanish man. He loves to write but also does a lot of drugs and ends up going to jail. The reason he went to jail was because he smuggled hundreds of pounds of hash from Florida to New York. Jack is the main character in this book along with other people that contribute to his use of marijuana. He loves to write and attempts to go to school to get better at writing, but he ends up getting arrested and can't do this anymore. The reason that he smuggled all the hash was so he could get money to pay for his education. He ends up going to jail for two years. While in jail he begins to write about what jail is like and the life inside of it. This is where this story begins. He wrote about his whole life and everything that he did. Once Jack gets out of jail he becomes a better person and writer and begins writing everyday. He now is writing many children's books that are published and on the books shelves in many library.
Some things that worked for this book are the parts where he smuggles all of the hash from Florida to New York with Hamilton. It really summarizes what the life for Jack was like and all of the things that he was involved in. It also told me what Jack is like as a person and what he enjoys doing, which is to write. Another part that worked for this book was the part where he went to jail and ended up helping him with his writing. It made him think of how he could write and that he shouldn't be getting in trouble, this was a pivotal point in this book that changed Jack's whole life. There were also a few things that didn't work to well for this book. There was a part where Jack was kicked out of his house and was looking for a hotel to stay in. I didn't really understand why he was kicked out and what he was doing in his life. There were not many other parts that I didn't like in this book.
My over all opinion of the book was that it was really good. The book was well put together and it really kept me reading to find out what happens next. There are not many books that I really enjoy reading, but for some reason I really liked this book and I would read it again if I had to. I would recommend this book to anyone that wants to read an exiting book with a good plot, and I would give this book a good 8 out of 10 as a ranking on how good it was.
Rating:
Summary: Library student opinion
Review: This book explores the way that Jack Gantos got into writing, and how he turned from being a criminal to being famous children's author. The book starts out with Jack in jail and him telling us he loved reading he started writing a book. Then it discovers why he was in jail because he was smuggling hash up the coast. He turns himself in, in New York after contacting a lawyer. The book tells how he turns his life around and gets another chance at life. There were three main elements that I liked about this book, first the drama was great, second Jack Gantos really describes the scenes really well, lastly he really turns himself around in the book. The drama was great, you couldn't read a chapter with out something cool happening. I mean first chapter he is talking about why he is in jail and how he likes jail. Next is how he got into the crime business. The last chapter is about what he did after he got released from jail and how he got into writing children's books. Jack Gantos really describes the scenes well. He uses vivid detail and he spends whole chapters just describing his yellow cell. Jack says, "the color of that yellow cell got to me. It was a bright, smiling yellow that buzzed like a summer day. There was no hiding from that color. Like me, that yellow room had its ups and downs as the day wore on."(154) He spends a lot of time sharing his experience with you. People really get a sense of where he is coming from. In the beginning of the book, Jack Gantos is like 17 and he is in jail and he is telling why he is in jail. And then it like flash backs to how he got there. Jack had smuggled hundreds of pounds of hash up the coast. All through out the trip Jack is sort of second guessing himself. Then when he goes to prison he sort of wants to get out of prison and he comes up with this ingenious way to get out. He decides he will go to college and after he is granted parole he would run to Canada after he got accepted though he changes he decides that it is not realistic.
Rating:
Summary: Not at all for teenagers!
Review: This book was an awesome adventure, but not a teen book at all! It deals with adult concepts beyond its plot of smuggling pot (which, sadly in today's society has become more PG rated than it should be) but also prison rapes! I'm no prude, but I'd skip this one as a gift for your little readers.
Rating:
Summary: People Can Change
Review: This is one great book. It is about Jack Gantos and the summer of 1972, the worst year of his life. It begins with Jack leaving his family in Puerto Rico during his senior year to finish high school back in Florida. He is eventually kicked out of the place that he was staying in and lives the remainder of his senior year of high school in a motel. Soon after, he rejoins his family on the island of St. Croix, where he really gets started on drugs and makes the worst decision of his life. He agrees to smuggle 2000 pounds of hash from St. Croix to New York City on a small yacht with two other men. Everything goes fine until they begin to sell it and they are busted. Jack is sentenced to six years in prison and he calls it the best thing that ever happened to him. While in prison, he writes his thoughts in between the spaces of a book, and realizes his need to become a writer and share his wonderful thoughts with the world. This is a gripping novel that could make anyone avoid the use or selling of drugs. It shows that anybody, no matter how bad they have become, can change, as Jack has. I recomend this book for any high school age or above reader. You need to be very mature to handle this book, as there is some graphic scenes and profane language.
Rating: 
Summary: Good intentions, Bad choice
Review: This was a book that I really like and I think alot of people will like. It is about a twenty year old who has good intentions because the only thing he wants to do is make money to go to college. He takes an offer to make the money but it is not legal, so when he gets caught and goes to prison he learns a lot about life and himself.
Rating:
Summary: Good intentions, Bad choice
Review: This was a book that I really like and I think alot of people will like. It is about a twenty year old who has good intentions because the only thing he wants to do is make money to go to college. He takes an offer to make the money but it is not legal, so when he gets caught and goes to prison he learns a lot about life and himself.
Rating:
Summary: What If . . .
Review: What if it was 1972 and you were a 20 year old kid who wanted nothing more than to be a writer? What if you went everywhere searching for adventures and things to write about but you could never seem to actually finish anything? What if you moved with your family to St. Croix and became isolated from anything resembling a normal life? What if you came back to America alone and felt disconnected to the rest of your peers and began to get involved in the drug culture? What if you wound up back in St. Croix but ended up trapped there as a race revolution swept through the country? What if all you wanted to do was escape, go to college, find some meaning in your life, and finish a work? What if you found a way to do that...but it was helping pilot a boat full of 2,000 pounds of hashish to New York City? What if you said "Count me in." and wound up on one of the most strange voyages ever? What if you got caught? And sent to federal prison? Would you say that was the end of the story? Just another 20 year old drug-dealing punk who got what he deserved and started early on his life of drug use, thievery, and crime? Would you say, "What a shame! What a waste! No surprise there!" Would you say...that was the end of the story? What if I told you that same kid got out of federal prison after 15 months and stopped TALKING about being a writer and BECAME a writer? What if that same kid became a grown man who wound up earning the highest honor his profession can bestow? What if he decided to write about the hole in his life? Would you want to hear that story? I did, and it's one best books that I've read all year. Try it out. Find out how a punk became a man, how you can be a writer when you think you have nothing to say, and how the biggest holes in our life can be the greatest advantages and become the biggest stepping stones. You won't be sorry.
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