Joey Pigza loses control

BOOK REVIEW 6
1. BIBLIOGRAPHY
Gantos, Jack. (2000). Joey Pigza loses control. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux.

2. PLOT SUMMARY
Joey is an eleven year old boy who suffers from attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and has to have medicated patches to control his out of control hyperactivity. He is going to spend his summer vacation in a small town with his father to get to know him, and his chain smoker grandmother who has to carry an oxygen tank to help her breath. Joey’s parents are divorced and Joey hopes to bring their parents together to have a nuclear family. Joey soon finds out that his father is not interested in being with him and Joey’s mother. Joey’s father is irresponsible, selfish, and verbally abusive toward Joey. Carter shows his irresponsibility by flushing Joey’s medication down the toilet. The grandmother is verbally abusive toward Joey reminding him that it is a matter of time that he is going to loose control and taking Joey’s money away to buy cigarettes.


3. CRITICAL ANALYSIS
Jack Gantos’ National Book Award Finalist and Newbery Honor Award book JOEY’S PIGZA LOSES CONTROL is told from the first person point of view of an eleven year-old. The themes in the book are realistic and believable because chances are that either people experienced or know someone that has experienced one or more of the themes in this book; such as, divorce, alcoholism, chain smokers, and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. The protagonist is Joey who is hopeful to mend his parents’ relationship and be together as a family. He is faced with the rude awakening that his father is still in a world of his own and he only cares about no one else but himself.
Joey’s father ignorant and selfish actions of peeling the medicated patch of Joey’s arm demonstrate his self- centeredness when he peels Joey’s patch of his arm, “ no more drugs” (93). Joey’s ADHD or hyperactive behavior can only be controlled with medication. The irony is that Carter has addictions and he does not have the will to control them. Jack Gantos, events and language in the book are so familiar and realistic that keeps the reader turning the pages. Joey and his mother are responsible because they have taken control of Joey’s illness by Joey taking the medication and attending a Special Education School that has helped him to stay focus and in control.
This is a funny story and one that brings you to tears because of the struggles the character goes through to get closer to his father and trying to keep himself under control with his own will and eventually failing because Joey knew that controlling himself is not about “ will”; it is a medical condition. Joey realizes that his father is selfish and does not have any intentions to be with him and his mother. Joey panics when he finds out that “he was an accident” or his mother became pregnant prior to been married. He calls his mother right away. She reassures him that she cares for him very much.
Joey develops as an individual because he realizes and accepts the fact that his father is selfish and only cares about his needs. The braking point in the story is when Joey has being without medication for a while and he knows that he is about to loose control when he thinks to himself, “All I could imagine was the worst part of me getting of a train a long ways off. That old Joey was coming to get me and I couldn’t do anything about it …There was nothing to do but wait and worry.” His father reassures him that he is going to be fine. Joey knows better and when he starts pitching the ball is going out in the parking lot braking car windows.
Another, irresponsible action on Joey’s father is when he tells him to let the pitcher hit him to get on base. Joey gets hit on the head but his father is not concerned with this hit to Joey’s head. He is concerned about winning the game and being recognized in the small town as the father of the excellent pitcher. The umpire is reassured by Joey’s dad that Joey is okay. This is so familiar of parents yelling, fussing, and embarrassing their children in front of the public. Joey cannot concentrate at all and has the courage to walk out of the field and ran away to get as far as possible from this man that he had hoped to have a father and son closed relationship.
4. EXCERPTS
SCHOOL LIBRARY JOURNAL: "Readers will be drawn in immediately to the boy's gripping first-person narrative and be pulled pell-mell through episodes that are at once hilarious, heartening as Joey grows to understand himself and the people around him. The ride home isn't smooth, but it is hopeful and loving. Does this mean that he is on the way to a happy, "normal" life? Grades 4-8.



5. CONNECTIONS
Gantos, Jack. Joey Pigza Swallowed the Key. ISBN 0064408337