|« Back to Article|
Gantos starts off Cool Brains book series
Gantos starts off Cool Brains series
FRITZ LANHAM, Copyright 2008 Houston Chronicle | September 5, 2008
Jack Gantos' writing career got off to a stumbling start — in the first grade he was consigned to the "Bluebirds," which he later learned was the slow-reading group.
But things picked up. By the fifth grade, he claims, he'd learned 90 percent of what he knows today. The sixth grade brought a true life-changing moment. Reading his sister's diary, he decided he could do better. "He begged his mother for a diary and began to collect anecdotes he overheard at school, mostly from standing outside the teachers' lounge and listening to their lunchtime conversations," his Web site biography explains.
Today, as readers of children's and young-adult books know, Gantos is a beloved figure, best-known for his serio-comic young-adult novels featuring Joey Pigza, a good-hearted kid whose attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder is constantly getting him into trouble.
On Sunday Gantos starts off Inprint's Cool Brains reading series for young people. He'll read, talk and sign books, which will be on sale, at 3 p.m. at the Hobby Center. Admission is free.
Gantos, 57, got his professional start in college when he and a friend, Nicole Rubel, began working together on children's picture books. In 1976 they published Rotten Ralph, about a rascally cat. The book is still in print. Gantos' other books include the semi-autobiographical Jack Henry novels and the nonfiction Hole in My Life, about how he put his life back together after being busted in 1971 for smuggling 2,000 pounds of hash into the country and spending 15 months in federal prison.
Rounding out the Cool Brains series, now in its third year, is an impressive trio, starting with author/illustrator and MacArthur "genius" fellow David Macaulay (The Way Things Work). He'll read on Oct. 26.
Jacqueline Woodson (After Tupac and D Foster) follows on March 1. Sherman Alexie (The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian) concludes the series on May 3.