Jack Gantos will be appearing in Houston on Sunday as part of the Cool Brains! Inprint Readings for Young People. Gantos is an award-winning children’s author whose awards include the Newbery Honor and the Printz Honor from the American Library Association. He has also been a National Book Award Finalist. His latest book, I Am Not Joey Pigza, is the fourth in a series about a young boy with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). More information is available below, courtesy of Inprint.

Jack Gantos began to work on picture books with illustrator Nicole Rubel while still in college, publishing their first book, Rotten Ralph, in 1976. Since then, he has written nearly 20 books, spanning the age range, starting with the Rotten Ralph series, for which he and Rubel received a “Best Books for Young Readers” citation from the American Library Association.

Gantos is most well-known for the highly regarded middle school series about Joey Pigza, a boy with ADHD. The first book in the series, Joey Pigza Swallowed the Key, was a National Book Award finalist, and the second, Joey Pigza Loses Control, was a Newbery Honor Book. His fourth book in the series, I Am Not Joey Pigza, is “delightful” (People), “another wild ride over serious terrain” (starred review, Publishers Weekly).

He is also author of a 4th – 5th grade series about his alter ego, Jack Henry, which, “based on Gantos’s own trials and tribulations growing up in Barbados and Florida, sparkles with wit.” (School Library Journal) Gantos has written an acclaimed young adult novel, Hole in My Life, which received the Sibert Honor from the American Library Association. He has also published fiction for adults.

We expect it to be a great event.

When: Sunday, September 7, 2008 at 3 pm (doors open 2:15)

Where: Zilkha Hall, Hobby Center for the Performing Arts, 800 Bagby Street, Houston

Cost: Free and open to the public

What: Reading, book sale, and signing

posted by Kristina Lee, Writers in the Schools