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Summary: "Joey is a Naughty Boy"
Review: The beginning sentences of the new Joey Pigza novel remind us what a difficult person Joey is capable of being. Interestingly, as we were reading the first chapter, exactly what was transpiring in the book was happening to an actual student in our real class. A boy was being rude to our teacher, who sent him out into the hall as punishment. Talk about life imitating art. Wow !
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Summary: Joey Pigza Swallowed the key
Review: The book I am reviewing is Joey Pigza Swallowed the Key. The author is Jack Gantos, and the genre is realistic fiction. This story's settings are Joey Pigza's house and a school. Some of the main characters are Joey, his mom, his grandmother and his teacher. Joey Pigza is always getting in trouble.
Joey is also wired like his dad and grandma. His grandmother spanks him, teases him, puts him in the refrigerator and abuses him! The author (Jack Gantos) is very funny in his writing, but also very nasty. He also is very creative because he describes all of Joey's adventures both in and out of school.
The type of person who would like this book is someone with a sense of humor. I liked this book because it is very exciting, nasty, nasty, funny, and neat! I would recommend this book. I rate this book 5 out of 5.
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Summary: Funny, Hilarious, AWESOME!-
Review: This book was fantastic! I recommend it for children, teens, adults, EVERYONE! It's about this warm hearted boy, Joey. Joey has a medical condition, he cannot sit still or be quiet. His medication wears off after lunch, after lunch he's absolutely crazy!He better get his act together otherwise, he'll be sent to a special ed school.You have to read this book! It's so touching and it will make you laugh until your stomach hurts. Literally.
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Summary: It's a fun book
Review: This was required summer reading for my son who was entering 6th grade. He highly recommends it for kids his age. He says it was a fun book that lots of kids would enjoy because it is funny and does teach you some good life lessons.
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Summary: Parent Review - Great for all!
Review: Having a son with ADHD I tried in vain to find a book, besides children's self-help books, that would help him understand ADHD and assist him in not feeling so bad about himself. This book filled the bill and added so much more.Joey is a great kid. You come to love him quite dearly and you find yourself rooting for his much needed transition to a more even keel. While there is plenty of humor, there is a little sadness too. Joey hasn't always had understanding and supportive adults, a must for a child trying to get through life with ADHD. Grandma doesn't quite have all of her marbles. Even though Mom has problems of her own, she tries desperately to deal with Joey's situation in a mature and loving parental way. It's not easy for us-parents. We have trouble being patient and understanding sometimes even though we love our children more than life itself. This book was just so perfect for my son. He realized that he's not all that bad off. Others have it worse. The humor helps too. Joey is just so sweet and knows he needs help. He tries so hard but the control is just so out of reach for him until a terrible accident. Then suddenly, life begins to change and Joey finds his evenness. This brought hope to my son. "If Joey can do it, so can I!" That's just how my son feels. There are no 1/2 stars so this book gets 5 even though I'd really give it 4 1/2. I could have done without Grandma and would've preferred more depth into Mom's trouble dealing with ADHD. Outside of that, the rest is simply perfect. Great for about 3rd grade and up...
Rating: 
Summary: Joey swallowed his key
Review: This book is about a boy named Joey Pigza. He is an out of control boy who takes medication that doesn't work. When Joey was in school he would always fiddle with his house key. Joey always swallowed his key and pulled it back out again by the string. One day Joey was using the teacher's scissors and cut off the tip of a girl's nose. After that happened he was sent to the speacial-ed center downtown. While he was there he cleaned up his act and got the right dosage of medication he needed. After that he got sent back to his regular school. This story was good to read and it was funny too. I really don't like to read books but this book was ok.
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Summary: Student at Western Michigan University
Review: Joey Pigza Swallowed the Key is definitely my favorite book we read in class. I could just totally picture as a boy I went to school with. Everyone thought he was so hyper and he never really had any friends. Throughout the whole book I kind of was saddened because I felt bad for Joey not being able to find the right medicine to make him normal. People should have accepted him for who he was instead of making such a big deal about him being hyper. It was definatley a story that many children today can relate to. I think that even if you dont enjoy reading you will enjoy this book because by the first page, Gantos has you sucked in. Its a book enjoyed by both children and adults! I HIGHLY RECCOMEND!
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Summary: A joy to read and a good point to boot
Review: This was a book that touched me in many ways and I am quite happy to have read it. Joey Pigza is an extremely hyperactive 5th Grade boy. As he says to start the book "At school they say I'm wired bad, or wired mad, or wired sad, or wired glad, depending on my mood and what teacher has ended up with me. But there is no doubt about it, I'm wired". Through Gantos' deft storytelling, with Joey acting as our narrator, we are quickly taken into Joey's world. Joey's world isn't one that most of us would like to be a part of for very long. Joey has, up until the time we met him, lived in a world punctuated by two things. The fact that he is a wired, or in other words suffering from an extreme case of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, and a home life that involves a grandmother taking care of Joey, whose parents are AWOL, who in her own wired way is rather abusive towards Joey. Joey's life changes though with the return of his mother, which causes Joey's grandmother to leave. Joey's mother is a far more together person and is committed to trying to help Joey get better. However, Joey's ADHD causes him to get into ever more destructive situations that culminates in Joey accidentally maiming a girl's nose. With Joey describing the situation, if the reader reads quickly enough, it is quite possible for Joey's ridiculous decisions to make sense. Upon any sort of reflection Joey's decisions look ridiculous, but the fact that Gantos can make the reader understand why Joey acts the way he does is a large part of what makes this an excellent book. After reaching rock bottom Joey is sent to a special school where Joey's desire to not act that way is met with people who can help him get better. And slowly, and not without the occasional set back, Joey with the help of his case worker, "Special Ed", Joey is put on medication that works and he learns to make good decisions. The book ends with one of life's little triumphs as Joey is allowed to leave the Special Education school and return to his normal school. While not everything is OK things are look pretty good for Joey. This sums up the true triumph of Joey Pigza Swallowed the Key. The book manages to capture the shades of grey that are almost always missing from children's book. Joey is an astute 5th grader, but he is still a 5th grader and so sometimes there are just things he doesn't understand, unlike other children's books where the children appear to be nothing short of clairvoyant. This is a book that is fun to read while being so much more. I highly recommend this book.
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Summary: I love Joey
Review: I thought that this book was so entertaining. It really catches the attention of adults so it has got to get and keep the attention of children as well. I loved how Jack Gantos used real life scenarios that children these days go through. It was an all around enjoyable book for everyone.
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Summary: Joey Pigza Swallowed the key
Review: Joey Pigza Swallows the Key
By Jack Gantos
... This summer I read one of the funniest books ever . Joey Pigza Swallows the Key by Jack Gantos is hilarious and funny. Joey has a hard time sitting still and listening. Because Joey is so hyper, he has no friends and has a hard time getting along with other people. Joey bounces from school to school and doctor to doctor trying to find a medication that will calm him down. Joey lives with his grandma while his mom is out searching for his dad. Joey's grandma is also very hyper and wild like Joey even thought she has Emphysema and has a hard time breathing. When Joey's mom finally comes home she is very kind and loves Joey. All of Joey's teachers are very caring and they want to help Joey as much as they can because they know that he needs their help.
One of the most important parts in this book is when Joey goes on a fieldtrip to the Amish Farm with his class. This part is so important because it sort of turns Joey's life in the book from good to bad, but it is not the climax. This turns Joey's life from good to bad because during the fieldtrip their class gets to have a taste of a special Amish pie. Everyone form the class has to get into a line for a piece of the Amish pie. When Joey finally gets up to get his piece of pie, Joey's teacher tells him that he can not have a piece of the pie because it has too much sugar in it. So instead of the pie Joey gets an apple. Joey gets upset because he really wanted a piece of the pie. So while Joey's class is exploring the farm, Joey sneaks off and eats a whole pie. After a while Joey lost control and went crazy. After this Joey has to go to Special Ed class. As a whole this book was great. I absolutely loved this book. It was so funny and exciting. Some of the parts were so funny I started to laugh out loud. There are so many strange things Joey does that you don't know what he is going to do next so it keeps you thinking and laughing all through the book. The kind of reader that should read this book is someone that likes comedy. This book is for someone who likes comedy because most of the book is comedy. If you do not like to laugh then don't read this book.
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