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Summary: Good book, good book, good book!
Review: I read this book before I read the first one and I loved it. It is about Joey Pigza, a boy who can go bezerk if he doesn't wear his medicine patches. In this book him and his dog Pablo go to see his dad who he has never met before. Joey thinks his dad will be great despite the bad things his mom says. Everything goes great until his dad flushes all his patches down the toilet!!! Will Joey go bezerk or will he be able to control himself? Read to find out!
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Summary: joey pigza is good
Review: The story was a great story. I recomand it to kids and parents. Don't miss out in such an exciting story. Please buy the book and show Jack Gantos that you want him to keep writing for our enjoyment.
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Summary: Trying to think one thought
Review: This bok is incredible at portraying Joey's gradual loss of control when his father takes away Joey's meds. Joey is trying so hard to 'think one thought at a time' as his mother has advised him. But as time passes the paragraphs and sentences get longer and less orderly as Joey is trying to get all those thoughts out.A very good book.
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Summary: An eye-opener
Review: Joey, thrust into the frenetic world of his father for a summer, learns first-hand that he is NOT a smaller version of his irresponsible and out-of-control dad, with whom he shares the malady of ADHD and who is additionally an alcoholic. Joey must once again deal with Grandma, spending his emergency money to buy her cigarettes while she sucks oxygen to alleviate the symptoms of emphysema. This harsh environment becomes impossible to cope with when Dad flushes Joey's medication down the toilet and urges him to go cold turkey and behave like a man, while Dad self-medicates with beer for breakfast. Joey's courage and ability to make wise decisions ultimately offers some hope that he will be able to overcome his challenges and his bleak family history.
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Summary: even better
Review: i like this book even better than the frist one.joey is just such a lovable chacter. you really felt for him while he was trying to connect with his dad. i hope thete are more joey books to come.
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Summary: Deals well with the intergenerational issues of AD/HD
Review: Joey Pigza Swallowed a Key, and Joey Pigza Loses Control by Jack Gantos Joey Pigza is a kind but impulsive, inattentive boy, living with his divorced mother. In the first book, Joey is diagnosed with AD/HD. The author deals humorously and sympathetically with Joey's impulsivity and how it gets him in trouble in school and at home. Eventually Joey and his mother learn how to compensate through humor, educational strategies and medication. The second book still retains some of the humor of the first, but deals with more serious issues. Joey's estranged father arranges to have Joey stay with him for the summer. The father clearly has ADHD symptoms similar to those of his son. Further, the father struggles with alcoholism and legal problems. During the summer, he makes Joey stop he medication. In his father Joey sees what he might have become. This second story deals with the very serious issues of custody disputes, parental disagreement about medication, alcoholism and its effect on a child with AD/HD. Some parents might want to read this book with their older elementary school and middle school children to explain some of these complex issues. Carol E, Watkins, M.D. Child & Adolescent Psychiatrist
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Summary: Joey Pigza Loses Control in a spectacular way!
Review: Joey's Mom could no longer cope with his Dad's erratic behavior & has been raising him alone, as best she can, coaching & encouraging him while he stabilizes his hyperactive tendencies which had him spiraling out of control. Joey now has some special tools he's been taught to use when he gets stressed out. He must, however, refresh his medicinal patches daily. Finally the big day arrives when his Mom borrows a friend's car & drives him to visit his dad & grandmother, where they all once had lived together & Joey suddenly has some very strong memories of those years. This time though, Joey is in control & knows it. Even as his Grandmother wheezes out mean comments, she begins to con away from him his emergency stash of cash. Even as his Dad takes him to a theme park where he says he's gotten so much inspiration for handling his life, Joey can't make much sense of what his Dad says & soon realizes that his Dad isn't much interested in what makes him tick. Joey so wants this visit to work that he defers to his Dad & when they discover they have baseball in common, all things are possible, even getting off his medicine. Or are they? Phew! What a fast read! I couldn't put it down! I do recommend it for both youngsters & olders alike - an entertaining, informative & useful read on a hasty & insidious disease.
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Summary: Mustread for this age group
Review: The "good meds" that Joey Pigza takes has calmed down the youngster considerably, but he worries when his mom drives to meet his dad for the first time in several years. His mom is even more nervous because she knows that her son's dad Carter is a bigger version of Joey without the medicine. Joey also is worried because he wants his dad to like him so they can be more like a real father and son. Over the next six weeks, Carter proves to be much more complex than Joey's wife described or the way the lad dreamed his dad would act. Carter's lessons in life reinforce his behavior leading to the tossing of Joey's medicine down the toilet while insisting real men tough out their problems without external aids. Although Joey knows what happens without the "good meds", he decides to "tough" it out even as his own behavior begins to spin out of control. JOEY PIGZA LOSES CONTROL, the sequel to the great JOEY PIGZA SWALLOWS HIS KEY, is a tremendous dark tale aimed at middle schoolers, but should be prime reading for grown-ups. The story line cleverly plays at two levels. The interesting plot engages young readers as they cheer for Joey to survive to balance his out of control universe. The tale also targets adults to understand that we serve as role models that our children will one day emulate. Readers of all ages who wire into Jack Gantos will know they have read some of the most poignant drama available. Harriet KlaUSNER
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Summary: Joey's back
Review: In "Joey Pigza Swallowed the Key", Joey struggled to learn to control his ADD. Now he's back, with a new challenge to face: his estranged father, Carter. Carter is just as wired as Joey once was -- but Carter believes that Joey can kick his ADD cold turkey, and flushes his meds down the toilet. Joey wants to believe, and to trust his dad, but what happens when father doesn't always know best? This sequel focuses more on Joey's relationship with his family. He struggles to walk the line between wanting to please his father, but also do what is right for him. Though not as arresting as the previous book, we still get to see the world through Joey's eyes and a bit heartbreaking for the reader to watch him lose his hard won self control. I'd reccomend it to anyone who had to struggle either with ADD or with family issues.
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Summary: Hilarious, amazing, wonderful...
Review: I will not repeat everything else that has been said about this book. I will just share a true story about listening to Jack Gantos read this book on the audio cassette version. We were listening to the book in the car. After the chapter where Joey first sees his dad coach a Little League baseball team, my 11 year old daughter stopped the tape and wiping tears of laughter from her eyes, stabbed the rewind button and said, "I HAVE to hear that part again!"
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