Reviews

• The life shared in this book is compelling, entertaining, and inspirational. Jack Gantos tells of the unpredictable twists and turns of his life through his memoir Hole in My Life. His great details and honest thoughts bring the story to life and allow the reader to not only put on his shoes but run in them too. His blunt sense of humor and vivid details make his stories entertaining and fun to read. He brings moments to life through his true stories and through the characters he has created. In his memoir, Gantos shares a challenging part of his life that led him to actively pursue his writing passion. Jack Gantos introduces you to the people he encountered, the quests he went on, and the challenges he faced at the age of 20. He explains how he continuously searched for what he wanted throughout the years, how he got into trouble, and how the hole in his life ultimately changed is path. His story is open and honest, and it is fascinating to read about the crazy life he lived. He finds himself filling many different roles: a junior attending school in Florida, a construction worker in Puerto Rico, a high school senior living in a motel, a boy involved in questionable activities, a sailor travelling to New York, a prisoner, and a writer. These different roles are a result of different major decisions he made, and these decisions helped lead an interesting and thrilling life. Gantos shows how each moment brought him exciting ideas and aided him in his passion. He shows that every moment truly counts, and that you should never give up on what you want to pursue. The characters he introduces are well developed and authentic. Their voices and personalities can be heard and seen through the pages, and the interactions are vivid and real. From the major people in his life to people whose interactions were brief, each interaction played a vital part in his life, and Gantos’s storytelling makes it easy to imagine the friends and peers. The plot is interesting and easy to follow. His transitions between different thoughts and periods of time are seamless and enjoyable. At times it seemed as if the stories he was sharing were irrelevant, but each story created a better picture of who he is and what he was thinking while he was finding himself through all the chaos. The overall message of the story is relatable and inspiring. The story is captivating – it was hard to put the book down. It is easy identify the books Gantos has written as his due to his distinct style, but his memoir is not like his children’s books. You can hear him speak through the pages and he has no filter while sharing the stories of his life. It is an easy read, but the contents of the book are heavy and mature. I would not recommend this book for children or young teens, because of the drugs and profanity within the story. I enjoyed the book and would eagerly read Gantos’ life story again.

• Jack Gantos is a well-known author of children’s books; although Hole in My life, which was published in 2003, may not be suitable for children who have not reached adolescence, this is definitely an autobiography worth reading. This book deserves five out of five stars because it is an easy and fun read and tells a very real story of himself as an aspiring writer. Gantos fills the book with details of his high school life and how it spirals out of control, he even states “you don’t just end up homeless, hungover, sleeping in your car … because you have control of your life”. This book teaches us to keep following our dreams, no matter what we encounter. Living his life as a ‘misfit’, this book is very relatable to high school and college students who may have had a hard time fitting in and were constantly moving from place to place during their childhood. In the book, Gantos seemed to be living the life of a normal teenager who gets into some bad habits, like drugs and alcohol. Though he never fully finished high school, Jack always knew he had a passion for writing and wanted to become a writer, he constantly kept journals for organizing his writing. He even wanted to go to college to improve his writing. Once he deemed the University of Florida as unfit for himself, he moves to St. Croix to be with his family again, who had moved to the island for work. Once he gets to St. Croix, he begins building wooden crates with his father but gets involved with drugs rather quickly. After being offered $10,000 to smuggle hashish from the island to New York, Gantos embarks on his three-week long sailboat adventure with an unfavorable partner. On his journey, Jack continues his writing and reading in hopes of being inspired and being able to perfect his writing skills. Things were quick to fall apart once he reached New York; the FBI ends up catching Gantos after a few weeks of being back in the United States and Jack is sent to prison. After being told he could serve up to six years, Gantos begins pouring his life into writing, writing about every detail of every day. Prison is where Gantos finally realizes his potential as a writer and embraces his passion for writing. Overall, Hole in My Life is truly an inspiration to anyone who has dreams but finds themselves struggling to achieve them. The book does a great job of showing how Jack grew as a writer. He overcomes struggles and turns a very bad situation into a chance to follow his dreams. Jack Gantos is very successful in being detailed in his experiences, which allows the reader to relate to him and feel empathy. Because we know Gantos ends up in jail from the beginning of the book, Hole in My Life leaves you on the edge of your seat and leaves you wanting more. The book flows very well and does a good job of attaching the reader to the book. The hardships he faced gave him the chance to organize and write down his thoughts and allowed writing to become a substitute of drugs. Not only does Hole in My Life act as a story of Gantos’s young adult life, but shares multiple positive life lessons. If he had not gone through these difficulties, Gantos may not be the award-winning author he is today. I definitely recommend this book because it is a great read for anyone who is feeling lost or struggling to achieve their dreams.

• Good

• One mistake does not define you. I highly recommend the book, Hole in my life, by author, Jack Gantos, and am giving it a 4.5-star rating. The book is an inspirational memoir that leads the reader on the roller coaster of life where goals are pursued, and in that pursuit, a mistake causes a twist of fate which leads the author down an unexpected path. Most importantly, the book offers hope in demonstrating self-analyzation through trials and tribulations that lead to hard work and redemption toward a better life. The moral being, one small mistake does not define you, it’s how you react and change for the better that counts. Hole in My Life is a Printz Honor and Sibert Honor-winning memoir published in April 2002. The highly acclaimed author, Jack Gantos, is also known for many other books including the Jack Henry and Joey Pigza series, the Rotten Ralph picture books and early reading books, and two Norvelt novels called, Dead End in Norvelt (winner of a Newberry Medal) and From Norvelt to Nowhere. Jack Gantos’s style is very straightforward with a little bit of humor to lighten even the worst of situations. This novel is a memoir, reflecting the life of author Jack Gantos. This book is about how one single decision leading to an unfortunate mistake made by Gantos shaped his life entirely. As a struggling young adult trying to go to college and desperate for money, Gantos was offered a deal that he could not refuse, one that was almost too good to be true. Little did he know that that one decision would send his life down a path he would have never imagined. The book scripts out the life lesson that one mistake does not have to define and shape the rest of one’s future. The first half of the book explains Gantos’ early life, his struggles, his background and why he got to where he was. Then, comes his big mistake. The second half of the book explains in detail this mistake and the trials and obstacles he had to face. It is very compelling because the reader feels for Gantos and his situation. One can relate to his plight, and he is so similar to almost anyone with just a dash of bad luck. This story is relatable because, in just the blink of an eye, a life can be turned around just like he was. This book keeps the reader on edge and leaves one wanting to find out more. There were definite tension and shape to it. It presented in an interesting way where there is no confusion with a smooth flow, enticing the reader to continue on without pause. The tension peaked as he was arrested, imprisoned, and denied the ability to attend college, his lifelong dream. This narrative is authentic because it depicts the actual life event that shaped Gantos’ life. This book demonstrations acceptance, forgiveness, and redemption as it illustrates how one mistake does not have to change a life in a negative way forever; it allows for the hope of redemption and the ability to overturn a mistake in a reversal of fortune. Memoirs are not always the easiest books to find relatable, but Hole in My Life was easy to relate to because most people realize that nobody is perfect. We all make mistakes, some for better reasons than others, and to see how Gantos changed his life after his mistake was very compelling. It is a very inspirational story that could have been very negative. In some of Jack Gantos other work, he was able to bring his childhood out and create children's books regardless of the hardships he’s had to endure, so this one was quite a change. There are a few trigger points in this book. The lack of respect for the law and the ease in breaking it is one of those points. Another is the graphic jail scenes that could be disturbing to the reader. In particular, the talks of acts of rape that occurred in the jail between the men is an issue that could be difficult for a reader to endure. The casual talk occurs so quickly; it would have been nice to give a foreshadowing in the book to warn of the upcoming topic. Another issue covered that the reader may want to be warned of early on is the global drug smuggling throughout the open seas. The theme of the novel is that everybody makes mistakes, but it is more important how you react and move forward after that mistake than it is that you made the mistake itself. It matters how you improve your life with what you have. The moral is that no matter how bad your life gets, you can choose to give up, or you can decide to improve and go up from there, and you can’t let one mistake define your future. It’s how you look at your mistakes and grow from them that is what shapes you. I would recommend this novel to anyone from grade 7 and up. The older the age group the more likely they are to like and relate to this novel based on the hardships and experience they have been through. Both males and females can relate to this book. This book is appropriate for advanced students, as well, because it challenges them to think into the deeper meanings of life. Overall, it is definitely worth the time to read.

• Happy daughter

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