Joey Pigza Loses Control

As if Joey didn’t get into enough trouble in his unforgettable debut, Joey Pigza Swallowed the Key (1998), Gantos has him wig out again in this sad, scary, blackly funny sequel. His hyperactivity under control thanks to new meds, Joey is looking forward to a six-week stay with his father Carter, hoping for some bonding. Unfortunately, his mother’s warning: “. . . he can be, you know, wired like you, only he’s bigger.” understates the case. As a father, not to say a human being, Carter turns out to be appallingly dysfunctional: irresponsible, utterly self-centered, domineering, callous, and ominously short-fused. Smart enough to see through his father’s loud assertions that he’s turned over a new leaf, Joey nonetheless show more struggles to please, even when Carter flushes Joey’s medication down the toilet, insisting that real men only need willpower to solve their personal problems. Joey tries to tough it out, hoping (despite bitter experience) that this time he won’t go spinning off. Swept along by Joey’s breathless narrative, readers will share his horrified fascination as, bit by bit, he watches the bad old habits and behavior come back. Joey’s emphysemic Grandma, alternating drags on a cigarette with whiffs of oxygen as she trundles about the neighborhood in a shopping cart, and his Chihuahua Pablo, who survives both being locked in a glove compartment and having his ear pierced by a dart, provide the closest thing to comic relief here. The situation takes a dangerous turn when Joey eggs Carter into a wild rage; fortunately, his mother is just a phone call away, waiting in the wings to bail him out. Carter is truly frightening, a vision of what Joey could grow up to be, did he not possess the inner honesty to acknowledge his limitations (eventually), and caring adults to help him. A tragic tale in many ways, but a triumph too. (Fiction. 11-13)

-Kirkus Review show less

Joey Pigza's family are all people with problems who don't have it all together. He has to come to terms with his Dad and Grandma being selfish, greedy and sometimes abusive. Most kids have to realize at some point that their parents aren't always right or good, and decide how they're going to deal with the realization. Joey is saddened by his Grandma's declining health and wants her to be happy, even though she seems to have little empathy for him and plays some pretty mean tricks on him. He also wants to connect with his Dad and be a good son, even as we see that his Dad is reckless, irresponsible and self-absorbed. Despite the dysfunction of Joey Pigza's family, Gantos creates a some terrific humor. The book opens with Pigza's broke show more and stressed mom telling him that they must drive carefully, because "My license is slightly expired and I don't have insurance, so just bear with me." I'm sure plenty of kids can relate to having parents who are at the end of their rope and barely holding it all together.

I enjoy Gantos' descriptive language and humor. He describes someone's smile as looking like a "cracked bar of soap in a gas station bathroom;" his grandma reaching out her hand for money "like a music-box monkey;" she also "ripped a pack (of cigarettes) open like they were the only medicine in the world to save her from a rattlesnake bite." show less

At least worth the Newbery honor that it received. Intense themes, told engagingly by a boy to love. As a parent, I was so worried for him, given that father and grandmother are both so dysfunctional. Mom needs more help getting her act completely together, too, though. But at least she loves him, and keeps trying. Dad only loves himself, and Grandma needs, well, something more than what she can offer the boy.

So it's a good thing that Joey is self-aware and intelligent! He'll be ok... but I don't think I could bear to read the rest of the series to see how he works things out so that he can grow up in one piece.

When Joey Pigza shot his beloved chihuahua through the ear with an errant dart, and after a little first aid, decided this was a grand opportunity to put his mother's hoop earring through the wound on the dog and play pirate, I knew I was in for an amusing story! The story progresses in a quick somewhat disjointed style which mimicks Joey's ADD and his parents' difficulty in dealing with him. His mother grips the steering wheel for dear life in massive frustration with Joey's constant questioning; while his dad continues his "self medication" with alcohol as a way of coping with Joey and also with his own life. Joey's grandmother is another odd character whose chain smoking in spite of lung problems defies all logic.
The strength of the show more story is the humor, as told from Joey's point of view, and the realistic and touching plot. The weakness may be that older students would identify less with Joey; still, as an adult, I was totally absorbed in the story. The story lends itself to classroom discussions about divorce, alcoholism, smoking (and other habits hard to break), and especially to Attention Deficit Disorder or other disabilities with which students themselves struggle. show less

This 2001 Newbery Honor book is well deserving of the award. It is yet another excellent example of the YA genre that resonates with all age groups.

Joey Pigza has ADHD. Well aware that he needs the medicinal patches to control his frenetic behavior, Joey has learned that without the patches, he is another person.

When Joey's mother reluctantly allows him to spend six weeks with his father, it is a test to see who is more out of control -- the son or the father.

Throwing away the patches, Joey's self absorbed father encourages Joey to be a man. Surrounded by a oxygen-toting, chain-smoking grandmother, a six-pack an hour father, while Joey's mind and body are bouncing off the wall, he is the voice of logic and he quickly realizes that his show more self absorbed father has little thought for others.

This is a humorous, yet poignantly sad tale of a child who is wiser than his father. As he listens to hour after hour after hour of his father's stories while his father takes no time or energy to know him, Joey deeply appreciates the two steady forces in his life, his funny, spunky dog and his loving, kind, other-directed mother.

While deprived of his much needed meds, Joey still has the clarity to call his mother to come to the rescue.

Highly recommended! show less

The second in the Joey Pigza series, please read JOEY PIGZA SWALLOWED A KEY first. Joey is now on good meds that control his adhd and he is receiving support services to understand his illness and help with coping strategies. His dad has reentered his life and a court has granted him summer visitation-- so Joey is going to visit the dad he has not seen for many years-- a man who is clean and sober, has a job and a new girlfriend, and desperately wants to make up for lost time. But Joey's dad (and his grandma) have the same adhd issues that joey does, but they remain untreated and it is not long before the dad becomes unglued and convinces joey to stop taking the meds that have given him back his normal life. joey wants a relationship show more with his dad-- what boy doesnt? But he can see feel himself losing control and he is so far from his mom. what to do?
Another great chapter from Gantos in the Joey Pigza story. Gantos tells the story through Joey's voice and we draw our own conclusions-- i love that. No preaching or heavy handed morality. Subtle and funny and endearing and frightening. Very imperfect characters that are at once unlikeable, mean, funny, endearing and sympathetic. All of them. Even grandma.
I love this series. Highly recommended. show less

Gantos, J. (2000). Joey Pigza Loses Control. New York: HarperTrophy.

0064410226

Joey’s back and he’s facing a new challenge: Meeting his father for the first time and visiting his difficult grandma, whose health is declining.

This book deals more deeply with issues only touched on the first book: The results of a lifetime of smoking, parental alcoholism, the need for ADHD medication, parental pressure, the desire for a united family, etc. Also, this book may appeal to sports fans, since Joey spends a lot of time playing baseball while visiting his father in Pittsburgh. There are also fairytale elements to this story, since Joey’s father repeatedly uses fairytales as metaphors for his life.

What’s amazing about the second book in show more this series is how the reader’s perception changes of Joey’s mother. In the first book, I found myself wondering if Joey should be living with her. In the second book, when Joey visits his father, I found myself pleading, “Please, please, PLEASE send him back to his mother!”

Activities to do with the book:

This book can be used to have a number of conversations on visiting an absent parent, realizing parents make mistakes, the experience of being ADHD and needing medication, the health complications of smoking. And so on. If a teacher shares this book with a student or class, he or she must be certain to show sympathy for Joey and encourage personal response to the narrative.

If students have read the first book, a teacher could ask how their views of the characters have shifted. Do they feel more sympathetic toward Joey, his mother and grandmother?

Since the story ends rather abruptly, students could write a continuation of the story, letters to Joey and his family members or just go on to read the next book.

Favorite Quotes:

“That’s the one thing I liked about [my father] already. [Mom’s] mind was on him, him, him. Usually it was on me, me, me, and I couldn’t do or say anything that she didn’t notice, but now I was hiding inside his shadow like a drop inside an ocean, and he got to take the blame for her bad nerves” (p. 7).

JOEY’S MOTHER: “I’m sending you because you might like [your dad] and because I think—not with my heart—that it’s a good thing for you to have a relationship with your father. And now that he claims to have stopped drinking and has a job and has gone to court to get some visitation. I’m sending you to him because I think it’s the right thing to do” (p. 8).

“My patch is not a drug,” I pleased. “It’s medicine” (p. 93).

See more of my reviews at sjkessel.blogspot.com show less