Joey Pigza is the main character in a series of children's books written by Jack Gantos

Jack Gantos

John Bryan Gantos, Jr., better known as Jack Gantos is an American author of children's books renowned for his portrayal of fictional Joey Pigza, a boy with ADHD. Gantos has won a number of awards, including the Newbery Honor, the Printz Honor, and the Sibert Honor from the American Library...

. Joey has Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). Joey often struggles throughout the series with balancing his desire to behave, and his impulses.

Joey Pigza Swallowed The Key

Joey Pigza Swallowed the Key

Joey Pigza Swallowed the Key, written by Jack Gantos, is the first in a series of books featuring Joey Pigza. The book was a National Book Award finalist.-Plot summary:...

Joey Pigza can't sit still. He can't pay attention, he can't follow the rules, and he can't help it. Especially when his meds aren't working. Joey's had problems ever since he was born, problems just like his father and grandmother have. And whether he's wreaking havoc on a class trip or swallowing his house key, joey's problems keep getting worse. In fact, his behavior is so off the wall that his teacher are threatening to send him to the special-ed center downtown.
Joey knows he's really a good kid, but no matter how hard he tries to do the right thing, something always seems to go wrong. Will he ever get anything right?

Joey Pigza Loses Control

To keep him occupied during the summer as she works, Joey's mom gives him a trumpet and tells him to learn to play all the songs on a Herb Alpert cassette. Joey quickly becomes bored by the difficulty of it, and starts throwing rocks at a target- and finds he's pretty good at it. As he progresses to darts and tricky maneuvers, Joey accidentally throws darts through his dear chihuahua's ear. Realizing how Joey needs to be looked after, compounded by a court mandated visitation right by Joey's father, Carter, Joey's mom reluctantly agrees to let Joey know his father. Although Carter is often described as wired as Joey, but only bigger. As readers progress throughout the story, we realize that Carter is wired, but also deranged by alcohol and a life full of guilt and disappointment. Regretful over his less than stellar record as a father, Carter is eager to prove to Joey how he's changed and showing him the amusement park that inspired great thoughts that changed his mind. As he utilizes Joey's great pitches to help the little league baseball team he coaches, Carter happily imagines of Joey living with him and his new girlfriend, of winning the little league baseball championships, and everything turning out for the better. Joey, eager to have his pie love him as Joey already loves Carter, brushes aside the one-sided conversation with his father's incessant talking and how Carter slips back to his old habits of smoking and drinking. However, Carter's drinking problem becomes more troublesome, and his erratic temper and "philosophical thinking" that comes after a drunken fit proves only a danger to Joey. Carter flushes down Joey's ADHD's medication, as a gift, to get rid of Joey's "crutch". Joey who realizes how wrong things are turning out, cries as he watches his medicine, not crutch, flush away. Joey wants to make the summer with his father last (and unable to let go of the notion that he could be normal after all), but it proves difficult as time goes by. Joey is unable to control himself while realizing he needs help. As the book goes on, he attempts to cover himself in shaving cream, scratches himself until he bleds, and is unable to take care of himself. At the semi-finals, his pitching takes a turn for the worse as he's unable to concentrate (especially with Carter's raucous yelling) and starts aiming balls at the players, spectators and even cars. He runs away mid-game, and desperately makes a phone call for his mother to pick up him. His father yells while this happens. Leezy, Carter's girlfriend, helps keep him safe from his father until his mother comes pick him up. His grandma, a source of insight but also inaction, waves goodbye to him.

What Would Joey Do?

What Would Joey Do?

What Would Joey Do? is a 2003 novel by Jack Gantos. The title is a play on word from the famous Christian phrase "What would Jesus do?", which is the question Mrs...

Life seems like it would be better for Joey when he leaves his father's home during the third book. However, he is home schooled with a blind girl, Olivia who proceeds to find ways to get Joey in trouble. Joey also struggles with the death of his grandmother. By the end of the novel, Joey and Olivia have started to become friends.

I Am Not Joey Pigza

Gantos has written a fourth book, after originally intending to stop the series at three. In the book, Joey's parents re-marry, and Joey's mother is pregnant again. She gives birth early due to soaking in a hot tub, and divorces again since Joey's father could not see his son's birth due to a plastic surgery failure. Apparently, Joey's parents were not truly in love.