The Trouble in Me

June 22, 2015
This installment in Gantos’s ongoing chronicle of his tumultuous youth opens ominously, with 14-year-old Jackie crossing the backyard with matches and a can of lighter fluid. What could possibly go wrong? Conflagrations (more than one) follow as Jack, whose family has relocated again, attempts to reinvent himself in the image of his new neighbor, notorious juvenile delinquent, Gary Pagoda. Gary’s criminal skills include shoplifting, car theft, and possible statutory rape, but he also has a predilection for death-defying stunts—“the Pagoda Olympics”—like catapulting Jackie over the house in hopes of hitting the pool. Full of “don’t try this at home” moments (to the breaking point of credulity), Jack’s interior monologue also has a heartbreaking edge, as he struggles to distance himself from his father’s derogatory comments about his size and worth. Chronologically, the events Gantos describes partially bridge the gap between Jack’s Black Book (1997) and his Printz Honor winner, Hole in My Life (2002). The book also only covers a few weeks one summer—one suspects that Gantos isn’t finished mining his childhood for novel-worthy moments. Ages 12–up.

December 1, 2015

Gr 7 Up-Before there was life behind bars at the federal prison, there was life behind a chain-link fence on his Florida city lot, where Jack, at age 14, saw his future. On the other side stands car thief Gary Pagoda, recently released from juvie, a boy who is "everything [Jack] had never been" but who in short order Jack decides is everything he wants to become. Each reckless antic (shoplifting, kamikaze-esque "Pagoda Olympics," escalating pyromania) aimed at creating a new identity leaves a bigger void. Read admirably well by the author, the only narrator who could do this tale justice. VERDICT This poignant story is about learning one of life's lessons the hard way: the most powerful lies are the ones you tell yourself. ["Gantos's characteristic humor and keen observation of the fragile teen psyche combine with heartbreaking authenticity in this unflinching look at how a good kid can easily go down a wrong path": SLJ 10/15 starred review of the Farrar book.]-Cheryl Preisendorfer, Twinsburg City Schools, OH

Copyright 2015 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

November 30, 2015
Gantos reflects on his early teenage years, a key period of time that led him down the life of crime and prison he captured in his previous memoir, Hole in My Life. This book recounts a two-week period when the author was 14 years old and first started hanging out with Gary Pagoda, a notorious juvenile delinquent in the Fort Lauderdale neighborhood where Gantos and his family lived. Gantos provides the voice in the audio edition to the detriment of his story: his focus throughout is on the enunciation of the words rather than the emotional components of the story. He seems too intent on getting the words right. As a result, his performance falls flat and never allows the listener to settle in and get absorbed into the story. Ages 12–up. A Farrar, Straus and Giroux hardcover.

March 1, 2016
Gantos first came clean in the autobiographical Hole in My Life (rev. 5/02), in which he described how a misspent youth led him to a prison sentence for drug trafficking. In The Trouble in Me, he recounts some pivotal episodes of his earlier adolescence that show how making terrible choice after terrible choice led him off course. As usual, Gantos does the narrating honors with this audiobook, and his in-character relish when describing acts of early-teenage depravity (fires feature prominently) is well suited to this cautionary tale -- minus any trace of preachiness -- about the dangers of not knowing oneself. nell beram

(Copyright 2016 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)