Laura Hummel (Children's Literature)
Joey is determined to take control of his own life. In reconnecting with Carter, his absentee father, Joey secretly hopes to reunite his parents, but he finds that he can't really talk to his dad as the man never listens. Actually, he never closes his mouth. Facing some problems with alcohol, Carter figures that Joey can control his hyperactivity just as he did his alcoholism--cold turkey. He tosses out Joey's medication and goes to work, leaving the boy with his quirky chain-smoking grandma. Joey soon realizes that he is becoming his old wired self, and he tries desperately to be normal. Some of his antics will make you laugh out loud, but others are heart wrenching. Joey ends up playing on the baseball team his dad coaches and is a great pitcher. Unfortunately, he is unable to make new friends as his dad is always yelling at the players! Also, Carter is stressed over the baseball playoffs and seems to be losing control. He starts drinking again. After some wild escapades, Joey comes to the realization that it was "my mistakes that made me interesting and that perfect kids were more like mannequins." Adolescent readers will be absorbed with Joey's search to find himself, relate to his imperfections, and will perhaps find a message that will allow them to accept their own limitations. The plot is absorbing and thought-provoking. 2000, Farrar Straus and Giroux, $16.00. Ages 10 to 14.

Susie Wilde (Children's Literature)
In this National Book Award Finalist selection, Gantos introduces a young boy learning to cope with ADHD. Joey has medicine and strategies in this sequel, but he is still the same Joey. In the opening scene, he sets up living room pillows as targets, accidentally pierces his dog's ear, then solves the problem with a hoop earring. Soon after, Joey is off to live with his heavy-drinking, egocentric father for the first time. He is also living with his grandmother, who switches from crabby to cruel as quickly as she alternates smoking a cigarette and gulping fresh air from her oxygen machine. Readers will sympathize with Joey as his father rationalizes drinking, throws out Joey's medicine, and continually disappoints him. But none of these situations take away Joey's original retorts and comical, unique solutions to problems. Joey's biggest improvement may be his knowledge of self and how he applies it to better control his life. His wisdom and experience with failure show when he sizes up his grandmother. He knows she will always be her two selves--one nice and funny, and the other mean and scary. She will not change because she never feels that anything she does is wrong. All the changing is up to Joey, who says, "That was okay because I knew I could be wrong most of the time." Gantos' writing excellence shows in the way he allows the reader to draw conclusions, while Joey only experiences situations. Gantos still gives us what we love best about Joey--neither medicine nor a bad situation can take away his comic responses. This artist has created a satisfying follow-up. 2000, Farrar, $16.00. Ages 10 up.

CCBC (Cooperative Children's Book Center Choices, 2001)
Now that he takes medication to control his attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, Joey can spend some time with his father, whom his mother describes as "wired like you, only he's bigger." Joey is so anxious to be accepted by his father that he does things just to please him, such as agreeing to play on the Little League team his dad coaches. But Joey also does something he knows isn't good for him when he discontinues his medication after his father says he can get along without it. Before long, Joey is having the symptoms he recognizes from the old days: he's jumpy, he talks constantly, and he can't seem to settle down. Gantos's sequel to Joey Pigza Swallowed the Key (Farrar Straus and Giroux, 1998) is both hilarious and poignant as we watch resilient Joey try to survive a summer vacation with an unreliable parent. Honor Book, CCBC 2001 Newbery Discussion CCBC categories: Fiction for Children. 2000, Farrar Straus and Giroux, 196 pages, $16.00. Ages 9-13.

Kirkus (Kirkus Reviews, June 15, 2000 (Vol. 68, No. 12))
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 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. 2000, Farrar Straus & Giroux, $16.00. Category: Fiction. Ages 11 to 13. Starred Review. © 2000 Kirkus Reviews/VNU eMedia, Inc. All rights reserved.

Deborah Stevenson (The Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books, September 2000 (Vol. 54, No. 1))
Having found some help for his ADHD (Joey Pigza Swallowed the Key, BCCB 11/98), Joey is now less “wired,” but he’s got another reason to be excited: he’s going to spend the summer with his estranged father. His father proves to be exciting and upbeat, thrilled to have Joey pitching for the baseball team he coaches and sorry for his past wrongs, and Joey’s able to find a new, less thorny relationship with his grandmother. Joey’s mother’s uneasiness about the visit, however, soon proves to be justified, with Joey’s dad not only projecting his wishes and desires onto his son but also deciding that Joey needs to stop taking his medication--with predictably disastrous results. Gantos lifts this account of a kid with a lot of problems well above the stock problem novel: Joey’s view of the world is compelling regardless of what he’s dealing with, and it’s realistic in both its perceptions and their limitations. Characters are sharply and truthfully drawn; the common brutality of the denigrations around Joey’s father’s house is chilling, but Dad’s gutsy new girlfriend is a ray of hope for everybody. The book is also refreshingly original in some respects--despite the fact that many aspects of Joey’s life deviate considerably from most didactic ideals (Joey’s mom drives him to Dad’s on an expired license and in an uninsured car, for instance), mere difference from the putative norm isn’t enough to make something a problem here, and there’s a resulting acceptance of the less-than-ideal that young readers will find unusual and, probably, reassuring. Joey isn’t leading the easiest of lives, but he’s a tough and triumphant kid with an absorbing story. Review Code: R* -- Denotes books of special distinction. (c) Copyright 2000, The Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois. 2000, Farrar, 196p, $16.00. Grades 5-7.

Stephen Fraser (The Five Owls, January/February 2001 (Vol. 15, No. 3))
Jack Gantos, talented and versatile creator of the Rotten Ralph picture books and the short story collections about his alter ego Jack Henry, as well as the National Book Award finalist for Joey Pigza Swallowed the Key, has written a hilarious second book about Joey Pigza. Fans of the first book know that Joey suffers from ADHD, or attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder. This isn't specifically alluded to in the text--kids will just think this is one wired young man who can't seem to keep out of trouble. One hilarious scene has Joey pretending to be a store mannequin, wearing a bathing suit and standing against a painted beach scene. No one seems to notice. Joey, however, gains an interesting perspective on shoppers: "People argued and picked their noses and swatted their kids and talked to themselves and pulled at their tight underwear and spit chewing gum out in the corners and wiped their dirty hands on the clothes and sang off key and did all kinds of strange things that I did too, which made me feel like I was normal like they were not perfect like my mannequin buddy." With a similar clear-sightedness, Joey knows that he has a problem and has a matter-of- fact acceptance of it. He takes in meds in the form of patches, which he knows to replace each day. He and his mother have a sometimes snarly but always loving relationship. In this novel, his mother introduces him to his long-absent father, who, it's decided, will keep him for the summer in Pittsburgh. Joey and his father share a love of baseball. His father coaches a local team and so enlists Joey to serve as the team's pitcher. He gives an empowering speech to Joey about how pitching a baseball is like a caveman throwing a rock, an image that immediately appeals to Joey. As Joey helps the team head towards winning the championship, his father's joy in his son's abilities grows, and his father becomes more resolved to keep Joey permanently. Joey notices himself in his father, someone else who is hyperactive. "He's just like you, only bigger," his mother had said. This, in fact, is what gives poignancy to this novel: Joey realizes his own problem by seeing it reflected in his dad, from whom he desperately wants to gain respect and affection. Yet, gradually, as the novel develops, Joey begins to understand that his father still has to learn to deal with his own problems and that, in fact, living with his father isn't the best thing for him. The irony is that Joey's father doesn't believe that Joey has a real problem and tells Joey he should stop taking his meds. "Real men can tough it out. Be determined," he tells Joey. Joey is scared to not take his regular medication (he knows what it feels like to be hyperactive and out of control), but he is also thrilled by the possibility that his father thinks he might in fact be "normal." He feels an initial surge of power. There is one brilliant extended scene wherein Joey is on his own for the day in Pittsburgh when his father is at work, and Joey tries so hard to maintain his equilibrium. Yet, as the day rolls on, Joey begins to feel more and more out of control. Joey's own good sense makes him finally call his mother to tell her the truth about what has been going on. (His and his father's decision to get off the medicine has been their "secret.") The pace of this book is non-stop fast, reflecting Joey's constantly moving mind and body. (Make that two constantly moving minds and bodies, with Joey's father.) Young readers will laugh at the funny episodes, too: Joey leaving his pet chihuahua in the glove compartment of his mother's car by mistake; Joey and his father bungee jumping off the side of a bridge; Joey shooting peanuts out of his nostrils at a baseball game. Jack Gantos has created a wonderful character in Joey Pigza, contemporary in malaise and treatment, yet at the same time sympathetic and lovable. The author has sustained a wonderfully consistent voice throughout the novel, giving the readers a true glimpse at what it's like to be an ADHD child and at the same time entertaining his young readers with a terrific story. 2000, Farrar Straus and Giroux, $16.00. Ages 10 up.

Horn Book (The Horn Book Guide, Spring 2001)
Joey Pigza is on a more even keel, thanks to "good meds" for attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder. Spending the summer with his father, a bigger version of his "wired" self, Joey finds himself ill-prepared to cope with his self-destructive and alcoholic parent. As in Joey Pigza Swallowed the Key, the story's tension and sadness are tempered by Joey's often humorous, sometimes hilarious, narrative. Category: Intermediate Fiction. 2000, Farrar, 196pp, $16.00. Ages 9 to 12. Rating: 1: Outstanding, noteworthy in style, content, and/or illustration.

Tanya Tullos (The Lorgnette - Heart of Texas Reviews (Vol. 13, No. 1))
In Joey Pigza Swallowed the Key, Jack Gantos introduced the irrepressible Joey who has ADHD. In that book, Joey finally got a patch that would deliver his medications continually and help him regulate the highs and lows of his behavioral problems. In this sequel, Joey and his chihuahua, Pablo, meet his father, Carter, for the first time in years. Joey finds a grown-up version of his own hyperactive "before meds" self! Dad's mother, Grandma, has emphysema and makes fun of Pablo, both problems Joey must learn to deal with as his visit there continues. While Mom is only a phone call away, Joey must learn to rely on himself and adapt to these new family members. As before, Gantos portrays the relationships well. Joey and his mother have a loving relationship, but readers understand exactly why Joey behaves like he does and why Mom responds accordingly. The interesting flip/flop of Joey seeing himself in his father is a new perspective for Joey and a fascinating one for readers. Grades 3-7. 2000, Farrar Straus Giroux, 195p, $16.00. Ages 8 to 13.

Ruth Cox (VOYA, February 2001 (Vol. 23, No. 6))
In this sequel to Joey Pigza Swallowed the Key (Farrar Straus Giroux, 1998/VOYA February 1999), Joey begins his visit with his father on a relatively even keel because of the medication he takes to treat his attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). It is not, however, an easy father-and-son reunion, as Carter Pigza is an adult version of the non-medicated Joey, so wired that "a humming sound [comes] out of his body." Joey pitches for the baseball team that his father coaches, and Carter has plans for a winning season. Joey handles the demanding role of being the hotshot pitcher-son of the coach until Carter decides that Joey is a normal kid who does not need "crutches" and flushes Joey's medicine down the toilet. Although he wants to believe in his father, Joey knows that it will not be long before the old wired Joey comes back. The reader is drawn into Joey's struggle for self-control while his medication wears off and as his father's behavior becomes more erratic with the increased consumption of alcohol. Through Joey's narration, Gantos brilliantly portrays the often-manic pace of an ADHD mind, but he alleviates the tension with touches of humor. Joey accidentally pierces his Chihuahua Pablo's ear with a wayward dart and wants to put an earring in the hole. His mother is not amused, although the reader cannot help but smile at Joey's antics. Joey is a young teen struggling to maintain control in an often out-of-control world, a struggle with which many teens will relate. Gantos's style of writing and the subject matter make this book a great middle school read-aloud. VOYA CODES: 5Q 5P M J (Hard to imagine it being any better written; Every YA (who reads) was dying to read it yesterday; Middle School, defined as grades 6 to 8; Junior High, defined as grades 7 to 9). 2000, Farrar Straus Giroux, 196p, $16.00. Ages 11 to 15.