Joey Pigza Loses Control

Joey Pigza Loses Control
By Jack Gantos
Newbery Honor book 2001

This book is about a boy named Joey Pigza who wears a medicine patch to help him stay focused and in control. Joey goes to spend the summer with his estranged dad (Carter Pigza) and find outs that his dad is hyper just like he use to be before he got his patch. Carter wears a patch to help curb his nicotine cravings, but he also has the extra bonus of being an alcoholic in denial. Joey’s father is messed up and out-of-control more than Joey initially realizes. Carter decides to liberate the both of them by flushing their medicine patches down the toilet so that they can be normal and in control of their own lives. That one action is the beginning of both their undoing and the rest of the book.

What I liked about this book was that it gives a realistic picture of what kids go through with ADHD. There are many students at my school on medication for ADHD, they could really identify with the main character. This book could help them deal with their real life problems.

The only thing that I didn’t like about this book was that this book, which was the second in the series, did not really spell out specifically that Joey’s medical problem was ADHD. There are three books (Joey Pigza Swallowed the Key, Joey Pigza Loses Control, and What Would Joey Do?) in this series and they should be read in order.

I didn’t realize until I read this book that a story about a very serious real situation that many children I know could identify with could also be told so humorously. Jack Gantos truly has a gift. It makes me wonder if he was ever diagnosed with ADHD.