From: Carrie Schadle <bz227>
Date: Tue, 12 May 1998 09:28:03 -0400 (EDT)

I can't believe no one has mentioned Jack Gantos' books about Jack yet. Perhaps this goes back to the humor being personal thing, because people always look at me kind of strange when I say I think these books, despite the obvious problems of the family just beneath the surface, are some of the funniest I have ever read--the only others I can think of besides Ramona that actually made me laugh out loud. As I read them I kept elbowing people and saying, "Listen to this..." and reading out loud. I'm not sure which one it is ( the Black Book one, maybe), but there is a very funny, very un-pc part where his little brother decides to earn money by pretending he is a blind boy who takes polaroids of people by listening to them singing. And in that same sequence, when the mob guy hires Jack to write letters to his parole officers with excuses why he can't come home, and Jack's letters are so absurd the guy throws the typewriter in the ocean...I'm chuckling just thinking about it. I guess they aren't for everyone, because they really are totally over the top (and can be revolting--like when they are in the Caribbean and Jack has to get painted with the purple stuff after performing surgery on himself...), but I couldn't let them not get mentioned in a discussion about middle grade humor.

******************************** Carrie Schadle Jefferson Market Regional Branch, New York Public Library bz227 at freenet.buffalo.edu 212/243C34
Received on Tue 12 May 1998 08:28:03 AM CDT