From: Jonathan Hunt <jhunt24>
Date: Tue, 30 Jan 2001 16:33:51

I found Joey's characterization credible, even though I've only had one student that comes close to him. I did find myself questioning many of the legal and medical issues surrounding his case, but that did not stop me from enjoying the books. Nor do I think such concerns, whether valid or not, make these books any less deserving of the awards they have received. But, then, I'm the person that casually dismissed similar concerns about SILENT TO THE BONE. Fiction is fiction, after all.

I will say, however, that there is an aspect of these Joey Pigza books that appeals to adults, but does not appeal to children. We, as adults, really like how this book sensitizes us to children with ADHD, how it humanizes them, how Gantos is able to take us inside Joey and show us the world from his perspective. But, as both Monica and Tina have both pointed out (and my experiences support this too), children do not seem to take this message of tolerance from the book as readily as we would hope.

I was only a half-hearted fan of the first book because I have many of these children in my room, and am already sensitive to their needs, thank you very much. I just didn't think this aspect was as enlightening to me as it must have been to other people (and it sounds like some people are in same boat).
  Now once the setting moved beyond the classroom I started to enjoy these more.

Jonathan


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Received on Tue 30 Jan 2001 04:33:51 PM CST