Joey Pigza

September has been designated Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) Month to educate everyone about effective treatments for the disease. In 1998 Jack Gantos published a book called Joey Pigza Swallowed the Key that not only became a National Book Award finalist but also goes a long way in educating young readers about ADHD. Joey Pigza is an endearing and sympathetic protagonist who is also both distracted and hyperactive. As he tells us in the first paragraph, “At school they say I’m wired bad, or wired mad, or wired sad, or wired glad, depending on my mood and what teacher has ended up with me. But there is no doubt about it. I’m wired.”

Joey has had some rough times: His alcoholic father has abandoned him and he has been raised by his grandmother. When his mother returns, things don’t really get better for him. He can’t sit still. He can’t pay attention. He always says the wrong thing. He just says, and does, whatever comes to his mind. His medication doesn’t seem to work at certain times of the day. He swallows his house key; he hurts his finger when he sticks it into the pencil sharpener. Eventually Joey causes a serious accident for another student. Throughout all of these events, Gantos keeps the story moving along at record speed, as Joey processes what happens in his own first-person voice.

So, Joey gets sent off to a special educational center, where they send him to the hospital to scan his brain, do a lot of psychological analysis, and adjust his medication. And finally readers cheer as, much more in control, Joey goes back to his own school. It’s impossible not to root for him. He’s basically a good kid who always does the wrong thing. He’s funny and dear and enraging all at the same time. But because he’s ADHD, he can’t help himself—until he gets the help he needs.

Jack Gantos began his career with a series of books about a badly behaved cat, Rotten Ralph. His own autobiography, A Hole in My Life, tells about Gantos’s scrapes with the law as a young man. In fact, no one describes rowdy, out of control boys better than Jack. But Joey Pigza may well be his finest creation. For this character, Jack blended elements of his friends, kids he saw in school visits, and, of course, Jack himself as a boy.

Joey’s adventures continue in Joey Pigza Loses Control, What Would Joey Pigza Do? and I Am Not Joey Pigza. If you know young readers ages eight through twelve who want to understand ADHD—or who just want to laugh a lot about a badly behaved boy—share these books with them.

Here’s a passage from Joey Pigza Swallowed the Key: