Jack Gantos

After an explosion, a new crime by an old murderer, and the sad passing of the founder of Norvelt, Pennsylvania, twelve-year-old Jack accompanies his slightly mental elderly mentor, Miss Volker, on a cross-country run as she pursues the oddest of outlaws.

"Bursting with practical tips and tricks, such as creating actual story-finding maps of your neighborhood, this book will help you build confidence and establish good writing habits as you learn to use a journal to snoop out plots full of action and emotion about yourself, your family, your friends, your neighbors, and your pets. As Jack shows you hot to shape your rough ideas, organize plots, and polish drafts to shiny perfection, he also shares...

When he goes to a carnival with Sarah and his cousin Percy, Rotten Ralph learns that winning is not everything.

When both his parents go AWOL, young Joey Pigza is forced to become like a dad to his months-old baby brother, Carter Junior. Hilarity ensues as he tries, even with the help of a friend, until the real man of the house returns and Joey sees a ray of hope for fixing his family.

Hoping to beat his cousin Percy in the cat show, Ralph allows Sarah to help him spruce up his image and get in shape.

A young woman named Ivy, who made a shocking discovery in her small western Pennsylvania town when she was seven years old and learned a surprising secret nine years later, questions whether she has inherited the Rumbaugh curse of having excessive love for one's mother.

Joey tries to keep his life from degenerating into total chaos when his mother sends him to be home-schooled with a hostile blind girl, his divorced parents cannot stop fighting, and his grandmother is dying of emphysema.

Sarah's rotten cat Ralph goes to a Halloween costume party dressed as her and creates horrible mischief under the protection of his disguise.

"Ralph takes a swing through his family tree to find out why he's so rotten"-- Provided by publisher.