Joey Pigza Loses Control

Gantos, Jack. Joey Pigza Loses Control. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2000.

Joey Pigza Loses Control is a fictional story about a boy, Joey, who decides to spend the summer with his hyperactive father, just like Joey. As the summer progresses, so do the problems that Joey must face, including being off his ADHD medicine and missing his mother.

Throughout the book Joey struggles in finding a balance between respecting his father and wanting to get to know him better, and respecting himself and the choices he wants to make. Joey’s father is an alcoholic and often acts irrationally against Joey. At one point in the story, he flushes Joey’s ADHD medication patch down the toilet trying to make him more of a man. At the end of the book, Joey realizes how important it is to take his medication and how much he loves his mother, and how much he values respecting himself and his family.

Overall, I think that Gantos did a wonderful job intertwining ADHD and a young boy’s daily struggles. It was a very easy read and once I picked up the book, I did not want to put it down. I feel that this book addressed many important issues than just dealing with ADHD. It covered family issues and dealing with an alcoholic and troublesome father. It also introduced the importance of support from family and friends. I really liked how the book had so many different dynamics, yet still managed to show the importance of taking control of your own life and doing what is right and in Jack’s case that was taking his medication everyday in order to remain in control. The book allows for many different readers to relate to it because there were so many different dynamics: ADHD, separated parents, alcoholism, sports, and more. According to the article, “Teaching Students About Learning Disabilities Through Children’s Literature” by Prater, Dyches, and Johnstun, this book was a high quality piece of literature because it was well written as well as had a positive portrayal of a learning disability and was not a very difficult read for students with learning disabilities who chose to read the book.