Hole in My Life

 

Gantos, Jack. Hole in my Life.  Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, New York: 2002. 200 pages. Tr. $16.00 ISBN 9780374399883

Annotation

In Hole n My Life, Newberry Award winning author Jack Gantos recounts his youth when he was arrested for smuggling drugs from the Virgin Island into the United States and was sentenced to six years in prison.

Review

In his autobiographical book, Hole in My Life, author Jack Gantos bravely and honestly tells the story of his experience on the wrong side of the law, when he was arrested for conspiring to smuggle 2,000 pounds of hash from St. Croix to New York.  Gantos makes no excuses or apologies for his action, but fully owns up to his mistake.  Gantos sense of invincibility as a young man will resonate with many teens, but hopefully reading his story will cause other teens to think twice before making similar mistakes.  Despite being caught and being sentenced to six years in prison, Gantos was actually lucky.  He quickly earned a position working in the jail hospital, which came with his own cell, away from the dangers of the dorm with the other prisoners where he risked being beaten, stabbed, or raped.  Gantos also counts himself lucky because it was in prison that he finally realized his dream to become a writer and gained the motivation to make his dream a reality. 

Awards/Honors

ALSC Notable Book 2003

Printz Honor Book 2003

Sibert Honor Book 2003

Front and Back Matter

None

Author’s Website

http://www.jackgantos.com/

Sir Walter Ralegh and the Quest for El Dorado

Aronson, Marc. Sir Walter Ralegh and the Quest for El Dorado.  Clarion Books, New York: 2000. 222 pages. Tr. $20.00 ISBN 039584827x

Annotation

Sir Walter Ralegh and the Quest for El Dorado is a well researched biography of a man few Americans know of beyond his failed attempt to colonize the island of Roanoke off the coast of Virginia.

Review

Most of us know Walter Ralegh simply as the explorer who set up the doomed Roanoke colony off the coast of Virginia.  But Roanoke was only a footnote in Ralegh’s life of adventure on the high seas.  Ralegh was born a commoner, but quickly made a name for himself as a fearless soldier and moved up in the court of Queen Elizabeth.  It was not long before Ralegh was considered one of the Queen’s favorites and she rewarded him with wealth and position.  Ralegh was an adventurer at heart and he longed to find fame and fortune in the new world, but his position at court allowed him few opportunities to explore himself, so he was forced to settle on backing enterprises to the new world.  Ralegh finally was given the opportunity to launch an exploration to the mythical El Dorado after falling out of favor with the queen.  Ralegh believed he would find the mythical city of gold and regain favor in Elizabeth’s eyes.  Instead of locating El Dorado, Ralegh witnessed a beautiful and untamed land and realized that this was a place that Europeans were doomed to destroy.  Unlike many explorers of his time, Ralegh did not see the rainforests of South America as a place to conquer and tame, but as a Garden of Eden, which should remain pure and untouched by humans.  This did not stop Ralegh from launching yet another adventure to find El Dorado after Elizabeth’s death.  This time Ralegh hoped to gain favor with the newly crowned King James, but instead Ralegh’s mission failed and led to his trial for treason against the king and eventual execution.    

Awards/Honors

ALSC Notable Book 2001

Sibert Medal Winner 2001

Front and Back Matter

TOC, Acknowledgments, Note to Readers, Map of Voyages to the New World, Cast of Characters, Endnotes and Bibliography, Time Line, Index

Author’s Website

http://www.marcaronson.com/