Joey Pigza Swallowed the Key

Joey Pigza Swallowed the Key, written by Jack Gantos, is the first in a series of books featuring Joey Pigza. The book was a National Book Award finalist.

Plot

The story, told from Joey's perspective, deals with Joey's inability to control his impulses. These impulses lead Joey to do numerous things, both at home and at school, which get him in trouble.

The book starts off with Joey saying that he is a very wired kid. You later learn Joey has ADHD. As the book goes on, he talks about how his father left the home when he was 3 years old and his mother went after him, while his (also extremely wired) grandmother watches over him for the next 3 or 4 years. But the last summer his mom comes home. Joey starts school again. He's a good kid, as he repeats to many different people throughout the story, but he's just a little messed up. Joey takes medications every day, but some do not work as well as others. When they do not work, well that is where the problems begin.One of the people Joey sees the most is Nurse Holyfield. In one chapter Joey swallows his key. He also goes on a class trip and eats a whole shoofly pie which leads him to climbing up to the top of a barn. He gets put into the "special class" at his school where he has to wear bunny slippers. One day, when his teacher is away for the morning, he sneaks into a announcement about gifted children. He hides behind the curtains and claps by blinking. It got him thinking about changing the world. When his teacher comes back, at recess, he decides to make 1,000,000 bumper stickers. The scissors he uses are too dull, so he snook into his teacher's desk and took the sharper, bigger scissors. He trips over his bunny slippers and cuts the tip off a girl's nose. Blood dripped everywhere and she was put in an ambulance and rushed to the hospital. He gets put into the ADD school downtown where He gets new meds and gets calm. he also gets a dog later in the story he also peed in the snow.