Book Review: Joey Pigza books

“You gotta face the hand you're dealt with and deal with it, and make your problems be the smallest part of who you are.” 

A series of children's books (there are four of them) that I recently read were the Joey Pigza books. Joey Pigza Swallowed the Key was one of those books that I'd seen, but I always kind of figured was a bit like...I don't know the Bailey School Kids books that were so popular when I was in older-Elementary school.  You know the ones that always had some teacher or something that was probably a mythical creature?  Like Leprechauns Don't Play Basketball, or whatever they were called.  The assumption was that maybe I would have enjoyed them when I was little, but they were not children's literature of any lasting consequence and just pumped out to make "at least they're reading" books. 

However, I kept seeing them on more and more recommendation lists, and some Newbery Honors went to them, so I thought that there must be more to them than I was thinking.  We read the first one in the car on our way to Boston and it was really good.  Then, I found out about the other three and quickly got them from the library and read them too.  Well, I was not disappointed in the slightest.

 

 

Joey Pigza is in fourth grade (in seventh grade by the last book), and has probably one of the worst home lives depicted in literature since Dickens.  And not in the usual "sleep in the closet" way.  It is a long train of instability, drinking, immaturity on his parents' part, neglect and abuse in much more subtle ways, watching his parents in extreme domestic violence and just home instability on the whole.  His father is a complete deadbeat, his grandmother just loses her control sometimes, and his mother is a deadbeat who really is trying not to be a deadbeat but forgets herself sometimes.  The most controversial thing about the books, however, is that Joey has ADHD (which some uneducated people don't even believe exists), and responds well to what is presumably Ritalin (which lots of uneducated people don't believe in).    So, since I just made that controversial statement, before we can continue, I shall explain myself.  I do believe that ADHD is over-diagnosed and that medication is not the panacea to it.  However, I do believe that there is such a thing as neurological hyperactivity, and if it is neurological, it would stand to reason that medication would be useful in the treatment thereof.

And with the narrator being Joey, you can tell that this fictional kid has exactly what ADHD implies: he has no attention span, and he is hyperactive.  I think what he actually has is FASD (Fetal-Alcohol Spectrum Disorder), which presents itself as looking like ADHD at times, and he does a lot of the sensory stuff too.  This isn't just me.  Because it is from the point of view of a fourth-grader, it doesn't directly state it, but there seem to be a lot of social workers and doctor-like people think it in the novel.  And it does emphasize that there is more to it than meds. 

Throughout the novel you come to understand a lot of the people in the book better.  It is peppered with people who want to be good at what they do and want to help him, but don't know how.  It is also peppered with people that, against their better judgement just lose it with him.  One thing I will say is that with probably only one exception, the characters are all human.  They are all flawed, they all want to do good, if they don't, it's not because they're just "evil."

As soon as Joey is medicated enough that he isn't jumping from thought to thought to thought, you begin to realize that he has the biggest child's heart in the world and is actually more mature than either of his parents.  He is impulsive, distracted and hyper.  A kid that I would probably lose my patience with very quickly in the real world becomes so lovable once you are in his mind. You feel for him and are frustrated when people don't understand him (even though you would be doing the same thing in real life). 

Though I cry in most any movie, I am a bit more dry-eyed with books.  That isn't saying much, though.  However, the third of these books had me bawling like a little baby.  I can't spoil for anyone who would want to read them, but you will probably cry too. 

They're funny, touching, human and thoughtful as Joey learns to understand himself, his father, his mother and the world as a whole.  5 stars on the whole series (3 on the fourth book, I just didn't like it as much).