Which Jack Gantos novel won the 2012 Newbery Medal?

The Jack Gantos novel that won the 2012 Newbery Medal was *Dead End in Norvelt*.

Published in 2011, the novel is a comic, autobiographical story set in Norvelt, Pennsylvania, a planned community founded during the New Deal and named after Eleanor Roosevelt. Its young protagonist, Jack Gantos, is grounded during the summer of 1962 and ordered to help an elderly neighbor, Miss Volker, write obituaries and historical notes.

The American Library Association presented Gantos with the medal in January 2012, honoring the book as the most distinguished contribution to American literature for children published during the preceding year. The novel also won the Scott O'Dell Award for Historical Fiction.

A common mix-up is choosing one of Gantos's other well-known works. *Joey Pigza Swallowed the Key* belongs to his Joey Pigza series, while *Hole in My Life* is a memoir. Neither won the Newbery Medal. *Dead End in Norvelt* was followed by *From Norvelt to Nowhere*.