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    I Am Not Joey Pigza
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    I Am Not Joey Pigza
    Unavailable
    I Am Not Joey Pigza
    Audiobook4 hours

    I Am Not Joey Pigza

    Published by Penguin Random House Audio

    4/5

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    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this audiobook

    "I'm a brand-new man with a brand-new plan."

    Joey Pigza is knocked for a loop when his good-for-nothing dad shows up on his doorstep as a recycled person. After a lucky lotto win, Carter Pigza truly believes he's somebody else. He's even renamed himself Charles Heinz-and he insists that Joey and his mother join his happy Heinz family plan.

    "My head felt like it was full of bees, and they were busy in ways that were bad for me."

    Joey has little choice but to embrace a head-spinning series of changes, which include having to leave school to help out at the beat-up roadside diner his dad has purchased. But Joey is afraid that in going with the flow he will go over the falls and end up in a place far away from who he really is.

    In this seriously comic new novel, Jack Gantos pushes his acclaimed hero into entirely new territory, where he wrestles with issues of identity and forgiveness, and teaches himself how to triple-flip a turkey burger while shouting out his new favorite phrase . . .

    "Do you want fries with that?"
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherPenguin Random House Audio
    Release dateJul 24, 2007
    ISBN9780739356760
    Unavailable
    I Am Not Joey Pigza

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    Reviews for I Am Not Joey Pigza

    4/5

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    • 4/5
      Joey's dad Carter is back - but he's a new man. Now he calls himself Charles Heinz and says that they will all be one happy and wealthy family. So Joey becomes Freddy Heinz, at least for a while.
    • 4/5
      How to start over? Denial is not the way.
    • 4/5
      Joey's dad Carter is back - but he's a new man. Now he calls himself Charles Heinz and says that they will all be one happy and wealthy family. So Joey becomes Freddy Heinz, at least for a while.
    • 4/5
      I Am Not Joey Pigzaby Jack Gantos is the fourth, and so far, final of the Joey Pigza books. The others are Joey Pigza Swallowed the Key, Joey Pigza Loses Control and What Would Joey Do?In this one, Joey wakes up in the hospital after a dare devil stunt involving the roof, a refrigerator box and himself, goes horribly wrong. Coming too he realizes to his horror that his good-for-nothing dad is back with a new name for himself, for Joey and Joey's mother.Along with the new name comes a new home at a diner. While the diner could become something great, Joey quickly realizes that his parents are too distracted with their own lives to actually make the diner work. Without the diner, it's clear that their new reconciled lives can't last.I happened to listen to the book as read by the author. Although Joey Pigza and his dysfunctional family took some getting used to, I was soon caught up into the story. I really felt for Joey as he struggled with the self identity issues that came with his new life.
    • 4/5
      Joey's back in a fourth installment! He's still struggling with severe ADD, only this time it's made much, much worse by his father's return and a general upheaval of everything in Joey's life. His father comes back following a lottery win, and wants the whole family to leave their old lives behind--to the extent of renaming themselves, opening a diner, and winning a second lottery. Joey tries to keep it together, and he's really struggling--but it's really difficult when your parents are as f'ed up as Joey's.

      Gantos is still in form here--the long, quick sentences really capture Joey's struggles, and when Joey complains that his "insides are buzzing like bees" the reader really has a sense of what he means. It's been a long time since I've read the other Joey Pigza books, but from what I remember, Joey's voice hasn't changed at all.
    • 5/5
      In the last installment of the Joey Pigza series, Joey's father Carter comes back to town as a new man--literally. He is now calling himself Charles Heinz and insists that Joey call himself Freddy. Charles has won the lottery and claims to have completely washed away his old life. He wants a second chance with Joey's mom Fran who is now calling herself Maria.The reconciliation of Fran and Carter (Maria and Charles) is hard for Joey to swallow because of all the past pain Carter has caused the Pigza family. Even harder for Joey is the fact that he has to be called Freddy and pretend Joey doesn't exist anymore. However, the most difficult task for Joey is to forgive his father which is something his mother insists that he do. I Am Not Joey Pigza by Jack Gantos is a good book. However, I feel it might have been better to leave the series alone after book three, What Would Joey Do? In that book Joey matures so greatly that the reader can just envision a happy future for Joey. Still I enjoyed reading about the Pigza family and living in Joey's world again. In I Am Not Joey Pigza, Joey is forced to leave school and work at a diner with his parents because that is part of the new Heinz life. His mother also gets pregnant with a little "Heinzie" which is exciting for the family. My main problem with the book was that they kept insisting that Joey pretend he was someone else--Freddy. It was kind of frustrating for me as the reader and Joey as Joey. Still knowing the parents of Joey it sort of made sense. They just don't have the maturity or personal depth that Joey possesses. In any case, I will always love the fireball named Joey Pigza and will recommend this series to others!
    • 5/5
      This book is about a boy named Joey. Joey's father has now re-entered his life. His father has allegedly changed his outlook on life along with his first and last name. He believes that Joey and his mother should also. Joey undergoes many changes in life. They are all happening so fast. He now has a new name, a new family business, and a "new" father. Read this book to find out how Joey copes the drama.
    • 4/5
      I've read all but one of the four Joey Pigza book and must say I found this one to be the most disturbing. In this volume, Carter Pigza comes back, but now he's Charles Heinz, and manages to get himself back into Joey and his mother's lives (now Freddie and Maria Heinz). Charles has won the lottery, and has great plans to change everything, by forgetting the past and moving into a new future. He moves everyone to a diner where he plans to get rich, but when that doesn't work out, he works on Karma and various schemes to win the lottery again. Will all this work out, or is it just another train wreck coming down the tracks?A few scenes really upset me in the book. The fact that "Maria" and "Charles" insisted that "Freddie" (aka Joey) get rid of everything related to his past, including all of his clothes, toys, and even make him move to a new home. Another was the fact that Maria went to enroll Freddie in a new school, but decided not to when she thought his old troubled self would come out in a new place. Charles and Maria said they'd home school Joey, but basically left him to his own devices, expecting him to help out in their new diner, or with other plans that Charles dreams up. I was disappointed in Maria/Fran -- she had always been a pretty smart and capable person, not perfect, but a good mom, and she seems to completely neglect her son in this book. I'm glad it ended the way it did without vindicating their new lifestyle. The story explores the themes of forgiveness and self-awareness.
    • 5/5
      I'm an unabashed fan of Jack Gantos and this series. This newest effort doesn't disappoint.