Jack's Black Book: What Happens When You Flunk an IQ Test? (Jack Henry) (Jack Henry, 5)

From the Newbery Medalwinning author of Dead End in Norvelt , the uproarious final volume of Jack Henry stories According to his new mottoA WRITER'S JOB IS TO TURN HIS WORST EXPERIENCES INTO MONEYJack Gantos's alter ego Jack Henry is going to be filty rich even before he gets out of junior high, for his life is filled with the worst experiences imaginable. For instance, in the course of the few months covered in this closing cycle of interlinked stories, Jack is humiliated by a gorgeous syncronized swimmer, gets a tattoo the size of an ant on his big toe, flubs an IQ test and nearly fails wood shop, and has to dig up his dead dog not once but twice. And that's not the half of it! At the close of this final book of semi-autobiographical stories, Jack may not end up rolling in dough, but he will prove once again "a survivor, an everyboy' whose world may be wacko but whose heart and spirit are eminently sane" ( School Library Journal ). This title has Common Core connections.

The Henry family has returned from Barbados, and eighth grade finds Jack Henry determined to turn his worst experiences into money-by becoming a writer. An outlandish series of messy adventures gives Jack more than enough to write about, but will he ever be able to convince his family to stop thinking he's worthless?

Publishers Weekly

At the end of seventh grade, Jack Henry decides to write a novel in this third collection of interlinked stories. Ages 10-up. (Sept.) r Copyright 1999 Cahners Business Information.

It was pitch-black in my room and as I wrote I tried to imagine the size of each letter so I could keep the words in line and read what I had written in the light of morning. Comic misadventures ensue when seventh-grader Jack tries to write the great American novel.