Children's Literature - Beverly Kobrin
Authors' biographies or autobiographies help children realize that some of their favorite books' creators are real people whose experiences often become characters, incidents, and scenes in their stories. Paul Zindel's real Pigman, for example, was Frankie Vivona. In The Pigman and Me, Mr. Zindel tells of the years he, his mom, and his sister shared a house with Nonno (grandpa) Frankie's daughter and her children. He describes those teenage times and Nonno Frankie's profound effect on his life in the breezy, slightly irreverent vernacular of the teenagers for whom he writes. 1991,
The Pigman & Me
by Paul ZindelView All Available Formats & Editions
Eight hundred and fifty-three horrifying things had happened to me by the time I was a teenager. That was when I met my Pigman, whose real name was Nonno Frankie.
The year Paul Zindel, his sister, Betty, and their mother lived in the town of Travis, Staten Island, New York, was the most important time of his teenage life. It was the year he and Jennifer
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Eight hundred and fifty-three horrifying things had happened to me by the time I was a teenager. That was when I met my Pigman, whose real name was Nonno Frankie.
The year Paul Zindel, his sister, Betty, and their mother lived in the town of Travis, Staten Island, New York, was the most important time of his teenage life. It was the year he and Jennifer Wolupopski were best friends. It was the year of the apple tree, the water-head baby, and Cemetery Hill. And it was the year he met Nonno Frankie Vivona, who became his Pigman.
Every word of his story is true. And The Pigman & Me has an added bonus—one crucial piece of information: the secret of life, according to the Pigman.
Editorial Reviews
School Library Journal
Gr 7-12A popular author turns teen troubles into humor as he recalls the year he, his sister, and their neurotic, wheeler-dealer mother shared a house with another single mother and her rambunctious, identical, preschool twins. Salvation comes in the form of his "pigman." (Sept. 1992)
Candace Smith
"Eight hundred and fifty-three horrifying things had happened to me by the time I was a teenager. That was when I met my pigman, whose real name was Nonno Frankie," begins this wry autobiography. Zindel recalls the zesty Frankie, father of a young Italian woman who, with her hyperactive twin sons, shared a house with teenage Zindel, his mother, and his sister. A frequent visitor, Frankie dispensed sound advice and a passion for life along with platters of frog legs and pasta. With the warmth characteristic of his classic novel "The Pigman", Zindel talks about those visits, and about battles with cockroaches, suicide threats from his unstable mother, bullies, and those meaning-of-life questions that trouble everyone--especially teens. His thoughtful, humorous book is one that even reluctant readers will enjoy. To be illustrated with photographs.Product Details
- ISBN-13:
- 9781935169307
- Publisher:
- Graymalkin Media
- Publication date:
- 09/28/2010
- Pages:
- 179
- Sales rank:
- 153,954
- Product dimensions:
- 4.10(w) x 6.70(h) x 0.70(d)
- Age Range:
- 12 - 17 Years
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