I saw rugged prison mugs in every shadow. Every time a bush rustled in the wind my heart leapt. All night I scampered from window to window peeking out and looking for unshaven suspicious types in striped outfits. We locked our doors and turned on all the lights. A couple of guys had hopped a freight and the cops thought they may have jumped off in our area. One Halloween afternoon police cars flooded our neighborhood and announced that Halloween was canceled because there had been a prison break upstate at Raford. We were living in Kendall, Florida, right on the train tracks. But thinking of Halloween reminded me of a funny story from when I was in fifth grade.

or, I should say, every day in prison was scarier than any Halloween, so there was no reason to do anything special on October 31st. All week the people had been putting up Halloween decorations. Retrieved November 24, 2014.From my cell window I could see a line of houses in the distance. 'Children'S Books Portrait of the Artist as a Young Convict'. Association for Library Service to Children. Sibert Medal and Honor Books, 2001-present'. Young Adult Library Services Association.

The book received positive reviews from Kirkus Reviews and Publishers Weekly. Before leaving prison, Gantos applied to a university creative writing program, and he would later begin a new life by selling Christmas trees. While in prison, he worked as an X-ray technician and wrote his thoughts in a journal on a copy of The Brothers Karamazov. Gantos was originally sentenced to five years, but was released on good behavior after only serving 15 months of his sentence. Gantos and his co-conspirators all received prison sentences that varied in length from 5 to 20 years for drug trafficking. Gantos accepted the offer and, upon arriving to New York and settling into a hotel, he and his friends were captured by the FBI. There, he became friends with two other men named Hamilton and Rik, the latter of whom promised Gantos $10,000 to sail with him from the Virgin Islands to New York City to sell hash. After dropping out of university in Saint Croix, Gantos began using hashish and later joined the sail team. Burroughs, who used drugs to get through his life as a writer. Before prison, Gantos dreamed of becoming a writer and was inspired by William S. The book is set in 1971 and discusses the author’s life behind bars. Printz Award and the same year became a winner of the Robert F. In 2003 the book was honored with the Michael L.

Hole in My Life is an American autobiography of Jack Gantos and was published by Macmillan Publishers in 2002.

Hole in my life by jack gantos