Jack Gantos’s desire to become a writer is evident from an early point in his life. How does this desire to write drive his criminal activity? How do Gantos’s character flaws prevent him from achieving his goal? What does Gantos ultimately determine makes a good writer, and how does this change his thinking or path?

Teaching Suggestion: Students may find it beneficial to use a t-chart to create a list of Gantos’s decisions for creating writing material and analyzing his character flaws before discussing the questions as a whole group.

Differentiation Suggestion: Students who would benefit from additional support in whole-text tasks might find it helpful to first chart the major narrative points in Gantos’s journey, then align each point with a part of the prompt above to serve as evidence or examples in answering the prompt.