When Jack Gantos was 7, his family relocated to Barbados, where he attended British schools. His family then moved to Florida, and in the sixth grade, he started a diary and began his life as a writer. He is well known for his "Joey Pigza" and "Rotten Ralph" series of books. His new book is "Dead End in Norvelt" (Farrar, Straus & Giroux), and he is also one of the writers of "The Exquisite Corpse Adventure," an original story written for the Library of Congress' Read.gov website and now a book from Candlewick.
See photo in original gallery.