Joey Pigza Loses Control is a story about a boy named Joey with ADHD written by Jack Gantos. The story starts out when his mother takes him to go visit his father and his grandma. His father, Carter, takes him to many places and Joey joins his baseball team and is praised for his pitching skills. But then Carter flushes his medications for his ADHD down the toilet and loses control during the baseball game’s finals. He stays at a mall while his dad’s girlfriend, Leezy, watches over him making sure he doesn’t do anything crazy while waiting for his mom to pick him up. Before he leaves the town his grandma makes sure to leave his chihuahua, Pablo, outside so his dad doesn’t notice him and then they leave. The story is all in 1st person so you can really see the mind of a kid with ADHD.
The title of the story is Joey Pigza Loses Control, because the story’s main character is Joey Pigza, and he loses control because of his ADHD. ADHD is a big part of the story, ADHD is an abbreviation for attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder which Joey has. This disorder is un-curable but you can shrink the amount of intensity of the symptoms with special medicine. Which is the medicine Joey’s dad flushed down the toilet, so after a while after he stopped wearing his patches, he went crazy. Symptoms of ADHD include not being able to sit quietly for long periods of time, constantly fidgeting, unable to concentrate on tasks, excessive movement and talking, and much more. During his game he couldn’t concentrate on his current task, and another example was when he was in the car fidgeting with all the buttons. He can be seen with other symptoms of ADHD throughout the book which is what leads to all the events and adventures in the story.
This story also revolves a lot around family. Joey’s parents are divorced so his mom is taking him to stay at his dad’s place for 6 weeks. His mom is a very caring person but impatient, easily nervous, and careless, for example her expired driver’s license got her in court, this is also an example of lack of self control. His dad loses his temper often for example he’s rude, rages often, and has moral coercion, which is where he doesn't’ like to lose and is never whenever he is losing, pressures people to be perfect, and never learns from his mistakes and doesn’t fix them either. The next person in his family is grandma, when the story started out, because Joey had ADHD, he said something wrong that offended his grandma so she was annoyed with him, this is proof she is quick to judge. Although everybody in Joey’s family has a lack of self control they all care about him very much. His mom is always worrying about him, his father always worries about if he is going to win the game or not, and his grandma cares for him.
Lack of self control leads us to our next theme, the importance of self control letting yourself heal no matter if it's an addiction, illness, or disorder. Joey’s dad, Carter, who is an alcoholic thought that he could get over his addiction in prison because there is no beer there. But according to scientists, whom he does not trust, he needs medication, he can’t just get over his addiction just like that. But he doesn’t believe that the patches he wears, that make sure he doesn’t drink any form of alcohol, he decided to flush them down the toilet because he believed he was already better and doctors were just lying to him. Joey’s dad also flushed his medication down too and after a while he noticed he was starting to spin out of control. This helped him notice the importance of medication, healing, and trust for professionals. In the end because he noticed the importance of medication, he called his mom to pick him up so he can get better again.
Joey Pigza Loses Control is an amazing book written by Mr. Gantos that is told from a boy with ADHD’s perspective. He did very well capturing the mind of a 10 year old boy with ADHD. The story mostly revolves around him living with ADHD, which is something a child may be born with. It is un-curable but there is medication to ease the symptoms which include not being able to focus, talking too much, and constant fidgeting. One of the most important themes of the story is family. Joey’s family members all have lack of self control, his mom is easily nervous and impatient, his grandma is quick to judge and smokes too much, and his father rages quickly, hates losing, and has many other problems. But although his family is a mess sometimes his mother cares about him a lot, constantly worrying about him, and his grandma cares about him too. Another part of the story is self control and healing, his father was healing by wearing the patches but he has lack of self control and doesn’t trust professionals and flushed them down the toilet leading to him becoming an alcoholic again. In the end Joey noticed the importance of self-control and healing after his dad flushed his patches down the toilet and he lost control. He learned to control himself and stay calm, as you can see the book Joey Pigza Loses Control is an amazing book with many morals.
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