Jack Gantos was born in Mount Pleasant, Pennsylvania. His parents moved so often that he attended 10 different schools between kindergarten and 12th grade. The Gantos family rented a variety of homes in Pennsylvania, Florida, North...

Jack Gantos' interesting life has provided the raw material for many of his books. Rotten Ralph, for example, was inspired by an aggressive red cat that he once owned. The Jack Henry middle-grade fiction series was based on Gantos' own...

Author Jack Gantos, a National Book Award nominee gives a humorous speech at the National Book Festival about his works, from picture books to young adult books. [30:00]