This rocket-paced follow-up to the Newbery Medal-winning novel Dead End
in Norvelt opens deep in the shadow of the Cuban missile crisis. But
instead of Russian warheads, other kinds of trouble are raining down on
young Jack Gantos and his utopian town of Norvelt in western
Pennsylvania. After an explosion, a new crime by an old murderer, and
the sad passing of the town's founder, twelve-year-old Jack will soon
find himself launched on a mission that takes him hundreds of miles
away, escorting his slightly mental elderly mentor, Miss Volker, on her
relentless pursuit of the oddest of outlaws. But as their trip turns
south in more ways than one, it's increasingly clear that the farther
from home they travel, the more off-the-wall Jack and Miss Volker's
adventure becomes, in From Norvelt to Nowhere, a raucous road novel
about roots and revenge, a last chance at love, and the power of a
remarkable friendship.
A Publishers Weekly Best Children's Book of 2013