An autobiography, covering the teenage years of Paul Zindel, Pulitzer Prize Winner, and teenage fiction writer. Through it the reader shares the painful and sometimes comic experiences of his adolescence: his move to Travis, a small Polish town on Staten Island during World War II, the turbulent relationship both he and his sister sustained with their eccentric mother, and the delapidated house shared by them and a loud and colourful Italian family. The reader also learns of the relationship with his beloved Nonno Frankie, his own Pigman. This account of the audacious emotional struggle by the young Paul Zindel to find his own identity provides an insight into the influences that eventually led him to write "The Pigman", creating the genre of teenage fiction. [This book description comes from a different edition of this title. Please report any inaccuracies].

 

 

This book features in the following series: New Windmills Series, Red Fox, Red Fox Young Adult .

This book has been graded for interest at 12-17 years.

This book is aimed at Young Adult readers. The term Young Adult (YA) is used for books which have the following characteristics: (1) aimed at ages 12-18 years, US grades 7-12, UK school years 8-15, (2) around 50-75k words long, (3) main character is aged 12-18 years, (4) topics include self-reflection, internal conflict vs external, analyzing life and its meaning, (5) point of view is often in the first person, and (6) swearing, violence, romance and sexuality are allowed. This book was published in 2011 by Graymalkin Media .

Paul Zindel was born on Staten Island, New York, where he spent ten years working as a chemistry teacher before becoming a writer. His first book, The Pigman , was published in 1969 to massive acclaim. He has since written over a dozen more novels and established himself as one of the strongest writers in his field. In 1971 he won the Pulitzer Prize for drama for The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-in-the-Moon Marigolds and published an autobiographical account of his formative years, The Pigman and Me . Paul Zindel lived in Montague, New Jersey until his death in 2003 at the age of 66.