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CHILDREN'S AUTHOR Jack Gantos is regaling students at the Hong Kong International School with tales of drug running, illegal gun ownership, sucking blood out of the eyes of fighting cocks and serving time in prison. This is no ordinary school assembly. But then, Gantos is no ordinary writer.

His latest autobiographical offering written for teenagers, Hole in My Life, details how a stint behind bars hardened his resolve to publish novels. It recently won the Sibert Award for young adult non-fiction. His other 39 books include US National Book Award and Newbery medal for two books from his animated Joey Pigza series, about a boy with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. The hero from his first book, Rotten Ralph, still appears in a cartoon series shown occasionally on Hong Kong television.

When telling how he was busted in New York in 1972 by a combination of FBI, customs and secret service agents for shipping and selling nearly a tonne of hash, Gantos neither moralises nor preaches. 'I felt compelled to tell my story, not because it would stop people doing the same thing,' he says. 'You feel invulnerable when you are young, but I wanted to show how, just because you make a bone-headed mistake, you're not damaged goods. Don't believe those who tell you you'll go straight to hell. I don't believe that. My story is really all about the power of literature.'

Gantos was invited to Hong Kong by Lisa Tam, the International School's librarian, after he had spoken at other international schools in the region. 'Word spreads among the international community of schools - once you get a reputation for both having books that young readers actually read, and for being able to speak about the process of writing books and the value of good literature,' Gantos says.

Reading and writing have been seminal forces in Gantos' life. 'When I was young we moved around - a lot. When you go to 10 schools in 12 grades, you lose every friend you ever have. I became a loner and a reader,' he says.

For many years, from the age of 10, his writing took the form of personal journals. 'I was a good kid, but a bit drifty,' he says. 'My sister was the smart one. She used to keep a journal and one day I read it hoping it would contain the secret. But you know, it was so boring. I knew life was full of incredible variety, but she had flattened it right out. I thought: 'I could do better than that.''

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