Trapped in the rat's maze that Joey may still escape, he's unreliable and unable to connect with family or friends, alternately violent and grandiose. Joey's mom drinks a little too much herself and, until recently, left Joey to be raised by his often-manipulative paternal grandmother while chasing after Joey's father. Grandma has attention deficit problems as well, and abuses or ignores Joey. In the first Joey Pigza book, he's referred for treatment before he'll be allowed to return to school. Self-control has to be learned as well as facilitated.
Mom is never perfect.
Sometimes there's only cold, left-over pizza for breakfast. But she remains a consistent, dependable presence. In the second Joey Pigza book, she makes the difficult decision to comply with court-ordered visitation and lets Joey spend time living with the father he barely knows. I'm sending you because YOU might like him. Joey barely survives his father's manic obsessions and eventual return to drinking.