King of the Pygmies

Name: King of the Pygmies
Price: 5.95 USD
Availability: InStock
ISBN: 9780763614188

ISBN-10: 0763614181

ISBN-13: 9780763614188

Edition: 2005

Authors: Jonathon Scott Fuqua

List price: $16.99

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Description:

When a teenage boy begins to hear voices, his uncle offers him an alternative explanation in this poignant, provocative novel from award-winning author Jonathon Scott Fuqua. Havre-de-Grace, Maryland isn't the kind of place where miracles happen. That's why when fifteen-year-old Penn starts to hear voices, he is terrified. These aren't just any voices, though - they are the thoughts of people close to him. He can hear his parents' unspoken gripes with each other. He can hear his retarded brother's silent anxieties. He can hear his neighbor's descent into quiet desperation. And he can hear his girlfriend's tentative feelings of tenderness. His momma wants him to go to a therapist to get…

Book details

List price: $16.99
Copyright year: 2005
Publisher: Candlewick Press
Publication date: 10/11/2005
Binding: Hardcover
Pages: 256
Size: 6.00" wide x 8.50" long x 0.97" tall
Weight: 0.946
Language: English

Jonathon Scott Fuqua is the author of Darby, a Notable Social Studies Trade Book for Young People 2003, In the Shadow of Edgar Allan Poe, and The Reappearance of Sam Webber, an ALA Alex Award for best adult book for young adults, a NYPL Best Book for the Teenage, an SLJ Best Book of the Year, and a Booklist Editors Choice. A writer, artist, historian, and teacher, he has won three Maryland State Arts Council Fiction Writing Awards. He lives in Baltimore, Maryland, with his wife and daughter.



He took a few deep breaths. "You aren't bullying me?"


"No, sir."


Dad's eyes wandered. "Are you feeling sick or something?"


"No, sir, not sick. But I think... I think out of absolutely nowhere I might be going crazy or something. I'm scared I might be. That's why I was carving on the bed. I keep a record of how long it's been between when the voices come."


My dad rubbed a hand across his cheeks and mouth. "Penn, sweetie, I'm not exactly sure, but I think this might be a real type of problem. Normal people don't hear voices is all, not if they aren't sick-feeling."


"I know," I answered, getting a little more worried.


"God Almighty," Dad said. Ignoring my long-standing instructions not to give me a hug, he leaned over and slapped his arms around me and jostled me in a loving way, in the way he can. He jammed his nose against my head, mooshing his nostrils so that I could feel his wet breath against the roots of my hair.


"Sorry," I told him, feeling guilty.


"It ain't your fault, sweetie."


"I don't think it is."


We sat quiet for a few minutes. As his breath tranquilized me, as the room got darker, he let go. Slowly, his sad look changed, and he put a hand under my chin. "You know what? I take it back. I bet this all goes away. I bet you're gonna be okay. I can feel it inside, like woman's intuition, except for, you know, I'm a man. You're a good, normal teenage boy, and you're gonna be fine. This is just a momentary problem that's gonna disappear. Maybe it's just hormones. Maybe it's a flu. Who knows, but it ain't permanent."


"You think?"


"Oh yeah. Craziness just doesn't happen to a boy who's been normal his whole life. It doesn't hit sudden like that."


"Really?" I asked, worried that he had no idea what he was talking about.


____________


KING OF THE PYGMIES by Jonathon Scott Fuqua. Copyright (c) 2005 by Jonathon Scott Fuqua. Published by Candlewick Press, Inc., Cambridge, MA.