King of the Pygmies

by Jonathon Scott Fuqua

Book Overview

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...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0763614181
• ISBN13: 9780763614188
• Release Date: October 2005
• Publisher: Candlewick Press (MA)
• Length: 256 Pages
• Weight: 1.00 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 5.9" x 8.3"
• Age Range: 12 years and up
• Grade Range: Grade 7 and higher

Customer Reviews

Inspiring

I remember how I felt two years ago when my dad left. I felt sort of off balance and very crazy. I gained like ten pounds, going from a small to a big girl, and that was embarrassing. I couldn't sleep and I didn't even know why. I couldn't stop eating, especially sweets. I got zits. I felt like I was losing it. I know a littel about that. It's so scary. You don't control yourself anymore. That's why, when I read this book, I felt Penrod's pain inside me. I understood his nervousness and his fear that he might never be normal. Unlike me, he probably won't be. But he was a nice calming person for me to read. He was nice because you never felt like his life was over. His strong spirit carried him in a beautiful away. His love of his girlfriend carried him. His mother and father and brother carried him. It was a great book for me. It was a wonderful, mysterious, and kind of sad & funny look at how someone who experiences mental illness falls apart and what they do to pull back together. For me, I got counceling. It helped a lot. But you're alone with yourself more than with a psychologist, so you have to get better on your own. Well, the main character can't get better, but he can believe in himself again. And he does. That's the gift he finds for himself. I loved this book and recommend it for everyone. I loved the brother, who was cute, and even Hewitt the drunk who seems to want to make sure that Penrod knows he's always in some small control of his life. I cried, I laughed, and I became a little bit new again.

Word up!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

This is a great book. I'm not kidding, either. Penrod, the main character that tells the story is so funny and also real nice in a friend way. But the book is also good for how it shows you about mental illness and that peoplle stay people even when they are losing their mind, or not. Maybe Penn is sort of special and isn't losing his mind as much as he is becoming the King of the Pygmies. I tatally recommend this book. There's a crzy but cool uncle, a beautiful girl friend and a mystery that is hard to figure out. But Penn, from start to finish, is Penn. With or without his specialness or illness, he's him, and that's what it's all about.

Wow... This is a powerful book

I was blown away by this story and am still not sure what was real and what wasn't. Is Penrod a King of the Pygmies or is he insane? Is he in love with Daisy, or does she even exist? Is Pen's uncle a total drunken mad man or is he really a guy who's been overwhelmed with a gift and the death of his wife. This is truly a powerful book about illness, hope, and all of the stages in between. It's also shockingly funny. To say that Fuqua writes with power is to understate his achievement here.

Surrounded by a book

I read this book in two sittings and felt as if I was in the midst of Penrod's life and the growth he experiences from his newfound abilities. Fuqua manages to paint pictures so vividly with words that you see and smell the characters as you go - even the unpleasant ones. His last novel delivered a blow right to the emotional gut...this one is more level in it's approach to the events in the main character's life. Penrod manages to grow from a thoughtful boy to an assured and forward thinking young man - and it is wholly believable even in light of what is happening to him. I found myself right there with him as he gets caught up and inevitably let down by a family member. Fuqua's writing can fray hope as well as instill it. He manages to let you in on the wishes and dreams of all the main characters and see how Penn's decisions affect them. In the midst of all of this he weaves a quirky love story that is there as long as both parties are around for it. A classic story told in a unique voice.

Phenomenal!!!!!!

First, it took me, for whatever reason, some time to get this book. That was annoying. Once I got it, I started reading that night and knew, within a few chapters, that I was touching something much larger than a book. This is a masterpiece. This is beautiful story that far exceeds the concept of story and wanders into something elemental and societal. King of the Pygmies focuses on Penrod Swayne, a boy with a problem. He is hearing voices that he thinks are the thoughts of his parents and friends and retarded brother. His perception is further muddled by an uncle, Hewitt, who was once the town's police chief but is now the town drunk. Is Penrod magical or is he ill. This is the primary question. Is Penrod experiencing the first throws of onset schizophrenia, or is he a king of his kind in a downtrodden town where miracles rarely occur? This is a story about a loss of dreams, about retooling those lost dreams, about people in hard circumstances, about the humor in life, and about love, great, unyielding love between a boy and his parents, a boy and his brother, and boy and his girlfriend (this is handled very well). The story ends in a way that the reader will not expect. When I think it over, which I've done plenty since finishing it, I've come to the conclusion that the book comes down on the side of the individual. What is right for the person? What keeps a person whole? What is sanity at all? And amidst these questions, you hear the first person evolution of a boy from health to something far more indeterminate, of a boy into manhood, and a once-thriving Maryland town in the grips of a long sleep. I confess, I've read all of Jonathon Fuqua's books since hearing him speak in Charlotte a few years back. But this book is larger than a novel. Believe me, it is a wonderful story, but so much more. This is a book that demands discussion of its readers. Its concepts and questions challenge readers in a time when so much of what our students read does not. I recommend it wholeheartedly to everyone, young and old. It will open up pathways of conversation that you might never have expected. It is a riveting, masterwork.