King of the Pygmies

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 treated for schizophrenia, but his similarly gifted Uncle Hewitt, a former police chief turned town drunk, tells him the truth: Penn's ability to hear other people's thoughts and take away their pain doesn't make him sick. It makes him special. From the acclaimed author of The Willoughby Spit Wonder, Darby, and The Reappearance of Sam Webber comes a compelling story of a young man's struggle to come to terms with his disability — a novel of courage, determination, and hope.

Jonathon Scott Fuqua is the author of many acclaimed books for young readers, including Darby, a Book Sense 76 Top Ten Pick and an International Reading Association Notable Children's Book. His debut novel, The Reappearance of Sam Webber, won an American Library Association Alex Award and was a School Library Journal Best Book of the Year. The Boston Globe described The Willoughby Spit Wonder, as "the kind of novel . . . that comes along only once in a blue moon."