King of the Pygmies

(Candlewick Press, published fall 2005)

Havre-de-Grace, Maryland isn't the kind of place where miracles happen. It’s seen better days. That's why when fifteen-year-old Penn starts to hear voices, he is terrified. Further, these aren't just any voices, many are the thoughts of people close to him. He can hear his parents' unspoken marital issues, his retarded brother's silent anxieties, and a 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 psychiatrist to get examined for schizophrenia or some other related mental illness, but his similarly gifted Uncle Hewitt, a former police chief turned town drunk, tells him the truth as he knows it: Penn's ability to hear other people's thoughts and take away their pain doesn't make him sick. It makes him special. King of the Pygmies is the story of a young man's struggle to come to terms with a terrifying illness, and seeks to provide insight, hope, courage, and empathy between the reader and the characters in the book. All the while, it’s a fantastical mystery framed in an insightful, humorous, and poignant story. King of the Pygmies will entertain and compel conversation. What is psychosis? How does desperation drive the desperate? How do those individuals suffering onset mental illness perceive their situation? And what happens to a family in crisis? King of the Pygmies, bustling with unique characters, an off-beat story, and a distinctive geographical setting, is a novel of courage, determination, and hope.

Representative reviews
"King of the Pygmies" never falters in its commitment to Penn's voice and story. It doesn't settle easily on the side of magic or of medicine, suggesting instead that the world may be more complicated, more terrible and beautiful and unnerving than we could ever believe. …high and true art."
    - The Boston Globe

” … an intriguing, gracefully written look at mental illness; it reads like literary fiction for teens."
    - Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

" …an engrossing story about a teen who is starting to hear voices."
    - KLIATT

”Penn's relationship with his brother is a highlight of the novel for its tenderness… …Pygmies is a gentle story with a satisfying ending."
    - School Library Journal

"KING OF THE PYGMIES is worth reading and discussing, as it is one of too-few teen novels that deal compassionately… with mental illness"
    - Teenreads.com

"Students in grades 6-10 will appreciate this inside look at the onset of schizophrenia.."
    -Engram Library Services

Notice:
A Junior Library Guild Selection 2005-2006
An Ingram Collection Suggestion, 2005
Teen Reads November Selection, 2005
Nominated for the American Library Associations Best Young Adult Book of the Year, 2006

KING OF THE PYGMIES. Copyright © 2005 by Jonathon Scott Fuqua. Reproduced by permission of the publisher Candlewick Press, Inc., Cambridge, MA.

©2001 - 2006 Jonathon Scott Fuqua. All Rights Reserved.