King Dork Approximately

Reviewed by: Brooke Faulkner - McArthur Public Library, Biddeford, Southern Maine Library District

Review Date: March 10, 2015

Review

This sequel to 2006's King Dork is a similarly character-driven tale of high school life as it is endured by protagonist Tom Henderson, a self-professed loser loner. Newly emerging from an accident with a tuba that left him with a serious head wound at the end of the first novel, this second installment finds he and his alphabetically situated best friend Sam Hellerman split apart when, owing to the events in King Dork, their high school must close and the two must attend two different schools. Without the mystery that formed the core of King Dork, this offering knocks around quite a bit plot-wise, but Tom's snide, ironic, music and girl obsessed narration is wildly funny and his rejection of all things conventional around him will be embraced by teen readers who find themselves in similar outsider positions. Portman's original novel has a sizable cult following (at least among adults), possibly in part due to his having fronted seminal 90's punk band The Mr. T Experience, but it's not just his name that makes these books interesting. Though Tom has plenty of acerbic things to say about adults who revere The Catcher in The Rye, it's hard not to compare him to Holden Caulfield - he's a character whose intelligent and true insights exist despite - or maybe because of - his spectacularly contrarian nature. Fans of the first won't want to miss this, and readers will likely want to pick up the original King Dork before it if they haven't already read it.

Overall Book Score: good