Teen Tuesday: Dig by A. S. King

Image: Penguin Random House

Dig by A. S. King. Unabridged e-audiobook. ~ 11.25 hours. Read by the author, Mike Chamberlain, Tonya Cornelisse, and Kirby Heyborne. Listening Library/ BOT/ Penguin Random House, March, 2019. 9781984838186. (Review of e-audiobook borrowed from public library.)

Teen Tuesday features Dig by A.S. King. Five cousins in a truly dysfunctional family attempt to find their way amid the chaos of their unstable lives and racist, controlling grandparents. The story shifts between five points-of-view and flashes backward and forward in time. Fans of the author already know that they are in for a mind-bending, surreal journey. Dig takes a while to come together, but mature, patient and thoughtful teens who love a challenge will face some uncomfortable topics and marvel at some breathtaking writing. 

Dig won the 2020 Printz Award. A.S. King and fellow Printz Honor winner, Geraldine McCaughrean are the only two authors to win both the Printz Award and a Printz Honor. King won this year for Dig and received an Honor in 2011 for Please Ignore Vera Dietz. McCaughrean won an Honor this year for Where the World Ends and the Medal for White Darkness in 2008.

#tbt: Monster by Walter Dean Myers

Monster by Walter Dean Myers. 288p. HarperCollins Publishers, 1999. 9780060280772. (Own.)

#tbt features Monster by Walter Dean Myers. Monster was published in 1999 and is a story told partly as a diary and partly in screenplay format. It was a National Book Award Finalist in 1999, was given a Coretta Scott King Author Honor and won the very first Printz Award in 2000. 

Steve Harmon is on trial for felony murder in a robbery that went bad. While he was coerced into participating in the robbery, he did not pull the trigger. Myers explores themes of peer pressure, race and justice in this short, riveting docudrama. Fun Fact: the cover was illustrated by his son, Christopher, who often collaborated with his father along with writing and illustrating his own books.