King Dork - Frank Portman

Genres: General Fiction, Mystery
Recommended Grades: 9 Up

Despite my good looks and charming personality I was never really a ladies man in high school. I know, I know, it's hard to believe but it's the truth. Despite that I still had a good time in high school. I played sports, I had friends - it is a time I look back on with fondness. Because of that, it is always hard for me to relate with people that found high school to be the worst time of their life.

Tom Henderson is one of those kids that may end up looking back on his high school experience as the worst time of his life. And rightfully so. When it comes to the ladies Tom makes me look like Don Juan. He only has one friend, Sam Hellerman, and their friendship is based on the fact that they have always been next to each other when arranged alphabetically. The worst thing Tom has to deal with is the constant bullying he faces at the hands of other students as well as teachers and administrators. Going into his sophomore year Tom doesn't expect much to change. But things do when Tom finds an old copy of The Catcher in the Rye - but this is not just any copy, it is the copy that belonged to his deceased dad. Inside the book Tom finds underlined passages, notes in the margins and cryptic messages that leads him on an investigation to find out what his dad's story is. Little does Tom know that his quest to answer questions about his dad will lead him to make out sessions, rock and roll stardom (or notoriety, depending on how you look at it) and completely shaking the foundation of everything at Hillmont High School.

Frank Portman really nails it with King Dork. This is a top three book for me in 2006. The writing style has almost a stream of consciousness thing going on - because of this it took me a little while to get into the book. I'm glad I did because this was a great book. As dorky as Tom Henderson is I would like to think that we would have been friends in high school. I would recommend this book for high school-aged kids due to some discussion of sex. I think this book would be particularly entertaining to boys that don't really fit in and those that dream of becoming rock stars.