Teenreads.com -- KING OF THE PYGMIES by Jonathon Scott Fuqua

KING OF THE PYGMIES
Jonathon Scott Fuqua
Candlewick Press
Fiction
ISBN: 9780763634124
256 pages

Fifteen-year-old Penfold (Penn) has lived in the working-class town of Havre-de-Grace, Maryland, his whole life. What's more, his family has lived in the town as long as anyone can remember. Penn might not be the best student or the smartest kid in his class, but he knows one thing --- tough old Havre-de-Grace is about the last place where miracles might happen.

Soon enough, though, plenty of unexpected things are happening to Penn. For one thing, Daisy, the smartest girl in his class, actually seems interested in Penn, despite his loser friends and his mentally challenged older brother. Penn is over the moon about Daisy, so much so that he doesn't mind making a fool of himself with his clueless questions about her Chinese heritage (she's actually Filipino).

He's less thrilled about the other unexplained development, though --- in fact, he's pretty scared. Out of the blue, Penn is hearing voices, voices no one else seems to hear. Is he going crazy? Or is something else going on?

Penn's parents take him to a less-than-helpful psychiatrist who diagnoses him with schizophrenia. He wants to give Penn medication, but Penn is not so sure. Penn's uncle Hewitt, the town's former police chief who's been troubled (and mostly drunk) since his wife's death, tells Penn that there's more to the voices than what the doctor says.

It turns out, according to uncle Hewitt, that the voices in Penn's head aren't just random; instead, they're the actual thoughts of people around him. Penn hears his mother worrying about his father's weight. He hears his brother's frustrations. He hears his neighbor's despair after her husband's death. According to Uncle Hewitt, Penn has a great gift, a gift that makes him part of a chosen few --- the Pygmies. Is Penn really sick, or can he use his gift to help others?

On the surface of things, many readers may take issue with Jonathon Scott Fuqua's depiction of schizophrenia, which at times seems to trivialize or even discount the severity of much mental illness. Fuqua's approach may also remind some of the movie The Fisher King, which took much the same fantastical approach to mental illness. In a lengthy author's note at the book's end, though, Fuqua explains his reasoning: he wants to depict an individual who, like many often overlooked people, is able to function at a high level while still coping with schizophrenia.

Although Fuqua does do an admirable job of humanizing this condition, he does so at the expense of the psychiatric profession and, some might say, at the expense of other individuals who might really need professional help. Nevertheless, KING OF THE PYGMIES is worth reading and discussing, as it is one of too-few teen novels that deal compassionately (if not entirely realistically) with mental illness.

--- Reviewed by Norah Piehl

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