I Crawl Through It - by A S King (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

From the Michael L. Printz Award-winning author of Dig comes a story about four teenagers as they navigate the pressures of high-stakes modern education and the standardization tests that will define their futures.

"At once a statement on the culture of modern schools as well as mental health issues, this novel is an ambitious, haunting work of art."--School Library Journal, starred review

"It's bizarre, compelling, and not like anything else."--Publishers Weekly, starred review

Four accomplished teenagers are on the verge of explosion. The anxieties they face at every turn have pushed them to the point of surrender: senseless high-stakes testing, the lingering damage of trauma, the buried grief and guilt of tragic loss. They are desperate to cope--but no one is listening. So they will lie. They will split in two. They will turn inside out. They will build an invisible helicopter to fly themselves far away . . . but nothing releases the pressure. Because, as they discover, the only way to truly escape their world is to fly right into it.

Review Quotes

"At once a statement on the culture of modern schools as well as mental health issues, this novel is an ambitious, haunting work of art."--School Library Journal, starred review

"Masterfully written and brilliantly bizarre, this is King at her most innovative yet."--VOYA, starred review

"Beautiful prose, poetry, and surreal imagery combine for an utterly original story that urges readers to question, love, and believe--or risk explosion."--Booklist, starred review

"King's novel blends the magical and the mundane in a deadpan delivery that makes it difficult to tell one from the other. This, of course, is the point of her ambitious and affecting work."--The Horn Book, starred review

"It's bizarre, compelling, and not like anything else."--Publishers Weekly, starred review

About the Author

A.S. King is the bestselling and award-winning author of many acclaimed books for young readers. Her novel Dig won the 2020 Michael L. Printz Award, and Ask The Passengers won the 2013 Los Angeles Times Book Prize. She edited The Collectors: Stories, winner of the 2024 Michael L. Printz Award, the first anthology to win the award. The New York Times called her "one of the best YA writers working today." In 2022, she was awarded the American Library Association's Margaret A. Edwards Award for her significant contribution to YA literature. King lives with her family in Pennsylvania, where she returned after living on a farm and teaching adult literacy in Ireland for more than a decade.