bigotterbooks's review against another edition
4.0
I liked this book, it is weird, wild and almost indescribably good. If you have ever been a teenager, you will love this book. If you've actually read the first book-your head will basically explode when you read this one! Tom is recovering from his head wound and dealing with all kinds of angsty stuff. But, the deal with King Dork is it never descends into the normal teenage angst and oh woe is me type of book. King Dork is a super intelligent tightly woven mass of lyrical plotting that takes it to a whole 'nother level. I received a copy of the book-the review is my own opinion.
lazygal's review against another edition
3.0
There were moments here that made me chuckle, which is always good. And Tom is certainly a believable and interesting main character, with a good teen voice. But... if you haven't read King Dork, there's a lot here that won't necessarily make sense; a little more work would have made that problem go away. The band names were hysterical (I Hate This Jar being my personal fave) and and the glossary in the back impressive. Not sure I agree with Tom's ranking of certain groups or albums but, well, whatever, nevermind.
madelineniledam's review against another edition
2.0
Is there a fair way to rate the sequel to a high school favorite? Two stars seems generous, but as always, five stars for Little Big Tom's quotes.
scostner's review against another edition
3.0
Picture the love child of "Fast Times at Ridgemont High" and "Revenge of the Nerds." That comes close to capturing the feel of King Dork Approximately. Our narrator is Thomas "Tom" Henderson, a sophomore in high school. We find Tom recovering from a vicious tuba attack. No, seriously, he was hit in the head with a tuba and has the scar and stitches to prove it. To add to his overall misery, his parents don't plan to sue anyone over the injury. Once he comes home and does a bit of convalescence, he also learns that his school is being closed and he will have to finish out the year at Clearview High. But you know what they say about every cloud having a silver lining, and maybe this is Tom's chance to start over. He can rise above being King Dork and actually be successful at this new school where many people don't know him yet.
Tom gamely narrates his triumphs (not many), and his failures through the end of the school year. Among the various situations that arise - he finds himself with a girlfriend, his mom and stepfather have marital problems, his friend Sam is listening to confidence-building tapes, his band actually performs in public, and he finally figures out what his English teacher is looking for in the required book reports. Throughout the story he often uses words that he is a bit unsure of, so he says, "...if "erstwhile" means what I think it does," or whichever word he has used most recently. (He does get most of them right.) He spends a lot of time writing songs for his band to practice and one day perform, but having a girlfriend cuts into his time for that. Between the crazy diatribes against normalcy, the odd letters he receives from classmate Roberta, trying to learn to play "O'Brien Is Tryin' to Learn to Talk Hawaiian," and serving as Sam's sidekick, Tom is a pretty busy guy for an antisocial dork.
The book does a good job of capturing some aspects of high school life: popular kids picking on those who are different, the inability of adults to see what is really going on, the need for geeky kids to run in packs, the incomprehensibility of some teachers and their assignments, it's all in there. You also get a good dose of Tom's theories on rock and roll, what makes a good book, and how normal people should all be done in so that the meek can inherit the earth (since normal = the popular kids that pick on everyone else). Through it all we see Tom struggling to decide how much of his theories he is willing to give up in order to fit in and avoid trouble (hint - probably not enough).
If you enjoy realistic fiction punctuated with power vocabulary words, rock and roll references, and a jaundiced eye toward lettermans' jackets, then you will probably find this very entertaining.
I read an e-book provided by the publisher through NetGalley.
Tom gamely narrates his triumphs (not many), and his failures through the end of the school year. Among the various situations that arise - he finds himself with a girlfriend, his mom and stepfather have marital problems, his friend Sam is listening to confidence-building tapes, his band actually performs in public, and he finally figures out what his English teacher is looking for in the required book reports. Throughout the story he often uses words that he is a bit unsure of, so he says, "...if "erstwhile" means what I think it does," or whichever word he has used most recently. (He does get most of them right.) He spends a lot of time writing songs for his band to practice and one day perform, but having a girlfriend cuts into his time for that. Between the crazy diatribes against normalcy, the odd letters he receives from classmate Roberta, trying to learn to play "O'Brien Is Tryin' to Learn to Talk Hawaiian," and serving as Sam's sidekick, Tom is a pretty busy guy for an antisocial dork.
The book does a good job of capturing some aspects of high school life: popular kids picking on those who are different, the inability of adults to see what is really going on, the need for geeky kids to run in packs, the incomprehensibility of some teachers and their assignments, it's all in there. You also get a good dose of Tom's theories on rock and roll, what makes a good book, and how normal people should all be done in so that the meek can inherit the earth (since normal = the popular kids that pick on everyone else). Through it all we see Tom struggling to decide how much of his theories he is willing to give up in order to fit in and avoid trouble (hint - probably not enough).
If you enjoy realistic fiction punctuated with power vocabulary words, rock and roll references, and a jaundiced eye toward lettermans' jackets, then you will probably find this very entertaining.
I read an e-book provided by the publisher through NetGalley.
verkisto's review against another edition
3.0
I read and enjoyed King Dork, but had no idea that Portman had written a sequel. My interest in the book was secondary to my nostalgia for The Mr. T Experience, but I found an engaging, if odd, story that surprised me. I'm just cynical enough to think that an old punk rocker writing a novel is an attempt to cash in on said nostalgia, but it was a decent book.
The book follows shortly after the events of King Dork, picking up with Tom Henderson after he's recovered from his near-fatal tuba injury (no kidding), and trying to cope with returning to the hellhole of his old high school. The thing is, due to what happened in King Dork, the school is being shut down, and he's being shunted to Clearview High, away from his best friend Sam Hellerman, and dropped into an altogether new school where he has to relearn how to navigate the cliques and other normals.
This book is one of those oddities, where nothing much happens, but you can't quite bring yourself to stop reading it. It seems to follow the same general plot of King Dork, just without the conspiracy revolving around Tom's father's death. Tom deals with high school, navigating girls and parents and teachers and all the rest, which culminates in a fight and a concert that goes poorly. It's not a retelling of the first book, but it's awfully familiar, but without that connection to his father's death, Tom's story isn't really a story. I mean, does it make sense to have two coming-of-age stories back-to-back, involving the same character?
I was disappointed in how Portman portrayed the female characters in the story, though I expect it's not too far off from how fifteen-year-olds think about girls. Lord knows, I was a different person at fifteen than I am now at forty-four, but by fifteen, kids should at least start thinking about their classmates as something other than someone to ramone with. As such, it's not the sort of book I would give to a teenager, even though it's marketed as a YA book.
Portman is a decent writer, though he overuses bits of his narrative. He has a tendency to write about some particular thing in one sentence, and then refer to that s. p. t. by its initials shortly thereafter. It slows down the narrative, forcing you to go back and remember what those initials are supposed to be. There are also the bits where he uses a word, following it immediately with "if [that word] means what I think it means." It was cute the first few times Portman used it (and appropriate, considering it's supposedly written by a fifteen-year-old with confidence issues), tiresome through the middle portion of the story, and then by the end of it, Tom started becoming aware of how much he was overusing it and making fun of it. Again, it slowed down the narrative due to its overuse.
I liked how much Portman used music as a large factor in the story, and how he even included a list of albums referenced in the book. It was also fun to see that he had recorded a soundtrack to the book, using songs and lyrics he had incorporated into the story to make real songs. It's been a long time since I've listened to MTX, but it took me back to listen to some new tunes by the band.
So, the book is readable, if not necessarily engaging, despite some unfortunate character choices. It's not necessarily inappropriate, but it has enough adult content and poor portrayals of women that I would recommend parents read the book themselves before passing it on to their kids. Anyone mature enough to recognize the problems would be fine with it, but I would hesitate giving it to someone who might read it and think it's an endorsement for that kind of thing.
The book follows shortly after the events of King Dork, picking up with Tom Henderson after he's recovered from his near-fatal tuba injury (no kidding), and trying to cope with returning to the hellhole of his old high school. The thing is, due to what happened in King Dork, the school is being shut down, and he's being shunted to Clearview High, away from his best friend Sam Hellerman, and dropped into an altogether new school where he has to relearn how to navigate the cliques and other normals.
This book is one of those oddities, where nothing much happens, but you can't quite bring yourself to stop reading it. It seems to follow the same general plot of King Dork, just without the conspiracy revolving around Tom's father's death. Tom deals with high school, navigating girls and parents and teachers and all the rest, which culminates in a fight and a concert that goes poorly. It's not a retelling of the first book, but it's awfully familiar, but without that connection to his father's death, Tom's story isn't really a story. I mean, does it make sense to have two coming-of-age stories back-to-back, involving the same character?
I was disappointed in how Portman portrayed the female characters in the story, though I expect it's not too far off from how fifteen-year-olds think about girls. Lord knows, I was a different person at fifteen than I am now at forty-four, but by fifteen, kids should at least start thinking about their classmates as something other than someone to ramone with. As such, it's not the sort of book I would give to a teenager, even though it's marketed as a YA book.
Portman is a decent writer, though he overuses bits of his narrative. He has a tendency to write about some particular thing in one sentence, and then refer to that s. p. t. by its initials shortly thereafter. It slows down the narrative, forcing you to go back and remember what those initials are supposed to be. There are also the bits where he uses a word, following it immediately with "if [that word] means what I think it means." It was cute the first few times Portman used it (and appropriate, considering it's supposedly written by a fifteen-year-old with confidence issues), tiresome through the middle portion of the story, and then by the end of it, Tom started becoming aware of how much he was overusing it and making fun of it. Again, it slowed down the narrative due to its overuse.
I liked how much Portman used music as a large factor in the story, and how he even included a list of albums referenced in the book. It was also fun to see that he had recorded a soundtrack to the book, using songs and lyrics he had incorporated into the story to make real songs. It's been a long time since I've listened to MTX, but it took me back to listen to some new tunes by the band.
So, the book is readable, if not necessarily engaging, despite some unfortunate character choices. It's not necessarily inappropriate, but it has enough adult content and poor portrayals of women that I would recommend parents read the book themselves before passing it on to their kids. Anyone mature enough to recognize the problems would be fine with it, but I would hesitate giving it to someone who might read it and think it's an endorsement for that kind of thing.
foreveryoungadult's review against another edition
Graded By: Poshdeluxe
Cover Story: Feels Like The First Time
BFF Charm: Platinum
Swoonworthy Scale: 2
Talky Talk: Live Wire
Bonus Factors: Rock 'n' Roll, Gold Penis
Relationship Status: Carry On, My Wayward Son
Read the full book report here.
Cover Story: Feels Like The First Time
BFF Charm: Platinum
Swoonworthy Scale: 2
Talky Talk: Live Wire
Bonus Factors: Rock 'n' Roll, Gold Penis
Relationship Status: Carry On, My Wayward Son
Read the full book report here.
breealysia's review against another edition
3.0
I don't remember the first one being as cheesy and gimmicky, but still, there were some really nice moments in this for sure. It's totally YA and a tad on the too YA side.
zimbra1006's review against another edition
5.0
My first book of 2015 - it's probably all downhill from here. My excitement to start reading this book was probably enhanced by the fact that I didn't even know it existed until I received it as a gift. It's been a while since I read the first one, but my impression is that this one is equally hilarious, so it was worth the wait. A good read for anyone who's ever sort of been in a band, hated high school, or been mystified by the appeal of Catcher in the Rye.
kim_ammons's review against another edition
2.0
I got about 1/5 of the way through the book, but I finally gave up because I didn't enjoy it at all. It was trying way too hard to be like the first one, which was itself only entertaining (besides being extremely misogynistic and ableist) because it was different and original.