I particularly recommend her books if you enjoy, as I do, character-driven offbeat stories that surprise you with magic realism. In addition to her novels you can find A. S. King in these two short story collections: Dear Bully: Seventy Authors Tell Their Stories (The Boy Who Won't Leave Me Alone, by A. S. King, 2011); Dear Heartbreak: YA Authors on the Dark Side of Love (Own Your Heart, by A. S. King, 2018) A.S. King only uses the initials of her first two names on her books and has said in interviews and on her blog at as-king.com, "If ever you've heard that I chose to write under the name A.S. King because it spells "asking" then you heard right.". On her writing journey, King said in an interview she gave in 2009: "It took me 7 novels and 15 years of writing to publish a book.". Like most authors who give advice on becoming a writer, King encourages people to read.
Get to know King a little though this fun reading pep talk she gave in 2016:
The American Library Association's Printz Award has been awarded every year since 2000, for a Young Adult book that exemplifies literary excellence.Dig, by A.S. King, 2019. Five white teenage cousins who are struggling with the failures and racial ignorance of their dysfunctional parents and their wealthy grandparents, reunite for Easter. Genre: Magical realism. Listen to King read an excerpt from the beginning of Dig here.
The Printz committee also names up to 4 Printz Honor (the silver seals) books each year. (BTW- Please Ignore Vera Dietz, by A. S. King, was a 2011 Printz Honor book.) Here are the 2020 Printz Honor Books:
Beast Player, by Nahoko Uehashi, translated by Cathy Hirano, 2019. Nahoko Uehashi's The Beast Player is an epic YA fantasy about a girl with a special power to communicate with magical beasts and the warring kingdom only she can save.
Laura Dean Keeps Breaking Up with Me, by Mariko Tamaki, illustrated by Rosemary Valero-O’Connell, 2019. Upset about her on-again, off-again relationship with her girlfriend Laura Dean, Freddy Riley depends on her friends, a local mystic, and a relationship columnist for help in dealing with her situation. Graphic novel. Genre: Realistic; Romance.
Ordinary Hazards: A Memoir, by Nikki Grimes, 2019. The author recounts her traumatic childhood, with a mother suffering from mental illness, unfortunate experiences in a series of foster homes, and her discovery of her love of writing, which eventually helped her overcome the hazards of her life. Nonfiction. Memoir in Verse.Where the World Ends, by Geraldine McCaughrean, 2019. In the summer of 1727, a group of men and boys are put ashore on a remote sea stac to harvest birds for food. No one returns to collect them. Why? Surely nothing but the end of the world can explain why they have been abandoned. And how can they survive, housed in stone and imprisoned on every side by the ocean? Genre: Historical fiction.
Want to know more about the Printz selection process? Click here for School Library Journal's articles on Pondering the Printz on Its 20th Anniversary.
