Book Read Free

I Crawl Through It

Page 20

by A. S. King


  Teachers, professors, librarians, and booksellers: You are my heroes. I want you to take one minute now and smile about the important work you do. You are loved. I thank you for reading my books, for sharing them with your friends and colleagues, and for sharing them with your students and patrons.

  Student readers, thank you for reading. Thank you for writing to me. Thank you for being you. You are not ovals. You are not letters. You are human beings, and every time someone rolls their eyes at you because they think your opinion doesn’t count, picture me giving them the finger.

  About the Author

  A.S. King is the highly acclaimed author of Glory O’Brien’s History of the Future, which was a New York Times Book Review Editors’ Choice, received six starred reviews, and appeared on ten best-of-the-year lists; Reality Boy, which received five starred reviews, was featured on seven end-of-year “best” lists, and was a YALSA Best Fiction for Young Adults book; Ask the Passengers, which was a Los Angeles Times Book Prize winner, received six starred reviews, appeared on ten end-of-year “best” lists, and was a Lambda Literary Award finalist; and Everybody Sees the Ants, which received six starred reviews, was an Andre Norton Award finalist, and was a YALSA Top Ten Best Fiction for Young Adults book. She is also the author of the Edgar Award–nominated, Michael L. Printz Honor Book Please Ignore Vera Dietz and The Dust of 100 Dogs, an ALA Best Book for Young Adults. When asked about her writing, King says, “Some people don’t know if my characters are crazy or if they are experiencing something magical. I think that’s an accurate description of how I feel every day.” She lives in Pennsylvania with her husband and children, and she invites you to visit her website at as-king.com.

  Contents

  Cover

  Title Page

  Welcome

  Dedication

  Epigraph

  Prologue—The place where we explain the helicopter and how not to eat the green sauce at Las Hermanas and we don’t mention anything about love

  Stanzi Has a Family History

  Stanzi—Thursday—Another Frog Dissection

  Stanzi—Thursday—Formaldehyde

  Stanzi—Thursday—Tetra-gam-EE-tic Ky-MEER-a

  Stanzi—Thursday Night—Livers

  Stanzi—Friday—Juglone

  Stanzi—Monday—A Man with a French Accent

  China Knowles—Tuesday Morning—I’m Fine

  Stanzi—Tuesday at China’s House

  Stanzi—Wednesday—We’re Very Lucky

  Stanzi—Thursday—That Soon

  China Knowles—Thursday—It’s True

  Lansdale Cruise—Friday—It’s a Party

  Stanzi—Saturday—Waltzing

  Stanzi—Saturday Night—Amadeus

  Stanzi—Sunday—Red Lion

  Stanzi—Sunday—The Answers

  China Knowles—Monday—I Love You

  Stanzi—Monday—I Want to Show You Something

  China Knowles—Monday—Sad Esophagus

  Stanzi—Monday—Free Shrinks

  Stanzi—Monday—Bears

  Stanzi—Monday Night—Box Bet Bug Bin

  Patricia—Monday—Standstill

  Stanzi—Tuesday Morning—The Trained Escapist

  Patricia—Tuesday Morning—Thwap-thwap-thwap

  China Knowles—Tuesday Morning—Gallbladder

  Stanzi—Tuesday Morning—Splitting in Two

  Patricia—Tuesday Morning—We Are Rotting

  Stanzi—Wednesday—Coffins

  The Interviews—Wednesday

  Patricia—Wednesday—Chewing Gum

  Stanzi—Thursday Morning—Doomed

  China Knowles—Thursday—Runaways Always Come Back

  Stanzi—Thursday—Kenneth

  Stanzi—Thursday—Stanzi Takes a Test

  Stanzi—Thursday—Hikers Lost

  The Interviews II—Thursday

  China Knowles—Thursday Night—Fire Pit

  Stanzi—Thursday Night—Hysterical Girl

  Lansdale Cruise—Thursday Night—The Next Mrs.

  China Knowles—Thursday Night—Fuenteovejuna

  Stanzi—Thursday Night—Genius Debriefing

  China Knowles—Early Friday Morning—New

  Stanzi—Early Friday Morning—Fuel

  The Interviews III—Friday

  China Knowles—Friday—Tidal Wave

  Lansdale Cruise—Friday Afternoon—Oh, Come On

  Stanzi—Friday—Dumb Marvin

  China Knowles—Friday Afternoon—Broadway

  Patricia—Friday Morning—Act Normal

  Stanzi—Friday Afternoon—The Dinner Bell

  Stanzi—Friday Afternoon—430

  China Knowles—Friday Evening—Tommy

  Stanzi—Friday Evening—Twenty Questions

  Stanzi—Saturday Morning—Family Vacations

  Lansdale Cruise—Saturday Morning—No Kidding

  China Knowles—Saturday Afternoon—The Monkey

  Stanzi—Saturday Afternoon—Gustav’s Secret

  Stanzi—Saturday Afternoon—Her Name

  The Interviews IV—Saturday

  China Knowles—Early Saturday Evening—My Type

  Stanzi—Early Saturday Evening—Talk to the Screen

  China Knowles—Early Saturday Evening—Hospital

  Stanzi—Saturday Night—Dr. M*A*S*H

  China Knowles—Saturday Night—House of Letters

  Stanzi—Sunday Morning—Mental Health Profile

  China Knowles—Sunday Morning—Little Shit

  China Knowles—Sunday Afternoon—The Gland

  Stanzi—Monday Two Weeks Later—Project Evidence

  Stanzi—Monday Afternoon—The Catalog

  China Knowles—Monday Night—They All Do

  Stanzi—Tuesday Morning—I Crawl Through It

  Stanzi—Monday Afternoon—Frogs in Jars

  Stanzi Has a Paper Clip

  Acknowledgments

  About the Author

  Copyright

  Copyright

  This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is coincidental.

  Copyright © 2015 by A.S. King

  Illustrations copyright © 2015 by Wendy Xu

  Cover design by Liz Casal and Maggie Edkins

  Cover © 2015 Hachette Book Group, Inc.

  All rights reserved. In accordance with the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976, the scanning, uploading, and electronic sharing of any part of this book without the permission of the publisher is unlawful piracy and theft of the author’s intellectual property. If you would like to use material from the book (other than for review purposes), prior written permission must be obtained by contacting the publisher at permissions@hbgusa.com. Thank you for your support of the author’s rights.

  Little, Brown and Company

  Hachette Book Group

  1290 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10104

  lb-teens.com

  Little, Brown and Company is a division of Hachette Book Group, Inc.

  The Little, Brown name and logo are trademarks of Hachette Book Group, Inc.

  The publisher is not responsible for websites (or their content) that are not owned by the publisher.

  First ebook edition: September 2015

  ISBN 978-0-316-33407-5

  E3

 

 

 


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