Kicky’s Post It Note Reviews: Updating the A. S. King Reviews Edition with Dig and The Year We Fell from Space

You can find The Teen’s previous reviews of A. S. King individual books at this post. And you can read in her own words why she loves the works of A. S. King as a whole here. Today we’re updating her A. S. King book reviews by sharing her thoughts on Dig, which came out earlier this year, and The Year We Fell From Space, which is King’s second middle grade book that comes out in October of this year. I got The Teen a signed ARC at TLA earlier this year.

Dig by A. S. King

Publisher’s Book Description

The Shoveler, the Freak, CanIHelpYou?, Loretta the Flea-Circus Ring Mistress, and First-Class Malcolm. These are the five teenagers lost in the Hemmings family’s maze of tangled secrets. Only a generation removed from being simple Pennsylvania potato farmers, Gottfried and Marla Hemmings managed to trade digging spuds for developing subdivisions and now sit atop a seven-figure bank account, wealth they’ve declined to pass on to their adult children or their teenage grand children.

“Because we want them to thrive,” Marla always says. 

What does thriving look like? Like carrying a snow shovel everywhere. Like selling pot at the Arby’s drive-thru window. Like a first class ticket to Jamiaca between cancer treatments. Like a flea-circus in a doublewide. Like the GPS coordinates to a mound of dirt in a New Jersey forest. 

As the rot just beneath the surface of the Hemmings precious white suburban respectability begins to spread, the far flung grand children gradually find their ways back to each other, just in time to uncover the terrible cost of maintaining the family name.

Kicky’s Post It Note Review:

Simply Perfect. It all comes together.

Karen’s Note:

The Teen likes this book so much she gave a copy to her best friend, who is not as big of a reader and she actually is reading it right now while on a cruise to Alaska!

The Year We Fell from Space by A. S. King

Publisher’s Book Description:

The deeply affecting next book from acclaimed author Amy Sarig King.
Liberty Johansen is going to change the way we look at the night sky. Most people see the old constellations, the things they’ve been told to see. But Liberty sees new patterns, pictures, and possibilities. She’s an exception. 

Some other exceptions:

Her dad, who gave her the stars. Who moved out months ago and hasn’t talked to her since.

Her mom, who’s happier since he left, even though everyone thinks she should be sad and lonely.

And her sister, who won’t go outside their house. 

Liberty feels like her whole world is falling from space. Can she map a new life for herself and her family before they spin too far out of reach? 

Kicky’s Post It Note Review:

Cute and full of hope.

Karen’s Notes:

As you can tell, The Teen is much more efficient with words than I am. This is Amy Sarig King’s second middle grade book and as I mentioned in the intro above, I got The Teen a signed copy at TLA. For those keeping score at home, yes I did in fact cry again while meeting A. S. King and yes The Teen did in fact make fun of me again for crying while meeting A. S. King. I look forward to the day that I don’t cry while meeting A. S. King in person, but The Teen is pretty sure it will never happen. But back to the book. The Teen has a tendency to read a lot of dark stuff, but on occasion she comes to me asking for something light and fluffy because she needs a palette cleanser. When I brought this to her she was excited to read it and it came at just the perfect time because, as she mentions above, it is a hopeful read and it was something she needed to read at the time.

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