King Dork

King Dork is a young adult novel by Frank Portman first published in 2006. It received recognition as a 2007 Best Book for Young Adults from the American Library Association. The novel features protagonist and disaffected slacker Tom Henderson in the fall of his high school sophomore year. The storyline focuses on Tom’s many problems in life including the death of his police officer father six years previous; his attempts to start a hard-rock band with his best and only friend Sam Hellerman; the daily difficulties of surviving a contemporary American high school filled with cruel peers, uncaring administrators and teachers obsessed with the novel Catcher in the Rye; his evolving relationship with his mother and stepfather; and negotiating the complexities of relating to the opposite sex.

The novel, while following a traditional linear narrative, frequently makes tangents in the first-person narrative where Tom examines his life and relationship to the rest of the world. The character of Tom speaks rarely and sparsely in the novel, but his internal dialogue is both verbose and extensive.