King Dork
Failed to add items
Sorry, we are unable to add the item because your shopping cart is already at capacity.
Add to basket failed.
Please try again later
Add to wishlist failed.
Please try again later
Remove from wishlist failed.
Please try again later
Adding to library failed
Please try again
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
£0.00 for first 30 days
LIMITED TIME OFFER
Get 3 months for £0.99/mo
Offer ends 29 January 2026 at 11:59PM GMT.
Prime members: New to Audible? Get 2 free audiobooks during trial.
Just £0.99/mo for your first 3 months of Audible.
1 bestseller or new release per month—yours to keep.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, podcasts, and Originals.
Auto-renews at £8.99/mo after 3 months. Cancel monthly.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection - including bestsellers and new releases.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, celeb exclusives, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
£8.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically.
King Dork
Narrated by:
Lincoln Hoppe
Buy Now for £12.99
-
Narrated by:
-
Lincoln Hoppe
-
By:
-
Frank Portman
About this listen
When Tom Henderson finds his deceased father’s copy of J. D. Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye, his world is turned upside down. Suddenly high school gets more complicated: Tom (aka King Dork) is in the middle of at least half a dozen mysteries involving dead people, naked people, fake people, a secret code, girls, and rock and roll. As he goes through sophomore year, he finds clues that may very well solve the puzzle of his father’s death and—oddly—reveal the secret to attracting semi-hot girls (the secret might be being in a band, if he can find a drummer who can count to four.
A brilliant story told in first person, King Dork includes a glossary and a bandography, which readers will find helpful and hilarious.
Praise for King Dork:
“Basically, if you are a human being with even a vague grasp of the English language, King Dork, will rock your world.”—John Green, author of The Fault in Our Stars
“[No account of high school] has made me laugh more than King Dork. . . . Grade A.”—Entertainment Weekly
“Impossibly brilliant.”—Time
“Provides a window into what it would be like if Holden Caulfield read The Catcher in the Rye.”—New York Post
[STAR] “Original, heartfelt, and sparkling with wit and intelligence. This novel will linger long in readers’ memories.”—School Library Journal, Starred
[STAR] “A biting and witty high-school satire.”—Kirkus Reviews, Starred
[STAR] “Tom’s narration is piercingly satirical and acidly witty.”—The Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books, Starred
“Loaded with sharp and offbeat humor.”—USA Today
“King Dork is smart, funny, occasionally raunchy and refreshingly clear about what it’s like to be in high school.”—San Francisco Chronicle
“King Dork: Best Punk Rock Book Ever.”—The Village Voice
“I love this book as much as I hated high school, and that’s some of the highest praise I can possibly give.”—Bookslut.com©2006 Frank Portman; (P)2006 Random House, Inc. Listening Library, an imprint of the Random House Audio Publishing Group
Listeners also enjoyed...
If you could sum up King Dork in three words, what would they be?
TeenageMusic
Girls
Who was your favorite character and why?
Tom / King Dork is reassuringly amusing, witty and capable.Which scene did you most enjoy?
I quite liked a scene where someone is beaten up!! That sounds awful, doesn't it (you don't see anything!), but it's the context of why it happens and how it takes place over a few scenes. And the matter-of-factness about it as well.Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?
There are moments as Tom is trying to connect with his (dead) father through his books that I found quite moving.Any additional comments?
He knows what he is. He knows WHO he is. Though he can't make up his mind what his band name (or first album) should be called.A simple enough story at heart, it pulls lots of strands together into the general plot of 'teenage geek tries to discover more about his dead father while pursuing girls and rock 'n' roll fame'.
Tom refers to himself as 'King Dork', and discovers one day a book owned by his father containing notes and codes. Wanting to learn more about the dad he doesn't know, he tries to solve the puzzle. It's amusing that it happens to be the book that every teacher raves about - Salinger's 'Catcher in the Rye' - not one of Tom's favourites...
King Dork is a protagonist who doesn't really care what you think of him, unlike many you read about, he's pretty happy within his own skin, but he does want to know about his dad, and he DOES want to know more about girls!
I found the talk of 'Catcher' hilarious, we all know teachers who rave about certain books or their own passions as if they are life and death. And I almost laughed out loud at the constantly-changing band names and albums that the group come up with. The end of the audiobook had a bonus - several of their songs sung for us! Brilliant.
There are some great secondary characters, with one teacher who likes to confront misbehaving students in the school toilets a particular standout.
The audiobook is a great format for this kind of story and narration, a 'first person', with a friendly and knowing (yet still likeable) young male voice as Tom/Chi-Mo (I won't explain that nickname).
With some sexual content, this is one for older readers, aged 13/14 and above.
Entertaining story of a self-confessed 'dork'
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.