Tales of the Madman Underground

**MICHAEL L. PRINTZ HONOR BOOK • This gripping coming-of-age novel takes readers on a rollercoaster ride through the chaotic life of a quirky teen and his misfit friends.

“Darkly comic . . . as troubled, relevant, relatable and hilarious as J.D. Salinger.”—Los Angeles Times

“Rarely will you read something so lovingly vulgar, so fiercely warmhearted, and so exuberantly expansive.”—Booklist, starred review

**If this book was a monologue . . . it would be ****ing censored.

Today is Wednesday, September 5, 1973. Welcome to the life of Karl Shoemaker, which includes:

• getting through his senior year of high school
• getting out of Lightsburg, Ohio, hole of the world
• trying to lose his virginity
• five jobs
• a dead father
• a seriously unhinged drunk mother
• a house that is basically a litter box
• his membership in the Madman Underground (a group of kids forced, for no apparent reason, to attend group therapy during school hours)