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Pick the Lock

Author A.S. King
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Paperback
$13.99 US
Penguin Young Readers | Dutton Books for Young Readers
On sale Sep 30, 2025 | 400 Pages | 9780593353981
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From Michael L. Printz Award winner A.S. King, a weird and insightful new novel about a girl intent on picking the lock of her toxic family.

Jane Vandermaker-Cook would like her mother back. As Jane's mother tours the world to support the family, Jane lives and goes to school in a Victorian mansion with her younger brother and their mendacious father who confines Jane’s mother to a system of pneumatic tubes whenever she’s at home. And then there's weirdly ever-present Aunt Finch, Milorad the gardener, and his rat, Brutus. For Jane, this all seems normal until she suddenly gains access to the files for a lifetime of security-camera videos—her lifetime.

A.S. King's latest surrealist masterpiece follows Jane’s bizarre and brilliant journey to reconnect with her mother by breaking out of her shell and composing a punk opera.
Prologue:
Lesson One

I do not lie to God.
God, in this sense, can be whatever you want it to be—­but the one thing God cannot be is a liar or a believer of lies or a perpetuator of lies or an eater of lies or a baker of lies or a bartender of lies. God / the universe can shake up a cocktail and serve it to you, but if you need lies to survive, you must tell your own stories / add your own garnish.
God will watch you from behind the bar.
God will nod and smile as you eat the cherry.
God knows you are imperfect.You do not.
God forgives you.
You do not.
This is why you lie to God.
And so, Lesson One is easy.
I am imperfect. I forgive myself. I do not lie to God.
I first learned this lesson when I was four years old. I have not strayed. I am humble in the light of the universe—­I have earned my place.
My father lies to God. All the time.
Today he said, “God knows, we tried all we could before she went into the System.”
She is my mother.
We is him.
Tried means he didn’t like her the way she was.
The System is how Mother travels now, contained in a tidy capsule.
God knows.
My father should not be the keeper of God’s words. He is a liar and a thief.
God knows.My father cannot think God’s thoughts. He is a traitor and a brute.
God knows.
God shouldn’t even be allowed in his mouth—­my father is a killer.
He made my mother into a fast-­moving message. Fed her into a tube.The message reads, “I am an example of what happens when a coward lies to God.”
My father.
God knows.
Our teacher. Our captor. Our hero.
His Lesson One is: The World and Its Seven Continents: Overview.
My Lesson One is: DO NOT LIE TO GOD.
Copyright © 2024 by A.S. King. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
© A.S. King
Hailed by the New York Times as “one of the best YA writers working today,” A.S. King is the author of over a dozen books for young readers. She is the only two-time winner of the Michael L. Printz Award. She is the winner of the Los Angeles Times Book Prize. She is the recipient of both the Margaret A. Edwards Award and the ALAN Award for her lifetime contributions to young adult literature. King lives with her family in Pennsylvania, where she returned after living on a farm and teaching adult literacy in Ireland for more than a decade. View titles by A.S. King

About

From Michael L. Printz Award winner A.S. King, a weird and insightful new novel about a girl intent on picking the lock of her toxic family.

Jane Vandermaker-Cook would like her mother back. As Jane's mother tours the world to support the family, Jane lives and goes to school in a Victorian mansion with her younger brother and their mendacious father who confines Jane’s mother to a system of pneumatic tubes whenever she’s at home. And then there's weirdly ever-present Aunt Finch, Milorad the gardener, and his rat, Brutus. For Jane, this all seems normal until she suddenly gains access to the files for a lifetime of security-camera videos—her lifetime.

A.S. King's latest surrealist masterpiece follows Jane’s bizarre and brilliant journey to reconnect with her mother by breaking out of her shell and composing a punk opera.

Excerpt

Prologue:
Lesson One

I do not lie to God.
God, in this sense, can be whatever you want it to be—­but the one thing God cannot be is a liar or a believer of lies or a perpetuator of lies or an eater of lies or a baker of lies or a bartender of lies. God / the universe can shake up a cocktail and serve it to you, but if you need lies to survive, you must tell your own stories / add your own garnish.
God will watch you from behind the bar.
God will nod and smile as you eat the cherry.
God knows you are imperfect.You do not.
God forgives you.
You do not.
This is why you lie to God.
And so, Lesson One is easy.
I am imperfect. I forgive myself. I do not lie to God.
I first learned this lesson when I was four years old. I have not strayed. I am humble in the light of the universe—­I have earned my place.
My father lies to God. All the time.
Today he said, “God knows, we tried all we could before she went into the System.”
She is my mother.
We is him.
Tried means he didn’t like her the way she was.
The System is how Mother travels now, contained in a tidy capsule.
God knows.
My father should not be the keeper of God’s words. He is a liar and a thief.
God knows.My father cannot think God’s thoughts. He is a traitor and a brute.
God knows.
God shouldn’t even be allowed in his mouth—­my father is a killer.
He made my mother into a fast-­moving message. Fed her into a tube.The message reads, “I am an example of what happens when a coward lies to God.”
My father.
God knows.
Our teacher. Our captor. Our hero.
His Lesson One is: The World and Its Seven Continents: Overview.
My Lesson One is: DO NOT LIE TO GOD.
Copyright © 2024 by A.S. King. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.

Author

© A.S. King
Hailed by the New York Times as “one of the best YA writers working today,” A.S. King is the author of over a dozen books for young readers. She is the only two-time winner of the Michael L. Printz Award. She is the winner of the Los Angeles Times Book Prize. She is the recipient of both the Margaret A. Edwards Award and the ALAN Award for her lifetime contributions to young adult literature. King lives with her family in Pennsylvania, where she returned after living on a farm and teaching adult literacy in Ireland for more than a decade. View titles by A.S. King

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