A striking debut novel about boarding school hardcore Scrabble and frackingxa new kind of environmental novel by an important voice in the debate about fracking in America When the tap water at the Hale Boarding School for Boys bursts into flames people blame fracking Life at Hale has always been fraughtxthe swim test consists of being thrown into the pool with wrists and ankles tied and a boy can be expelled if he and a girl keep fewer than xCthree feet on the floorxD But the sight of combustible drinking water and the possibility that fracking is making Hale kids sick turn one student into an unlikely hero in the fight to stop the controversial drilling practiceWinston Crwth a Scrabble prodigy whose baffling last name rhymes with xCtruthxD knows what itxs like to be xCfracturedxD having grown up with his father in Philadelphia and his mother in California On Winstonxs comic journey to the Pennsylvania State Scrabble Championship where he hopes to win an audience with beauty-queen-turned-governor Linda King LaRue he matches wits with Thomasina Wodtke-Weir the headmasterxs prematurely gray daughter and the most popular read only girl at school the state poet laureate whose verse consists of copying out dictionary entries and restroom graffiti and David Dark son of the CEO of Dark Oil Gas the source of Winstonxs scholarship moneyThe Fracking King is a fantastically inventive debut about rowing crew using all your tiles and trying to save the world.
