Book Review: Everybody Sees the Ants

Everybody Sees the Ants

by A.S. King

Summary

Part One

As a practical joke, Lucky Linderman hosted a social studies project on how you would commit suicide. From that day forward, operation no smile went on as a result of school administration and his parents taking the joke too far.

Lucky's father is a chef at a well to do restaurant and his mother is a swimming addict. The two fight constantly even though his mother does everything his father could want her to do. Lucky has a friend, another fifteen year old sophomore, named Lara Jones who he plays cards with regularly. 

The lifeguard and bully of Lucky, Nader McMillan, has been after him since his social studies screw up even more than he was before. Nader's lifeguard girlfriend, Petra, is kind to Lucky despite having a jerk for a boyfriend. Lucky sticks up for others around him.

Granny pretty much raised Lucky while his parents worked. She passed when he was young from colon cancer, but Lucky will never forget her last dying words about saving his grandfather from the gooks in Vietnam. This is when the dreams started. At age nine, Lucky began having dreams of a younger prisoner of war version of his grandfather who was drafted into the Vietnam war because his lottery number was called, number fourteen. The dreams continued for years. Lucky set his grandfather free of the "Charlie", a nickname for the enemy, and his grandfather taught him how to make boob traps and protect himself.

Nade beats up Lucky bad enough for his mom to buy plane tickets to Tempe, Arizona to visit her brother, Dave, for a few weeks with Lucky in tow.

Part Two
While Lucky's face was being pushed into the concrete at the pool by Nader, he spotted ants on the floor around him. The ants follow him throughout the novel and cheer him on or make silly remarks about the world around him. They especially like to make fun of Aunt Jodi,  feng shui, dieting weirdo who thinks Lucky needs to see a therapist. Aunt Jodi even tries to slip Lucky one of her Prozac, but his mom intervenes.

Lucky goes back and forth from dream world to real world, taking his real world sights and ideas into the dream world full of war with his grandfather. His grandfather is guarded by a man named Frankie, bullied much like Lucky is by Nader. Every time Lucky wakes up, something is in bed with him from the dream as if he picked it right out from his head.

Lucky sees a beautiful "ninja" girl dodging trees and cars in the night, only to later meet her at church, and then again he meets her while taking a late night stroll. Ginny, a 17 year old with the longest hair Lucky has ever seen, takes him to  park one night to chat. Ginny invites him to the play her and her five friends are staring in, The Vagina Monolouge", this weekend and he agrees to go.

Aunt Jodi took it upon herself to seek therapist friends to check Lucky out because she is convinced he is suicidal. It blows up in her face and the family is now in an awkward position. Lucky and his uncle get closer and closer, lifting weights and talking about what sons and fathers should talk about, but Lucky is soon taken aback when Ginny informs him that Aunt Jodi is so crazy because his uncle cheats on her so much.

Ginny and Lucky come good friends and she even comes to him after her mother beats her for cutting her model hair off. The Lindermans have to head back to Pennsylvania soon, but Lucky's mom lets him go to the show that night before the red-eye flight. 

When they return home, all seems to be the same. Lucky ends up realizing that he wants to kiss and date his friend, Lara, and he stands up to Nader after leaving the pool. He tries one last time to rescue his grandfather, but he tells Lucky that he has been dead all these years and is real to finally be with his wife. He thanks Lucky for being a father to his son and tells him how great it was to watch him grow.

Book Trailer

A wonderfully made video by the NY Public Library with exact quotes from the novel.

Themes

Guidance, Family, Self Discovery, Personal Development, Bullying, and Coming of Age.

Similar Themed Books

Leverage by Joshua C. Cohen and Stick by Andrew Smith.

Other Books by A.S.. King

King has written eight other novels and a short story filled book.

Teaching Ideas

Per King's website, she has an array of teaching ideas and discussion guides for educators. I would personally use her guides because of the curriculum and thematic connections she has provided us with.

One idea from the guide that I enjoyed was as follows:

"As a whole class project, dig deeper into the long history of prisoners of war (POWs) and soldiers designated as missing in action (MIA). Which wars still have MIAs? Have there always been POWs and MIAs? Long after the Vietnam War ended, Lucky’s grandmother believed that her missing husband was somehow still alive. What resources are now available for families of missing soldiers? Start your research by visiting the U.S. Department of Defense’s website about POWs and MIAs.

Lucky’s grandfather served in the Vietnam War as a result of a lottery.

• What further information about the Vietnam-era draft lottery can you find?
• How did it work?
• Whom did it cover?
• Do your students think it ought to be reinstated?

If possible, invite a potential draftee from the Vietnam era (men who are now in their 60’s
and mid-50s) into your classroom to discuss his experience with the lottery."

My grandfather was in the Vietnam era, and I would have a prerecorded video of us speaking on the ideas that match the novel.

Lastly, have students write a letter to a retired Vietnam veteran about their thoughts on the book and the war in general.