Award-winning author Andrew Smith has been called “the Kurt Vonnegut of YA” by Entertainment Weekly, and there’s no doubt about why: his books contain some of the most interesting, most complex, and, well, frankly, weirdest characters and stories we’ve ever read–and that’s why we love them.

In The Alex Crow, we meet Ariel, a refugee who is the sole survivor of an attack on his small village. Now living with an adoptive family in the States, Ariel’s story is juxtaposed against those of a schizophrenic bomber and the diaries of a failed arctic expedition from the late nineteenth century…and a depressed, bionic reincarnated crow.

You know, as you do. This critically-acclaimed novel is getting a new look in paperback! Peep the updated cover below, then read on for 5 things Andrew Smith says you need to know about The Alex Crow and an excerpt to get you hooked!

Tada! The amazing new paperback cover:

5 Things You Need to Know About The Alex Crow, from Andrew Smith:

1. The video game the boys of Camp Merrie-Seymour for Boys are obsessed with—Battle Quest: Take No Prisoners—is the same video game played by some of the boys in another novel of mine. Bet you can’t guess which one.

2. Many years ago, I wrote (and never published) a historical novel that takes place during the summer of 1881, when President James Garfield was assassinated. I’ve always been fascinated with America during the 1880s. I ended that novel with the main character signing on to an arctic expedition aboard a ship called The Alex Crow. So I already had the title and that one idea for a story thread before I decided to write a novel about the confusing voyage of a young refugee boy.

3. I used to own a home (inherited from my father when I was quite young) in West Virginia—very near to the very real place called Dumpling Run. Alas, no, there was no actual Dumpling Man, however.

4. I do not outline when I write, and when I write I go straight through from beginning to end. So I didn’t really know how all those disparate stories at the start of The Alex Crow would ultimately pinpoint down together in Ariel’s life. I just knew I had to make it work—like solving a jigsaw puzzle when you don’t have the photo on the box to help you out.

5. I have a tattoo of some of the interior artwork from the hardcover edition of The Alex Crow. I got the tattoo when I was visiting Providence, Rhode Island for a book festival. But I like this paperback cover so much, I may have to take a trip back to Providence soon.

Read an excerpt from The Alex Crow!