∎ PDF The Art of Being Normal 9781910200322 Books

The Art of Being Normal 9781910200322 Books

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The Art of Being Normal 9781910200322 Books

I purchased this book as part of a 30 Days of Pride Book Review project. This is that review:

When David was 8 years old, his class was told to write about who they wanted to be when they grew up. This is what David wrote: “I want to be a girl.” Five and half years later that wish has not changed, but it seems to David that time is running out to make it right. Everyday his body is changing in the wrong direction, he's getting taller, his feet are getting bigger, and other parts of his anatomy seem to have minds of their own. He hates the strange body staring back at him from the mirror. But everytime he tries to work up the courage to tell his parents about who he really is, he chickens out at the last minute. How is anything supposed to change for the better if he can't even explain, to the very people who might be able to help, exactly what is wrong?

Leo needs to focus on flying under the radar at Eden Park, so he can sit his exams, get into a college, and get as far away from Cloverdale as possible. He doesn't mind the rumor spreading around that he got expelled from his last school because he was a psycho. If that helped people stay out of his way, mores the better. But things are not quite going to plan, because the most beautiful girl he'd ever laid eyes on keeps striking up conversations with him, a kid from year ten, David, wants to be his friend (for some inexplicable reason), and he's on permanent probation for punching a kid (who really had it coming). But he can't let any of this distract him, Eden Park is his ticket out of Cloverdale and he HAS to escape.

This is a story, more than anything, about friendship. There are other things going on, of course. Both our POV characters David and Leo have big things happening in their lives that they have to learn to deal with: first romances, school bullies, family issues and endless identity crises. But, at the crux, this was a story about finding someone you can relate to and suddenly not feeling alone.

I quite enjoyed this book.

I liked that it was more about friendship and self discovery than romance. I liked that it had a more realistic depiction of the struggles of a trans-teen. I liked that it got into some of the class issues, as well as the double standards still operating towards psychological torment versus physical violence in the school system. I liked that it captures how very isolating and lonely it can feel to be seen as not normal and how much that can screw with your mind, while you decide from minute to minute if you'd rather tear down what is normative or magically blend in. I liked that things didn't come one hundred percent easy for the characters or magically get better in an after-school special kinda way.

It was just, overall, a solid teen novel about friendship and finding yourself.

Honestly, the thing I found most irksome was the plot description on the back cover. A detail about Leo is revealed in the first sentence, that Leo himself doesn't reveal until page 176 of a 344 page novel. Now, there were plenty of signs that this was happening and I probably would have picked up on it from the beginning anyway, even if the back hadn't spoiled it, but I can't say for sure because I didn't have the opportunity to read it that way. In the second paragraph of the plot description they talk about a character named Kate. This name does not appear anywhere in the novel until page 266. Which isn't a huge spoiler… but is kind of a head scratcher. I just don't understand why the plot description was written this way when the book itself wasn't. It's like they were at cross purposes from each other.

Do I recommend this book. Yes, I do. It was a pleasant read, living in that happy medium between unrealistically easy LGBT+ story and overly realistically depressing LGBT+ story. Just don't read the back cover until you've read the rest of the book.


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The Art of Being Normal 9781910200322 Books Reviews

I bought this book for the school collection because some kids ask for it and i was quite sorprised. Easy to read in a topic that for us is new (now has a space to be talked about). I like the athmosphere of the book, the characters were touching and easy to emphatizised. Not the best literature but a good one in a book that is witten to put this subject in the run, specially to an age that are so permeable to tragedies. Important topics to have on our school shelves.
The book has an interesting theme of truth in it. Do you tell the truth or not? Leo's mother doesn't tell him the truth about his father. She thinks it's better to let him live into the false truth he has created. When he finally encounters the truth about his father he is devastated. Leo does tell his girlfriend the truth he has been hiding and the outcome is likewise devastating. Truth is tricky business.
It is strange for me to read about Young People who og trough Things like David does. But I must say I fell in love With these characters and their stories, and thanks to this book I will pay more attention to transexual People and I feel like I might understand them more now. What I know that I do understand is that they are just People, like all of us are. Respect. I feel like this book helped me pay more respect to People in general. Rally Nice story. Very importent.
Lisa Williamson's The Art of Being Normal is a moving, well-written reminder of how brutal, yet how beautiful, the world can be to those who are different.

David Piper has really never fit in. Apart from his two best friends, most of his fellow high school students ridicule him for being different. One of the school bullies has called him "Freak Show" since they were younger, but David is willing to wait him out until high school ends. His parents think he is gay, and are waiting for him to tell them.

What David wants, more than anything, is to be a girl. But as he grows taller and more like his father, he wonders if this will ever be a possibility.

Leo Denton is the new kid in David's high school, coming from a poorer area to the more posh private school. Overly exaggerated tales of his exploits at his last high school follow him, but he lets people say what they want about him. Yet while he wants to remain under the radar, two events occur which ensure that wish isn't granted he stands up for David when he is being bullied, and then he falls for one of the most beautiful and talented girls in school. It's not long before secrets he hoped wouldn't be exposed come to light.

I felt The Art of Being Normal so accurately captured the feelings one experiences when you are different, when you are bullied, and how you just wish you could hide to avoid the ridicule and abuse. Williamson created such complex characters that you feel for and root for, characters you think about after the book is over. Even if once the story hits its stride you have a feeling how the plot will unfold, you're completely drawn into the characters' lives and you want to know what is going to happen.

Like so many YA books out there these days, this type of book didn't exist when I was growing up. I'm so glad that it exists now, however, and hope that people read it, are moved by it, and perhaps convinced to change their behavior, to understand that their definition of "normal" isn't everyone's. So well done...
I purchased this book as part of a 30 Days of Pride Book Review project. This is that review

When David was 8 years old, his class was told to write about who they wanted to be when they grew up. This is what David wrote “I want to be a girl.” Five and half years later that wish has not changed, but it seems to David that time is running out to make it right. Everyday his body is changing in the wrong direction, he's getting taller, his feet are getting bigger, and other parts of his anatomy seem to have minds of their own. He hates the strange body staring back at him from the mirror. But everytime he tries to work up the courage to tell his parents about who he really is, he chickens out at the last minute. How is anything supposed to change for the better if he can't even explain, to the very people who might be able to help, exactly what is wrong?

Leo needs to focus on flying under the radar at Eden Park, so he can sit his exams, get into a college, and get as far away from Cloverdale as possible. He doesn't mind the rumor spreading around that he got expelled from his last school because he was a psycho. If that helped people stay out of his way, mores the better. But things are not quite going to plan, because the most beautiful girl he'd ever laid eyes on keeps striking up conversations with him, a kid from year ten, David, wants to be his friend (for some inexplicable reason), and he's on permanent probation for punching a kid (who really had it coming). But he can't let any of this distract him, Eden Park is his ticket out of Cloverdale and he HAS to escape.

This is a story, more than anything, about friendship. There are other things going on, of course. Both our POV characters David and Leo have big things happening in their lives that they have to learn to deal with first romances, school bullies, family issues and endless identity crises. But, at the crux, this was a story about finding someone you can relate to and suddenly not feeling alone.

I quite enjoyed this book.

I liked that it was more about friendship and self discovery than romance. I liked that it had a more realistic depiction of the struggles of a trans-teen. I liked that it got into some of the class issues, as well as the double standards still operating towards psychological torment versus physical violence in the school system. I liked that it captures how very isolating and lonely it can feel to be seen as not normal and how much that can screw with your mind, while you decide from minute to minute if you'd rather tear down what is normative or magically blend in. I liked that things didn't come one hundred percent easy for the characters or magically get better in an after-school special kinda way.

It was just, overall, a solid teen novel about friendship and finding yourself.

Honestly, the thing I found most irksome was the plot description on the back cover. A detail about Leo is revealed in the first sentence, that Leo himself doesn't reveal until page 176 of a 344 page novel. Now, there were plenty of signs that this was happening and I probably would have picked up on it from the beginning anyway, even if the back hadn't spoiled it, but I can't say for sure because I didn't have the opportunity to read it that way. In the second paragraph of the plot description they talk about a character named Kate. This name does not appear anywhere in the novel until page 266. Which isn't a huge spoiler… but is kind of a head scratcher. I just don't understand why the plot description was written this way when the book itself wasn't. It's like they were at cross purposes from each other.

Do I recommend this book. Yes, I do. It was a pleasant read, living in that happy medium between unrealistically easy LGBT+ story and overly realistically depressing LGBT+ story. Just don't read the back cover until you've read the rest of the book.