The Art Of Being Normal by Lisa Williamson
Genre; YA
Two boys. Two secrets.
David Piper has always been an outsider. His parents think he’s gay. The school bully thinks he’s a freak. Only his two best friends know the real truth – David wants to be a girl.
On the first day at his new school, Leo Denton has one goal – to be invisible. Attracting the attention of the most beautiful girl in year eleven is definitely not part of that plan.
When Leo stands up for David in a fight, an unlikely friendship forms. But things are about to get messy. Because at Eden Park School secrets have a funny habit of not staying secret for long…
My thoughts:
I can not praise this novel enough. Whether you usually read YA or not, I doubt you could fail to be moved or touched in some way by the story inside these pages and this is why I love YA because it is not afraid to talk about the difficult subjects.
This is the first chapter of the book…
It’s simple and impactive. And in the UK it’s currently quite topical though I’d finished the novel before the story of the little boy who wants to be a girl broke.
Because of what David wrote in class that day he only has two friends in school and they are great friends to him, the type of friends anyone would be proud to call friends. It’s a story about inclusion. About finding out who you are about bravery and acceptance. And all this in the hands of children.
We have something to learn when children genuinely are going through things like this daily and we moan our jeans are too tight or the dog pissed on the floor again.
If you haven’t yet read a YA book from any of the ones I’ve reviewed, I’d really recommend this one. The Art Of Being Normal by Lisa Williamson – because who really wants to be normal anyway…
Definitely sounds like an interesting one. I do read YA from time to time so I might pick this one up.
It’s a lovely book Corina. I’d love to know what you think if you do read it.
Oh, that does sound good, Rebecca. There is so much good YA out there, and I’m glad for that. I love anything that encourages young people – and plenty who aren’t teenagers – to read.
I know. I wish I could read faster, there are so many crime novels and so many YA novels I want to read!
I am not sure I would read this but I do think it sounds like a good book and sensitively handled. I recently watched a Louis Thereux programme on the subject and I think what kids like this go through are very brave.
They are brave aren’t they. Knowing so young that they are born wrong must be so difficult. This book covered it really well and I loved when he told his parents.
I don’t read much YA, but this one definitely sounds interesting. I think some YA is becoming a lot more sophisticated, and I might be missing out by not reading some.
I think you would find out you’d love it if you tried it Annalisa. It’s not all girly romantic vampire stuff. They really cover modern issues and cover them really well.
I’ve been seeing a huge push on Tumblr and Twitter for more diverse books in terms of gender and sexuality, so the fact that this book exist alone makes me happy. Whenever I pick up a book with elements of it, I know it will be a good read. This one for sure is on my TBR list now.
It is really good. Let me know what you think of it once you’ve read it.