The Art of Being Normal

by Lisa Williamson

Hardcover, 2015

Status

Available

Call number

823.92

Genres

Collection

Accelerated Reader

Publication

David Fickling Books (2015)

Description

David Piper, always an outsider, forms an unlikely friendship with Leo Denton who, from the first day at his new school wants only to be invisible, but when David's deepest secret gets out, that he wants to be a girl, things get very messy for both of them.

User reviews

LibraryThing member bookstogetlostin

"[...] and soon everyone knows that Leo used to be a girl." Way to spoiler this novel. It's like this big relevation to the characters, but the reader knows it before starting to read it. Well, you could guess it while reading, too.

Apart from that I really enjoyed The art of being normal.

Especially David is really well-written and you experience his struggles along with him. Him measuring his body and noting how it gets more and more masculine was heartbreaking.

I still had the feeling that this book is not about trans* characters but with them. Friendship is a really big theme and I think everyone can get behind identy issues, whether they fall into the LGBTQIA+ spectrum or not. I would have loved to analyze this book in school instead of The Confusions of Young Törless, but that's a story for another time.

Disclaimer: I was provided with a free copy through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you.

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LibraryThing member acargile

A realistic fiction novel, The Art of Being Normal is about being accepted for who you are without being ostracized or judged. It is reviews for ages 13+, which I think is very accurate. It isn’t a book for everyone and definitely deserves a more mature reader for the mature content.

Only two

people know who David truly is--his two best friends, but they are away for the summer. When school begins, there’s a new kid, Leo. David has been bullied since elementary school for something he wrote in class about himself. Oddly, when the bully is especially cruel, it’s Leo who rescues him, the new kid who never speaks and doesn’t appear to want to socialize with anyone. David finds a friend; Leo can tutor him in math and seems to understand his desire to be invisible.

Eventually, David’s true self must come out or he’ll be wearing a mask, unable to be who he wants to be. His parents have assumed he’s gay, but he isn’t; he wants to be female, not male. In this novel, David makes a good friend, learns secrets, and must accept who he is and realize that not all people will judge him or treat him badly.

It seems like there are quite a few transgender novels being published lately.. This is a nice novel; it isn’t preachy or “in-your-face,” it’s truly a story about a boy who struggles with revealing his true feelings. Most of us never have to deal with telling anyone something so dramatic, so it’s a journey through someone else’s life that we couldn’t understand without being placed in his shoes through a story. David’s friends are the “fringe” of the school society because they are nice and accept everyone. The “inner circle” students are the bullies and the one who only love themselves and other like them, which is a bit stereotypical. Overall, it’s a realistic look at the struggle a few teens face.

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LibraryThing member thebookmagpie

The thing about this story is that if you're at all familiar with what it means to be trans, with how modern LGBT discourse works, and that kind of thing, this book might seem incredibly obvious. However, I still think there's a place for it, because loads of people aren't necessarily hearing these

things. The story is sweet and I sympathised a lot with both main characters. It is pretty simplistic though and I would imagine pretty much everything in it has to be taken with a bit of a pinch of salt as while the writer has experience of working with trans youth, she doesn't identify as trans herself. I think hearing a similar story from a trans writer would bring more gravity to the issues discussed.

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