Publisher:
David Fickling
Books
Release
Date: 1st
January 2015
Edition:
UK hardback,
purchased
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 now 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 11 is definitely
not part of that plan. When David stands up for Leo in a fight, an unlikely
friendship forms. But things are about to get messy. Because at Eden Park
School secrets have a funny way of not staying secret for long...
The
Art of Being Normal is
one of those books that has been garnering awe-filled tweets from the second
that the first copies went out. Every single one of them is justified.
Written in a split narrative,
Leo and David are two boys that couldn’t be more different at first glance. David
comes from a supporting and loving family, and though he’s not one of Eden Park’s
‘cool kids’, he has two best friends that are just as oddball as he is. And yet
they are both in a mental space; unsure of themselves and holding a secret that
it ready to burst out of them. David’s secret is an open one to everyone but
his parents – he’s gay – but Leo’s is tightly guarded. I did end up guessing
what it was, but it didn’t lessen the impact at all.
This book is so incredibly
important because of the way it portrays being transgender. It’s always boggled
my mind that anyone can think that a trans person is disgusting, perverted or a
freak – insults thrown around in The Art
of Being Normal – but then when thrown into context with characters you’ve
grown to love, it’s even harder to comprehend. Lisa Williamson’s debut has the
potential to educate those who don’t understand, to teach them that actually a
trans person is just a person, and a person who is trapped in a body that isn’t
theirs and the true horror of that reality. I really, really hope that it makes
it into school libraries everywhere and it would be even better if it was
required reading.
I fell in love with this
beautiful, hopeful, brave and life-affirming novel and I want everyone to read
it. And I want to read it all over again. What a start to 2015.
Sophie
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