Deliver us from Normal

VOYA

All is not normal in Normal, Illinois, especially in the home of Charles Harrisong, this novel's eleven-year-old, nervous, neurotic narrator. Charles-aka Charlie, Chumsley, or Chums-worries constantly about the abnormal state of his large, loving family. They are all embarrassing, and Charles wishes more than anything to someday remove them from the top of his "Most Embarrassing Things in [His] Life" list. It does not seem likely to happen, however, when his eccentric artist sister, Clara, decides to run for president of her seventh grade class, hoping to get elected on a platform of "positive thinking." The disastrous results of the election are not only embarrassing but also devastating for Charles and his family, forcing them to leave Normal and normal behind for good. Although the story and message are appealing and appropriate, this novel might have trouble finding its audience. The tone of the book seems more adult, and young readers who do not share Charles's experiences might have trouble understanding his sophistication and his obsessions. Most characters are appealing, especially the quirky but confident Clara, and the new beginning that the ending offers has promise, but Charles's neuroses sometimes become annoying, and his voice could turn away many young readers. The book's frequent references to To Kill a Mockingbird will escape many young readers, and the Harrisongs extreme reaction to Clara's election results stretches credulity. Their excessive but strange solution to their daughter's embarrassment and their children's trusting acceptance and adaptability, however, make the Harrisongs more endearing as a family and helps Charles realize that normal really is not asimportant as it seemed. VOYA CODES: 3Q 2P M J (Readable without serious defects; For the YA with a special interest in the subject; Middle School, defined as grades 6 to 8; Junior High, defined as grades 7 to 9). 2005, Scholastic, 240p., Ages 11 to 15.
—Anita Beaman

School Library Journal

Gr 6-9-Charles Harrisong is obsessed with the idea that he is strange and can't fit in with the sixth grade in Normal, IL. He feels that he possesses a special talent, the ability to know what people are really saying and thinking, all of which, he is sure, is directed at him and is negative to the extreme. He is especially embarrassed that his family rents rather than owns a home, wears home-sewn clothes, and lacks the material things that the other students feel are prerequisites. He painfully resists when teachers and the counselor try to help. When his older sister's campaign posters for seventh-grade class president are defaced in a particularly ugly way by clique leaders, the parents decide to leave town. They buy an Alabama houseboat over the telephone with the trade of their automobile and practically the last of their savings, a decision that leads to heartbreakingly hard work and even danger. Through Charles's narration, Klise offers a stunningly realistic look at the concatenations that the boy's obsessive thinking weaves. Each member of the family is carefully delineated. The Harrisongs' searching and differing perceptions of God will certainly spark discussion. Some of the siblings are naturally sunny, while others cry frequently. The parents make mistakes and argue, but this family's true love and deep engagement with one another mean that everyone can forgive and pull together. And, yes, sometimes it does take some real trouble to bring about the realization that everyday problems aren't real problems at all. A superb psychological novel.-Cindy Darling Codell, formerly at Clark Middle School, Winchester, KY Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.

Kirkus Reviews

Klise, better known for oddball mysteries, goes here for a more character-driven family story, narrated by an 11-year-old middle child edging toward serious depression. Compiling lists like "The Most Embarrassing Things in My Life," Charles Harrisong glumly records efforts of his hardworking parents to make ends meet, the tumultuous teasing and tears at home among his four siblings and his own unsuccessful efforts to escape the jeering notice of his middle school's in-crowd. Just beneath these seemingly routine trappings, however, lurks a far more rewarding tale, for the Harrisongs are one of those uncommon (at least, in literature) species, a cohesive nuclear family whose members, for all their occasional fallings-out, love and respect each other to pieces. Better yet, Klise doesn't tell, she shows, leading readers gradually into the hearts and spirits of her characters-while taking those characters on a seriocomic odyssey of their own, as they impetuously leave their rented Illinois home for a leaky houseboat off the Alabama coast, and a well-earned fresh start. Nothing "normal" here. (Fiction. 11-13)