The Art of Being Normal

By Lisa Williamson

Book Overview

An inspiring and timely debut novel from Lisa Williamson, The Art of Being Normal is about two transgender friends who figure out how to navigate teen life with help from each other.

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 his class 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, and soon everyone knows that Leo used to be a girl.

As David prepares to come out to his family and transition into life as a girl and Leo wrestles with figuring out how to deal with people who try to define him through his history, they find in each other the friendship and support they need to navigate life as transgender teens as well as the courage to decide for themselves what normal really means.

A Margaret Ferguson Book

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0374302375
• ISBN13: 9780374302375
• Release Date: May 2016
• Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux (Byr)
• Length: 352 Pages
• Weight: 1.05 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.3" x 5.7" x 8.3"
• Age Range: 14 to 18 years
• Grade Range: Grade 9 to Postsecondary

Customer Reviews

Please don't read

This book is very, VERY disappointing to the trans community. It deadnames, misgenders, and uses incorrect pronouns for one of the characters who is trans. Not in a way to show something that's wrong. It's showed to look normal and acceptable, and the trans character is fine with it. Just overall a very bad book on that end, and it's a major plot point. Don't read if that's what you're looking for.