Tag Archives: Teenagers

Am I Normal Yet?

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Am I Normal Yet? by Holly Bourne

Book of the Week: 13 March 2016

Am I Normal Yet?

Are we at the start of a trend for books to have the word ‘normal’ in the title or is it just a coincidence? Several weeks ago, the Book of the Week was The Art of Being Normal by Lisa Williamson.

Lots of us make an offhand remark about being ‘a bit OCD’ when all we really mean is that we like things to be neat. This book shows us just what suffering from Obsessive Compulsive Disorder really means and how crippling it can be. Evie is 16 and has just started at college. She wants a fresh start with new friends and maybe a boyfriend, but most of all she wants to be regarded as ‘normal’ and for no-one to realise she has OCD. Is keeping a secret the best way to make new friends? What if her illness starts to come back?

Although Evie’s OCD is central to the plot, her dilemmas will be familiar to anyone starting a new school or struggling to make new friends and her chatty style is immediately engaging. Evie is trying to hide her innermost struggles but is entertainingly honest about almost everything else in her life.

Recommended for older readers due to some frank content and some scenes that may prove upsetting for younger readers.

If you liked Trouble by Non Pratt, or Solitaire by Alice Oseman, this may be a good choice for your next read.

Holly Bourne can be found on Tumblr here.

Why We Took the Car

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Why We Took the Car by Wolfgang Herrndorf

Book of the Week: 20 September 2015

Why we took the car

Why We Took the Car is a good, old-fashioned story of teenage rebellion. It is the translation of a best-selling book called Tschick by German author Wolfgang Herrndorf, centering around a road-trip by two friends, Mike and Tschick.

The story begins in school where loner Mike Klingenberg, also known as Psycho, spends his time carving boomerangs, admiring the beautiful Tatiana and fretting about his alcoholic mother and workaholic father. There are also the usual over-confident classmates and overbearing teachers to help make his life a misery. Into this mix comes a new student, the surly and rebellious Andrej Tschischaraoff, who is uncooperative in the extreme and who drinks alcohol during school hours. Mike finds Tschick annoying at first but after a particularly bad day, and one too many arguments with his father, he is persuaded to set off across Germany with Tschick in a stolen Lada in search of adventure.

What unfolds is a believably wild escapade, conjuring up encounters with quirky characters and revealing a growing, if uneasy friendship, between the boys. Amidst the irresponsible and criminal behaviour is fun, sarcasm and the intensity, sadness and magic of a summer of growing-up.

Recommended for older readers.

The Rest of Us Just Live Here

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The Rest of Us Just Live Here by Patrick Ness

Book of the Week: 6 September 2015

If you are not the central character in a dystopian story who has special powers and masses of courage, then you are probably like the ‘rest of us’, plodding along in your everyday life. Mikey, the central character of this book, is one of ‘the rest of us’.  He lives in small-town America with his parents and two sisters and  just wants to date the girl of his dreams, get on with his friends and graduate from high school. Sadly, his town is also inhabited by ‘indie kids’ who attract the kind of supernatural goings-on that we read about in fiction. Sometimes these events leak out into the real world and result in death and destruction. Strangely enough, the cataclysmic happenings are sometimes the least of Mikey’s worries, as ordinary life has given him an alcoholic dad, a career politician of a mother, a sister who was anorexic, and some confusing feelings about Henna, who he has been in love with for years, and Jared his best friend. Also, he suffers with bouts of obsessive-compulsive behaviour.

Mikey’s experiences are realistic, touching, often quite funny and form the major part of the book. The supernatural part of the story is confined to chapter headings and and some scattered incidents. If you enjoy the writing of John Green or liked ‘The Perks of Being a Wallflower’ by Stephen Chbosky then this is a must-read.

Patrick Ness has a brand new website here.