Deliver us from Normal

Deliver us from Normal

By Kate Klise

Review by Claire

This book is about a 11 year old boy named Charles Harrisong, who has a big family with 4 siblings and 2 hardworking parents. They live in a town called Normal, Illinois. Charles thinks his family is by no means normal, they have a long list of ways to make Charles feel embarrassed at school and other places whenever he ran into his classmates.

Charles doesn’t like his last name, the yellow brick house his parents rented with no air conditioning, he also hates the cheap clothes that his mom buys at Bargain Bonanza all because his classmates laugh at him. He is very nervous and tense at school and sometimes he cries. His parents are working really hard to make ends meet because of the size of the family how they are poor and look weird to others, but in their hearts they are nice, loving family with good sense of humor. His older sister Laura is a talented artist who is good at drawing and always encourage Charles. His younger brother Ben talks in a hilarious way and makes everyone laugh. His other 2 sisters Clara and Sally and nice and cute. His parents are always supportive and protective of their kids. I think the family is normal except for the fact they are struggling financially.

Charles's sister Laura decided to run for 7th grade class president, which some cruel kids at school made some really mean comments on Laura’s election posters, Laura was heartbroken. The parents decided to leave Normal, and buy a boathouse in Alabama. What will be their new life look like? How would they sail across the ocean? Where would they end up with? You have to read the book to experience excitement and frustration in their new adventure.

Kate tells us a story of a 11 year old boy partly in hilarious way with some stressful and sad moments. She makes us think about “What makes us normal?” Does money and owning stuff makes us normal? Does being popular at school makes us normal? Or sticking with your family no matter how poor and supporting each other is normal? This is a sad story, but the author told it is a hilarious and a heartwarming way, I definitely like this book.