The Art of Being Normal
by Lisa Williamson (Goodreads Author)
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 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 year eleven is definitely not part of t ...more
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 year eleven is definitely not part of t ...more
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ReplyDeleteI enjoyed the book because it gave me insight to how our transgender students may think and feel. It is apropos considering our training on Friday about being supportive of our GBTLQ students.
The Art of Being Normal could be used as an interdisciplinary unit with Health, English, Social Studies and Art. Our students could investigate the bullying aspect in the book and come up with a resolution of how to be more inclusive in our building. Questions that could be asked: Why did Leo switch schools? What happened? How did the school handle the issue and how could they have handled it differently where Leo could have stayed there?
Did Leo run into the same roadblocks at his second school? Were there different support systems? How did Leo's group become his support system and how did he support them? What is the key to making an inclusive society?
The students could compare and contrast Leo and David's family life. Did the parent's reactions affect how the family responded to the transgender child? What were the socioeconomic differences and did they play a role?
What dreams did Leo have about his biological father? When he met his biological father what happened? Did he see his mother in a different light after that encounter? How did David help him through that experience?
Why did the Leo set-up a separate dance for David? Why did others come to it?
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I'm so upset that I missed this meeting. Let me start by saying I really loved the book. Currently I'm teaching Women's Literature and this topic has come up several times throughout the year as we discussed Feminism and Women's Rights...we've had great discussions about our transgender population and how we can help them to fit in to outdated societal norms and rules.
ReplyDeleteI do wish that there was more development on Leo's side, but I really enjoyed the alternating narrator format. I loved David and feel like if he was an adult, he would've been one of my good friends. I think both characters were likeable and easy to empathize with. I do wonder at whether or not that fact that they are both at the same school and going through the same thing would seem contrived, but over all I think it worked.
I think that this would suit 7-9th grade, but would be good at any grade level to teach tolerance.
This is an interesting book, with a rather mundane approach to the topic. I believe that I have heard in this group on several occasions, a reference to a book as being “an after school special”, this book would be in this category. I understand and appreciate that this book is a good gateway into several issues, it is just that a gateway. In the classroom the book could certainly be used across all subjects (so could a cookbook). The characters are interesting and I appreciated the detailed description of what David was going through, and honestly I did not anticipate that Leo was transgender. I also appreciated that the adults, presented as real, meaning that life is messy and sometimes we need to work through our own issues in order to help our children.
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