The Normal Kid

Sylvan has been angry ever since his parents split up. And now that an embarrassing photo has appeared in the paper, he's stuck with a lame nickname too. Charity is back in the United States after several years in Africa. And she's learning that home can be a strange place when you've been away for a while. Neither of them knows what's up with Brian. He spends whole afternoons alone on his trampoline. From the first day of school, Sylvan knows he doesn't want to hang out with weirdoes like Charity or Brian. He'd rather just be a normal kid. But when the principal gets ready to fire their favorite teacher, Sylvan, Charity, and Brian have to find a way to work together.

"Fifth-grader Sylvan is a self-described 'normal kid, ' while his classmate Charity has just arrived at school after five years of living in Kenya, where her parents were missionaries. Also new at school is a boy who exhibits Asperger's symptoms that inhibit his interpersonal interactions. Told in the voices of Sylvan and Charity, this novel offers a well-balanced look at two kids who are realizing how events affect individuals--and how they themselves are affected deeply by events they want to ignore. Without ever feeling overstretched, the story packs in a lot about what it's like to have an activist mom or an embittered former-preacher dad; how an excellent teacher can still lose students; and the dramatic impact that's possible when a bunch of 10-year-olds put the group's interests ahead of their own personal concerns. Fans of school stories by Gary Schmidt or Jerry Spinelli will find this engaging as well as thought provoking." --Booklist

"On the first day of fifth grade, two new kids walk into Sylvan's class and he thinks that they are both weird. Charity, having just returned from several years in Kenya, earns the nickname Preacher Girl for her religious upbringing and odd questions. Brian, known as the Trampoline Kid, behaves strangely, often making loud noises and constantly fidgeting. Sylvan, who beat up a fellow classmate last term, wants nothing more than to be considered normal. His mother, asocial activist, doesn't make it easy for him, making him join her causes and picket lines. Then he's forced to socialize with Charity when their mothers become friends, and his teacher, Mr. In, pairs him with Brian for a social-studies class project. Intrigued by Charity's vibrant and complex past and youthful enough to want to join Brian on his trampoline, Sylvan empathizes and matures alongside these two different but good classmates. When the children think that their beloved teacher's position is in jeopardy, they bring their classmates together in an effort to save it. Sylvan and Charity take turns narrating, and readers will understand and relate to the social pressure they struggle to navigate and their desire to fit in." --School Library Journal

"'That's your world, and it's so right and so normal you never even think about it. Then it falls apart.' That's what happened to Sylvan last year, in fourth grade, when his parents split and his older brother went to live with his dad. It's now happening to his new classmate Charity, who is back in an America she barely remembers after her family abruptly left the missionary life and the Kenyan home she loved. Sylvan's not sure he wants to jeopardize his status as a 'normal kid' to befriend Charity, and he's even more uncertain about partnering with weird Brian, who's uncomfortable with social contact and loud noises, on a big class project. There are too many plot threads here, and contrivance (especially the kids' misunderstanding of the principal's class visit) sours several elements. Holmes is a capable and affecting stylist, though, and the narration, alternating between Sylvan and Charity, brings Charity's story in particular to vivid life: she's a third-culture kid who was most at home in Kenya and her pastor father's church, but her dad's defensive approach to his congregation led to his failure, loss of faith, and the family's relocation. Readers may enjoy the dynamics of the school story, and they'll appreciate the message that even difficult transitions are survivable." --Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books

"Holmes (Tracktown Summer), in her third middle-grade novel, explores what it means to be an outsider through two distinctive voices. Though 10-year-old Sylvan is mocked by his fellow fifth graders for participating in environmental protests with his hippie mother, he insists that he's nothing like the two indisputable weirdoes in his class, Charity and Brian. Charity, whose family of missionaries has just returned to New York from Kenya in defeat, now feels like a stranger in her home country--she doesn't wear the right clothes and doesn't say the right things. When class presentations and the threat of losing a supportive teacher bring together Sylvan, Charity, and Brian (a highly intelligent loner with Asperger's-like characteristics), they develop a connection that is built on the individuality that sets them apart. Holmes constructs a sturdy story that examines preconceptions and the sting of social rejection, combined with credible character development. Sylvan and Charity's alternating perspectives reveal how taking chances on friendships can broaden and enrich one's awareness of the world." --Publishers Weekly Online

"In a changing world, what can 'normal' mean?

Lately, change has rocked Sylvan's world--and not in a good way: family breakup, an embarrassing newspaper photo and now a new fifth-grade teacher. Sylvan tells himself he's a 'normal, average, everyday kid.' Sylvan's classmate and co-narrator, Charity, has bigger changes to process: Her missionary dad's abruptly returned the family to the States after five years in rural Kenya. Now he works as a house painter and won't say grace. Charity's classmates think she's weird to shake hands with their teacher, but next to Brian, she is normal. Brian, on the autism spectrum (his depiction is realistic and low-key), makes loud noises in class, avoids eye contact and spends hours alone jumping on his trampoline. This well-told story captures a pivotal life experience: What we've assumed was permanent, bedrock reality can shift beneath us without warning. 'Normal' changes. If it's a tough lesson, it's also liberating. Sylvan's mom drags him with her to protest demonstrations (hence that embarrassing photo). That's her normal--but is it Sylvan's? Charity's beliefs are her own, to keep or lose, whatever her dad believes.

Pre-adolescent angst--funny, perplexing humiliating--is perennially fertile ground for middle-grade fiction. Holmes shows us where it comes from and where it can take us if we let it. (Fiction. 8-12)" --Kirkus Reviews