"When I grow up I want to be a screwdriver!" A small boy spins down the sidewalk as his mother follows him with her eyes and heart. Nicky has autism. Winner of the ASA Outstanding Literary Work of the Year Award, Just This Side of Normal is a powerful story of a parent's search for understanding in a world that sometimes makes no sense. This book was one of the first autobiographies written by a parent of a child with autism and it continues to inspire both parents and professionals in the autism community.
What begins as just a normal Tuesday becomes a day that will shatter sixteen-year-old Kai's life forever. All it takes is a letter, tucked into a pile of their family's mail. It's from Kai's older sister, Jen, who lives nearby. And it begins, ?If you are reading this, I am already gone.? Jen has committed suicide. Dazed, Kai helps to plan Jen's funeral and tries to cope with their devastated parents, all the while searching for answers. How could Jen do this, and why? Kai is heartbroken and furious, and soon she's caught in a vicious downward spiral, self-medicating and lashing out at the people she loves. That's when her parents shock her: they're sending her to the Tree House, a summer camp for grieving teens. Kai is not a happy camper at first. But when she meets other kids who are grappling with loss, she begins to share her feelings, find a way forward, even laugh ... and fall in love. Just a Normal Tuesday offers a roadmap for anyone who has been touched by loss and anyone who is looking for hope in a broken world. Author Kim Turrisi won a Daytime Emmy for her work as co-creator, executive producer and writer of Venice: The Series. Kim also wrote for ABC Family's webisode series Pretty Dirty Secrets, an online companion to Pretty Little Liars. This is her first novel.
Psychiatry has ignored the normal. The focus on defining abnormal behavior has obscured what turns out to be a more fundamental question—how does the biology of the brain give rise to the mind, which in turn gives rise to everything we care about: thoughts, feelings, desires, and relationships? In The Other Side of Normal, Harvard psychiatrist Jordan Smoller shows us that understanding what the mind was designed to do in the first place demystifies mental illness and builds a new foundation for defining psychiatric disorders—from autism to depression. Smoller argues there are no bright lines between normal and abnormal. Psychiatric disorders are variations of the same brain systems that evolved to help us solve the challenges of everyday life. How do we become who we are? Smoller explains where our personalities come from, and how the temperaments we had as infants actually stay with us into adulthood. Why do we choose to date, love, and marry the people we do? Why do some of us form healthy relationships while others form unstable ones? Our relationships are shaped by the biology that drives two imperatives: maternal-child bonding and child-parent attachment. Along the way, Smoller tackles an even greater question—what do we mean by "normal"?—as he explores the puzzles behind the epidemics of multiple personalities and koro, the shocking phobia that one's penis is shrinking. He also looks at the controversial history of psychiatric classification and the explosive debates over how much early experiences influence our minds and to what degree genetics affect our temperaments, personalities, and emotional lives. Throughout this examination, Smoller explores the hidden sides of such questions as: How are trust and love rooted in biology? How much does sexual attraction stem from biology rather than culture? And what can the scientific study of normal behavior tell us about what it means to be human? Based on the author's groundbreaking research and personal experiences treating psychological disorders, The Other Side of Normal changes the way we think about the human condition.
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.
Living in suburban New Jersey in the 1970s is quiet for Robin until his brother is killed in an accident, causing the relationship with his family to deteriorate as he rebels against his middle-American lifestyle.
Searching for Normal is the second book in a series that travels alongside four friends as they deal with teen life in Riverbend, Indiana. The novel inspires girls and young women to deepen their relationships with God and solve their problems in God-honoring ways. Six months ago Shay Mitchell’s life changed forever. Now she’s just trying to survive school bullies, drama class, and living with her Aunt Laura above the bookstore. No one, not even her new friends, knows her real story or the reason she’s living with her aunt in the first place. When Shay learns the truth about her biological father, she jumps at the chance to meet him. This could be her chance! Maybe she’ll finally find the normal life she’s longed for―a life where she feels loved and wanted―you know, part of a real family.
Confessional and often hilarious, in Normal Sucks a neuro-diverse writer, advocate, and father meditates on his life, offering the radical message that we should stop trying to fix people and start empowering them to succeed Jonathan Mooney blends anecdote, expertise, and memoir to present a new mode of thinking about how we live and learn—individually, uniquely, and with advantages and upshots to every type of brain and body. As a neuro-diverse kid diagnosed with dyslexia and ADHD who didn't learn to read until he was twelve, the realization that that he wasn’t the problem—the system and the concept of normal were—saved Mooney’s life and fundamentally changed his outlook. Here he explores the toll that being not normal takes on kids and adults when they’re trapped in environments that label them, shame them, and tell them, even in subtle ways, that they are the problem. But, he argues, if we can reorient the ways in which we think about diversity, abilities, and disabilities, we can start a revolution. A highly sought after public speaker, Mooney has been inspiring audiences with his story and his message for nearly two decades. Now he’s ready to share what he’s learned from parents, educators, researchers, and kids in a book that is as much a survival guide as it is a call to action. Whip-smart, insightful, and utterly inspiring—and movingly framed as a letter to his own young sons, as they work to find their ways in the world—this book will upend what we call normal and empower us all.
"By turns sarcastic, tender, and irreverent, this will quickly make its way into the hands of readers who loved Walk Two Moons." —Kirkus This beloved prequel to bestselling author Sharon Creech's Newbery Medal winner Walk Two Moons chronicles the life of a thirteen-year-old during her most chaotic and romantic summer ever via journal entries, filled with hilarious observations on love, death, and the confusing mechanics of holding hands. Mary Lou is less than excited about her assignment to keep a journal over the summer. Boring! Then cousin Carl Ray comes to stay with her family, and what starts out as the dull dog days of summer quickly turns into the wildest roller-coaster ride of all time. Named one of the New York Public Library’s 100 Titles for Reading and Sharing!
