Addie’s mom, Mommers as Addie calls her, is an all-or-nothing kind of person. She’s always got a new plan, a new burst of enthusiasm, a new guy in her life, another way to strike it rich or make it big. But Addie doesn’t want a big house or a brand-new family or a even a new start in life; she’s just waiting for normal. Unfortunately, living with Mommers, normal is the one thing Addie doesn’t have a chance to get used to. Addie says: “Me, I’m good at getting used to things—been doing it all my life.”
Waiting for Normal is a sad and disturbing novel. Addie has an ex-step-father, the father of her two half-sisters, Brynna and Katie, who loves her and wants to take care of her. But she’s stuck in the custody of a neglectful, flighty, and irresponsible Mommers. Addie makes friends with the people who run the convenience store across the street, but they can’t do much about her living situation either. And Addie, of course, loves and defends her mom, even though Mommers is clearly delinquent and possibly under the influence of an addiction of some kind. (The novel, told from Addie’s point of view, is never clear on the drug issue, although it is implied.)
I go back and forth about this sort of novel. The writing is good, and the plot moves along at a good pace. Addie is a “normal” little girl caught in an abnormal situation. I think there are kids who are caught in similar situations who would feel relieved at being able to identify with Addie. And it doesn’t hurt other kids who have more stable families to learn to appreciate and sympathize with the difficulties some children have in their lives. That said, many children, both from normal and abnormal families, want to escape in reading, not to have to live through a child neglect story that does turn out well in the end, but has a lot of twists and turns, as Addie would say, in the meantime.
I suppose that Clementine and Pacy and Abigail Iris and the Penderwicks have their place in children’s literature and so do Gilly Hopkins and Lucky (The Higher Power of Lucky by Susan Phelan) and Addie Schmeeter. I just usually prefer the Penderwicks or some really out of this world confrontation between good and evil like Lord of the Rings. Sad to say, I’m afraid Waiting for Normal hits a little too close to home and makes me worry that I’m missing the call to be a “hero”, in the words of Addie, to someone I’m not even noticing:
“I know the health stuff is important, but I think there’s more to getting happy than that. . . . I think you need heroes, too,” I said. I made a little fist for punch.
“Heroes?” she asked. “Like friends and family?”
“They can be be friends or family,” I said. “Webster’s says —”
“Webster’s?”
“The dictionary,” I explained. “A hero is someone who sets themselves apart from others. You know —someone who is strong or shows courage, takes a risk. And I know Webster’s is talking about well-known heroes. Like from the newspapers and history books. Inventors and athletes and people like Martin Luther King.”
“Uh-huh.” Soula was still listening.
“But don’t you think it’s possible . . .” —I twisted up my face— “that every person is a hero to someone else?”
Controversial subjects warning: some mild language, minor character is openly homosexual, characters living together before marriage, discussion of menstruation, negligent mother.
What other bloggers have to say about Waiting for Normal:
Megan at Read, Read, Read: “I would recommend this book to GIRLS in my class. I would love to say I would read it aloud or recommend it to everyone, but that is not possible in this case. Although it is one of the best books I have read this year for my age group students, it has far too much girlie talk to recommend to a boy.”
Fuse 8: “I would recommend reading the first chapter of this book (it’s only five pages) in a children’s literary course or a class on how to write for children as an example of showing, not telling. Our slow realization that Addie’s mother is selfish and self-centered isn’t crystal clear from page one. All the same, you’re getting hints of it.”
Bill at Literate Lives: “Addie’s character evokes sympathy from the reader without being a helpless victim. She is strong and refuses to let her surroundings defeat her. In the end, things turn out well for Addie but, Leslie Connor develops her story so well that it isn’t corny or overly sappy, just satisfying.”