Define "Normal"

Title: Peters, Julie Anne.  Define "Normal".  New York: Little, Brown, and Company, 2003, Print.

Summary: When straight-laced Antonia is assigned punk goth Jazz in their school's peer counseling program she's sure she's been assigned to a whole new level of hell.  Antonia is normal and Jazz is just so...not.  The more time Antonia spends with Jazz the more she begins to question what normal truly is and when Antonia's world is turned upside she finds herself looking to Jazz for friendship and comfort.

Critical Analysis:  I truly enjoyed Define "Normal".  The book is a wonderful lesson on judging a book by its cover.  Both girls seem live a certain type of lifestyle.  Antonia is a plain bookish type who always gets A's, and Jazz is a blue-haired black-lipped goth with multiple piercings.  But Antonia's "normal" appearance and Jazz's "abnormal" one say nothing about their home lives.  Through their friendship together they learn not to be so quick to judge on looks alone, because people can be much different than they appear.  To those struggling with family and personal problems at home this book gives hope that help can come in the most unlikely places from the most unlikely people.

Book Recommendations With Similar Themes:

1. Goth Girl Rising by Barry Lyga.  Kyra Sellers was just discharged from the mental ward after six months.  Now she's back and ready to reunite with the only friend she had before she was admitted.  The problem is that he isn't the same person he was when she left.  That makes her angry and she vows to get back at him, but in the process she learns a few things about herself that she never knew were possible.

2. Don't You Dare Read This, Mrs. Dunphrey by Margaret Peterson Haddix.  Mrs. Dunphrey's English class is required to keep a journal.  Tish Bonner would normally blow off something like that, but she could really use someone to talk to and Mrs. Dunphrey has promised not to read any entry marked "Do Not Read."  The more Tish writes the more she finds herself divulging secrets she was never supposed to reveal, but the journal is an outlet that helps her cope with the things that are happening to her and that's something too invaluable to give up.