Deliver Us From Normal [Hardcover]

Kate Klise (Author)

Book Description

Age Level: 9 and up | Grade Level: 4 and up

A humorous and heartbreaking novel about growing up in a large family by an author who brings a fresh new voice to the Scholastic Press list.

Yes, there really is a Normal, Illinois. Charles Harrisong should know; he was born there. But life is difficult for Charles because his family isn't normal at all. They're poor, for one thing. They stand out, which is the worst thing. After an ugly incident at school, Charles and family leave Normal and begin an adventure that takes them to a houseboat that just might be their new home. And Charles begins a personal journey within his own heart; one that will ultimately deliver him both from and to himself.

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

Grade 6-9–Charles Harrisong is obsessed with the idea that he is strange and can't fit in with the sixth grade in Normal, IL. He feels that he possesses a special talent, the ability to know what people are really saying and thinking, all of which, he is sure, is directed at him and is negative to the extreme. He is especially embarrassed that his family rents rather than owns a home, wears home-sewn clothes, and lacks the material things that the other students feel are prerequisites. He painfully resists when teachers and the counselor try to help. When his older sister's campaign posters for seventh-grade class president are defaced in a particularly ugly way by clique leaders, the parents decide to leave town. They buy an Alabama houseboat over the telephone with the trade of their automobile and practically the last of their savings, a decision that leads to heartbreakingly hard work and even danger. Through Charles's narration, Klise offers a stunningly realistic look at the concatenations that the boy's obsessive thinking weaves. Each member of the family is carefully delineated. The Harrisongs' searching and differing perceptions of God will certainly spark discussion. Some of the siblings are naturally sunny, while others cry frequently. The parents make mistakes and argue, but this family's true love and deep engagement with one another mean that everyone can forgive and pull together. And, yes, sometimes it does take some real trouble to bring about the realization that everyday problems aren't real problems at all. A superb psychological novel.–Cindy Darling Codell, formerly at Clark Middle School, Winchester, KY
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

Gr. 5-8. Charles Harrisong, a neurotic 11-year-old, lives in Normal, Illinois, a cruel irony considering that his large, poor, anything-but-normal family is one of the "Most Embarrassing Things in [His] Life." Case in point: His free-spirited sister, Clara, runs for seventh-grade president, convinced that "the awesome power of positive thinking" can trump the stigma of belonging to the ragtag Harrisong tribe. When Clara's campaign posters are defaced by the popular clique, the siblings' horrified parents react boldly, pulling their kids out of school, moving to Alabama's gulf coast, and launching a radical new life aboard a fixer-upper houseboat.^B Klise, who cocreated several other middle-grade novels with her sister, is prone to sophisticated, slightly dyspeptic observations that don't always seem convincing coming from a sixth-grader, and the references to To Kill a Mockingbird (Charles identifies with Boo Radley) will go over the heads of many. Even so, readers as precocious as Charles will sympathize with the social anxieties Klise probes, and feel comforted by her uptight protagonist's gradual relaxation into the "extraordinary ordinariness" of life. Jennifer Mattson
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 9 and up
  
• Hardcover: 240 pages
• Publisher: Scholastic Press; 1 edition (March 1, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0439523222
• ISBN-13: 978-0439523226
• Product Dimensions: 8.1 x 5.6 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #625,739 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

KATE KLISE is an author of many genres. She has written picture books, as well as middle-grade novels, all illustrated by her sister, Sarah. She has also written two young adult novels and is a freelance reporter for People magazine. Kate lives and writes in Norwood, Missouri. www.kateandsarahklise.com

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Not Just for Kids, March 23, 2005

By 

Steve Kramer - See all my reviews

This review is from: Deliver Us From Normal (Hardcover)

Ok, so I just read Deliver Us From Normal from start to finish without a break. And here is what you need to know more than anything else - this book is NOT just for children. This is a book for everyone who had enough self-awareness when they were a kid to realize that growing up is a struggle.

If you ever felt awkward, alienated, or just plain different when you were young, you will find a kindred spirit in Kate Klise's Charles Harrisong. If you ever got to the point at which you just wanted to pack up and leave for somewhere else, -anywhere as long as it is different from where you woke up today, but never did - you will want to follow along with the Harrisong family on their journey from Normal to something better than normal.

Your kids should definitely read this book - but you should too. Be like the Harrisongs and do embarrassingly wonderful things as a family - like reading together.

P.S. After I finished Deliver Us From Normal, I walked down to my local bookstore, and moved a couple of copies from the children's section to fiction and literature.

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Entertaining and insightful but leaving unanswered questions, April 18, 2005

By 

A Customer (New York, NY) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Deliver Us From Normal (Hardcover)

Sixth-grader Charles Harrisong feels like his family is the only abnormal one in the town of Normal, Illinois. He keeps a list of things that humiliate him. This list includes his family's unusual last name, his father's rattletrap truck, their mustard yellow brick house with spooky bushes in front, his Bargain Bonanza brand clothes, his embarrassingly curly hair, and the quirky personality traits of his four other siblings. Each night Charles says the same prayer: "God, please let us be a normal family. Let us get a normal car. Let us live in a normal house and do normal things and not always be so embarrassing and different and loud."

Charles believes he has another abnormality. He possesses a secret gift that allows him to see and hear things ("words, messages, hidden meanings") without his eyes and ears. It is through Charles's keen observations that readers of DELIVER US FROM NORMAL get to discover his humiliating, and often humorous, world.

What Charles doesn't realize is that he is about to lose the normality of his daily routine. After a cruel prank relating to his sister's decision to run for 7th grade class president, the Harrisong family moves away from Normal in the middle of the night. They drive to Alabama, sell everything they own, and buy a dingy houseboat in a desperate attempt to make a new home.

Despite Charles's "secret gift" of uncovering the meaning and motives behind the actions of other characters in the book, DELIVER US FROM NORMAL ends with a number of unanswered questions. Why did the family take such drastic measures in response to a school prank? What will happen to the Harrisong family now that they've found a new home? How will the family make money? Where will the kids go to school?

Limited to Charles's knowledge and viewpoint we will never know. These questions, while disturbing, do not detract from what is otherwise an entertaining and insightful book. DELIVER US FROM NORMAL presents an unusual portrait of a fiercely loving family's struggle with poverty, and the impact that struggle makes in a young person's life.

--- Reviewed by Sarah A. Wood

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Courtesy of Teens Read Too, July 3, 2008

By 

TeensReadToo "Eat. Drink. Read. Be Merrier." (All Over the US & Canada) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Deliver Us From Normal (Paperback)

Charles Harrisong may live in Normal, Illinois, but he knows his family is anything but. They practically live at Bargain Bonanza, and they're the only family in town who rents a home with no air conditioning. They're loud, and do everything together, and cause a scene wherever they go. Then, there's just him, Charles, who makes lists and sublists of "The Most Embarrassing Things in (his) Life," such as his horrible summer at scout camp and "The Yearling" incident at school. With his unique ability to feel the hidden meaning behind peoples' actions, Charles can't escape what other people think. All he prays for is for his family to be normal.

When his older sister's attempts to run for president of her class end with disastrous results, the Harrisong parents decide that they have had enough of their unforgiving town. After some quick decisions, they drag Charles and his four siblings away from Normal in the middle of the night on a quest to purchase a cheap houseboat docked in Alabama. As they leave the city limits, Charles offers up a new prayer to God to "deliver us from Normal. Get us out of here. Thank you."

Can the Harrisong family make it, or will this houseboat thing just be another horrible mistake?

Klise offers a refreshing voice in the young, shy Charles, and a hilarious look at a family who maintains a close bond throughout much tribulation. Layered with meaning, this masterful work will touch anyone who has survived their own, abnormal family.

Reviewed by: Allison Fraclose