Waiting for Normal

Starred review from February 18, 2008
Connor (Dead on Town Line
) treats the subject of child neglect with honesty and grace in this poignant story. Addie's stepfather, Dwight, has always been the responsible one in the family. But after he and her mother divorce, and he gets custody of Addie's two younger half-sisters, it's up to Addie, a sixth-grader, to keep order in the tiny trailer that Dwight has found for Addie and her mother. While her mother disappears for days at a time with her new boyfriend, Addie cultivates friendships with people she meets at a neighboring convenience store, but the affection she receives from others doesn't compensate for the absence of love in her home. Addie works hard to fill the void her volatile mother creates, and Addie's attempts to make things “normal” result in some of the most moving scenes: she keeps the cabinets full by putting empty boxes of food on the shelf “for show.” In such moments Connor shows both the extent to which Addie has been abandoned and just how resilient and resourceful she is. Characters as persuasively optimistic as Addie are rare, and readers will gravitate to her. Ages 10-up.

Starred review from February 1, 2008
Gr 6-8-A story centered around loss, heartbreak, abandonment, and new beginnings. Although Dwight is no longer Addie's stepfather due to his divorce from her mother, the two still share an unbreakable bond. Dwight secures a trailer for Addie and her mother in an unremarkable part of Schenectady, NY. Mommers sleeps during the day and leaves Addie at night to pursue "business" interests with her new boyfriend. Meanwhile, Dwight has moved to Lake George with Addie's half sisters, for whom he was awarded custody. Despite the many upheavals in her young life, Addie adjusts as well as she can. She participates in the school orchestra, despite the fact that her dyslexia makes learning the music challenging. Her mother's antipathy toward Dwight doesn't prevent her from allowing Addie to visit him and her sisters during school breaks, during which she gets a taste of normalcy. However, the woman's irresponsibility, inability to tell the truth, and frequent absences, often for days at a time, put Addie in danger. Connor has created a winning and positive father-figure/daughter relationship between Dwight and Addie. She introduces serious topics such as cancer, neglect, and learning disabilities without sensationalizing or trivializing the subjects. Although Mommers is clearly an unfit parent, Connor does show believable instances of her love for her children, juxtaposed with scenes of embarrassingly childish behavior and cutting remarks."Jennifer Schultz, Fauquier County Public Library, Warrenton, VA"

Copyright 2008 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

April 1, 2008
Weve seen this situation before: a parent neglects a child, while the child seeks a wider community to find support. Here that child is 12-year-old Addie, who liveswith Mommers in a trailer on a busy street in Schenectady after her adored stepfatherand half sisters move upstate. Mommers has lost custody of the littlesbecause of neglect, and though she and Addie can laugh together, onceMommers hooks up with Pete, she is not much for good timesthough she brings the bad times home. Addie finds solace in occasional visits to her sisters and in her neighbors, especiallySoula, ill from her chemotherapy treatments. Connor takes a familiar plot and elevates it with smartly written characters and unexpected moments. Addie starts out being a kid who thinks she has to go along to get along, but as Mommers actions become more egregious, her spine stiffens. And thoughAddie loves her time upstate, she is willing to forgoit when the normality she has there is more painful than positive.This is ameaningful story that will touch many.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2008, American Library Association.)

March 1, 2008
"Me, I'm good at getting used to things -- been doing it all my life." Twelve-year-old Addison lives in a trailer in Schenectady with her mother, never knowing how long -- a few hours, a few days, a week -- her moody, unreliable mom will be gone, off with a new boyfriend. Despite a bevy of concerned individuals (including her former stepfather Dwight; Elliot, the gay owner of the nearby mini-mart; and Elliot's best friend Soula, a cancer patient with a jovial disposition), Addie fends for herself and keeps her mother's absences a secret. Connor convincingly portrays Addie's beyond-her-years resourcefulness and the opposing feelings that drive her to protect the life she has while longing to be a permanent part of the "normal" home her half-sisters occupy with her stepfather. Occasionally the dialogue, especially between Addie and her mini-mart friends, gets folksy and sappy; but overall Addie's commonsense approach to her problems keeps the sentimentality in check. Soula's description of the hibiscus tree in a nearby barbershop window applies to Addie as well: she is "willing to bloom in conditions [she] was never meant to encounter."

(Copyright 2008 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)

July 1, 2008
Twelve-year-old Addison lives in a trailer, never knowing how long her moody, unreliable mom will be gone. Despite a bevy of concerned individuals, Addie keeps her mother's absences a secret. Connor convincingly portrays the protagonist's beyond-her-years resourcefulness and the feelings that drive her to protect the life she has while longing to be part of a "normal" home.

(Copyright 2008 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)