Connor, Leslie. Waiting for normal.
Harper Collins, 2008, $17.89, 290p, 978-0-06-089088-9
Realistic fiction
Addie and her mother are moved into a tiny trailer on a busy corner under the elevated train in Schenectady, NY. Addie quickly settles in and makes friends with neighbors who run a mini-market across the street. Soula, while usually upbeat, is fighting the effects of her chemotherapy. treatment Addie misses terribly her ex-step-father Dwight and her two younger half-sisters who were taken from her mother due to neglect. Addie is used to being very resourceful at keeping herself fed when mother stays away from the trailer for days at a time. Addie’s visits with Dwight on school vacations show her a vision of normal that eventually becomes too painful for Addie to bear. The situation comes to a head when the trailer burns down. There is a happy new beginning in store for Addie.
A very believable story of abandonment, neglect, and the search for love and “normal”. The issues of neglect and a dysfunctional parent are not sensationalized nor trivialized.
Excellent read for middle school. JT
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