Absolutely Normal Chaos - Softcover

Creech, Sharon

3.93

8,903 ratings by Goodreads

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0330397818 ISBN 13: 9780330397810

Publisher: Macmillan Children's Books, 2007

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So. Here it is. My summer journal. As you can see, I got a little carried away.

The problem is this, though. I don’t want you to read it. I really mean it. I just wanted you to know I did it. I didn’t want you to think I was one of those kids who says, ‘Oh yeah, I did it, but I lost it/my dog ate it/my little brother dropped it in the toilet.’

But please, PLEEASE DON’T READ IT! How was I to know all this stuff was going to happen to me this summer?

Mary Lou has what she calls a normally-strange family. That is, until her cousin Carl comes to stay. She had plans to enjoy the summer hanging out with her first ever crush, but there’s something so quiet and sad about Carl, and Mary Lou knows that no one else in her chaotic home will bother to find out why. So it looks like it’s up to her – and what she discovers is far from normal and rocks the family to its heart.

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Review:

Absolutely Normal Chaos is one of Sharon Creech's four novels for children, including the prizewinning Walk Two Moons (1995 Children's Book Award and W H Smith Mind Boggling Books Award1996). Creech's hallmark is a funny, poignant, involving narrative which leaves the reader guessing and at the same time savouring delights along the road. Absolutely Normal Chaos takes the form of daily journal entries by the delightful Ohio 13-year-old, Mary Lou Finney. Things seem ordinary enough until her gangly 17-year-old cousin, Carl Ray from West Virginia, comes to stay. Before she knows it, their next door neighbour has died, Carl Ray has inherited large sums of money and she finds herself falling in love for the first time. And then, as though that wasn't enough, Carl Ray nearly dies in a car accident. The learning curve for Mary Lou is as steep as the enjoyment curve for the reader who could be anyone between the ages of 12 and 16. --Tamsin Palmer

Review:

"By turning sarcastic, tender, and irreverent, this is a real piece of contemporary teen life from one funny writer. [It] will quickly make its way into the hands of readers who loved WALK TWO MOONS."Kirkus Reviews

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