How can Sara even try to make friends when she knows in her heart that she’s really what her jeering classmates call her?
Sara, who was diagnosed at 6 with bipolar and anxiety disorders, mild schizophrenia, and depression, lives a mostly solitary life. Though she attends a public school, she’s not mainstreamed. The school believes Sara’s too intellectually gifted to be in a regular special education classroom, so she’s been learning solo. Wracked with self-loathing, she’s obsessed with being “normal.” When her therapist (also her psychiatrist) encourages Sara to join a therapy group for teens with mental illness, Sara makes her first friend ever. Erin has trichotillomania, an anxiety disorder in which she pulls out her own eyebrows and eyelashes, and (unlike nearly silent Sara) she’s gregarious and affectionate. Though Erin and Sara adore one another, they could hardly be more different. Sara is desperate for a cure while Erin insists she has no desire for normalcy. Sara constantly uses slurs to describe herself while Erin’s convinced that they’re special kids: Star Children. Nearly all the characters are white except for one other kid in the group. With multiple encouraging adult mentors who say mostly excellent things about mental health, the educational message is unsubtle, but it’s delivered in a thoroughly compelling vehicle with a tidy but gripping subplot. This prequel to OCDaniel (2016) works just as well as a stand-alone.
I really like the book Sara and the search for normal. I recommend this book for who like novels and who really like to read. This book shows that being different is normal and people shouldn’t be made fun of for having disability’s. In the book Sara is in a special ed class. Sara is obsessed with being “normal”
This is a non-fiction book. In the book Sara is coincided a “Star Kid.” When you have diagnoses its hard to make friends, But Sara eventually makes her first friend.
Out of all of the books I read, this one was by far my favorite. The plot line in this story is touching and full of life, and the characters were very well thought out. This book has likable characters and the description is great, this was a great book!
Sara and The Search for Normal is a great book if you like reading about real life situations. I loved reading this book because it’s main focus is on kids or Sara that have mental health issues, lots of kids in real life struggle with these issues. another reason I loved this book is because Sara was very worried about being normal, but no one is normal and by the end she realizes it’s okay to struggle with mental health. She noticed some of the “normal” kids also struggle with some mental health issues but they know how to control it and not let anybody notice.
I would recommend this book because it shows how these thing don’t just happen in movies and books, but also in real life.
Sara And The Search For Normal was a really good book describing whats its like to live mental illness’s. This book described challenges Sara went through and times she overcame things. She wanted to be “normal” and tried lots of things to be “normal”. After meeting a friend, talking and hanging out together made Sara decide being herself was better than being “normal”. This book had some unexpected things happen that left on a cliff hanger so it made you want to keep reading and not put it down so i give this book a four star because at the end it leaves you on a cliff hanger and couldn’t read more.
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-Grade 7 student at Eleanor Hall School