Jun 15, 2013

The Quirks: Welcome to Normal

 
Devil's Icebox, a wild, underground cave located in Rock Bridge State Park is a very popular attraction for the residents of my hometown, Columbia, Missouri. Since the early 1800's, the cave has invited curious minds to explore its nooks and crannies. Devoid of lighted pathways and rail cars, visitors experience the natural habitat and unique wildlife as the spelunkers did when they first discovered the cave. A first hand encounter with nature's rugged beauty.
 
I have always thought of the cave as an anomaly: weird, abnormal, even peculiar. The damp slippery cave walls and flowing streams are home to bats, even flat worms. Only when a person sheds light on them, do others know they exist.
 
We all have peculiar things hidden away. Things we don't want others to see.
I believe its time to shed light on mine:
  • I absolutely hate it when a pencil is without an eraser. I don't care if the pencil is fairly new. No eraser, No pencil. It goes straight in the garbage. I even buy eraser toppers to put onto pencils at work because it bothers me so much.
  • When I'm thinking, I bite my tongue and stick it in the side of my cheek as though biting it enhances brain power. I have always done this even as a little child. I have no idea why I do this although my childhood is scattered with pictures of my tongue in my cheek. I must have been thinking really hard all the time.
  •  
  • I can't have fruit in my cereal. It doesn't belongs there. I won't eat it.
 
 

 
The Quirks: Welcome To Normal
 
Erin Soderberg
 
Bloomsbury Children's Books
 
Mallory has a few quirks she wants to hide away from the world. Specifically, four: her mom, Bree, who can control minds, her grandpa, Quinn, who can manipulate time, her sister, Penelope, whose imagination makes what she thinks come alive, and her brother, Finn, who no-one can see at all. Molly doesn't have any powers and she wants to keep the town of Normal, Michigan from thinking the rest of her family is anything but ordinary.
 
The book is really cute!  Truly a great story. It reminded me of a literary version of the movie, "The Incredibles." I enjoyed the characters and the problems they get into and solve as a result of their powers. A sense of family and friendship is sprinkled throughout the book and is a great way to teach children about the importance of differences in each dynamic.
 
Rating: 4.5
 
I received this novel from netgalley, courtesy of the publisher.
 



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