For the Love of Books: Perfectly Norman

I really like books that stand out from the crowd. Books that are vibrant and stand out on the shelf, not just from a ‘how they look’ point of view but in terms of presenting beautiful and important ideas. I’ve written before about books that present the idea of uniqueness and everyone being different, and how this is a wonderful thing in previous blog posts, but this book is another one that really shines through for me. Perfectly Norman is written by Tom Percival, and I remember using it during a curriculum week all about wellbeing and being yourself. Its another fantastic book to use in the classroom - I wouldn’t be writing about it if it wasn’t! So here it is:

Who is Norman?

Norman is a young boy, trying to fit in in the world just like all the rest of us. He plays with children just like any other ‘normal’ child would and is happy. Until one day, something happens to Norman, something unexpected and something that really confuses him and makes him feel full of worry. I think there are so many opportunities for conversation in the classroom here, which I’ll come back to later.

So Norman grows a pair of wings. He grows a pair of fantastically beautiful, amazing wings that are bright and colourful, stunning and grand and he can do incredible things. He flies up high in the sky and has such a wonderful time. But then he has to go in for dinner. It’s at this point he realises that having these wings isn’t normal. Anything to do with humans free-flying isn’t normal. He, like lots of other people in our world, decides to hide these wings from everyone – his parents, his friends, the whole world! As a result, the world becomes a lonely place for Norman. He can’t do the things he previously loved doing as he is so worried about revealing his uniqueness. It’s another story that I think both children and adults can relate to, because we’re all different and we should be able to express that.

I think what is sad for Norman is reflective of how our society can be today. Are you doing the popular thing? Is what you are doing too different? Its reflective of how we see things on social media and feel that we need to be a certain way in order to be successful. Unfortunately, we need to prepare our children for this world of online activity and ‘fitting in’, where actually it’s much more powerful and enabling to stand out from the crowd. Eventually Norman does this at the end of the story, unfurling his ‘difference’ for all to see. What he doesn’t realise, is that by showing his own uniqueness, he enables others to do the same – and this is the most powerful thing of all.

Now, I’m about to go off on a complete tangent here, but bear with me. In the movie Coach Carter, Samuel L. Jackson repeatedly asks one of the students ‘What is your deepest fear?’. Initially, the student is a little like Norman, and he doesn’t know the answer, or at least he can’t vocalise it. By the end of the movie, he responds to the question without being prompted. He says:

“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness, that most frightens us. Your playing small doesn’t serve the world. There’s nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you. We were all meant to shine, as children do. It’s not just in some of us; it’s in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we’re liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.”

Why am I going on about a movie about deprived kids, playing basketball in high school in America, you ask? Well, I said I was going off on a tangent! But I think this quote is relevant to the story, and a lot of the children we teach across the country. Norman sets off a chain reaction in the end, whereby he liberates others to feel okay with themselves through his actions. This is a hugely powerful message from a beautiful children’s book, and I think Percival accomplishes something brilliant here.

Use of colour

Yet again, I’ve chosen a book that uses colour gorgeously. The background is black and white – dull and dreary, and yet stunning and artistic at the same time. Norman is colourful, set amongst this backdrop and tries to hide himself. All the other children are portrayed in black and white too. It really helps to make Norman stand out, both in terms of feeling different and in not feeling able to be a part of ‘normal’ things. Throughout the book, the use of colour and the illustrations highlight this. I’ve used this with children to create wonderful pieces of art learning, developing sketching techniques and then considering what standing out really means. I’ve said it before, but using colour against a black and white background is a really powerful tool to convey meaning in illustrations.

What does ‘normal’ even mean?

I think that the discussions that can be had from this book are really important too. When I’ve used it in the classroom, a big question I’ve asked the children is ‘what is normal?’ and it’s actually a really easy and difficult question to answer. I mean, there’s all of the usual things like ‘looks normal’ or ‘acts normal’ or ‘talks in a normal voice’. There’s things like ‘knowing the same things’ or ‘doing the same things’ as other people. But then it becomes difficult to define because everyone is completely different. I think a lot of children look for themselves in others. I think adults do the same. People we can relate to. People who have the same interests as us. People who support the same team. People who like the same food or magazine (or podcast nowadays). Actually, I think this book shows us that we should be looking for the things that aren’t normal. We should be celebrating those things. Celebrating difference and the way others’ light shines differently to ours. Actually, what’s normal, is to be different, whether its only slightly different or completely different, from one another. It’s what makes the world so interesting! And in the final pages of this story, we see all of the children unfurl their wings and show off their ‘normalness’ which in actual fact is what makes them so different and so special!

Perfectly Norman is a book which children can relate to. That worry of wanting to fit in and wanting to be like everyone else. But it is also a great big window into demonstrating to children that being ‘normal’ actually just means being yourself, and if being yourself means showing the world how wonderful you are, then we should be doing that, as its catching and others will follow too.

What would you rather be? Perfectly ‘normal’? Or perfectly you!