Not So Normal Norbert

by James Patterson, Joey Green (With), Hatem Aly (Illustrator)

Overview

A kooky kid is banished to another planet in this hilarious adventure about a futuristic world where different is dangerous, imagination is insanity, and creativity is crazy!


Norbert Riddle lives in the United State of Earth, where normal means following the rules, never standing out, and being exactly the same as everyone else, down to the plain gray jumpsuits he wears every day. He's been normal his whole life — until a moment of temporary hilarity when he does a funny impression of their dictator, Loving Leader . . . and gets caught!


Now, Norbert's been arrested and banished to planet Zorquat 3 in the Orion Nebula, where kids who defy the rules roam free in the Astronuts camp. Norbert has been taught his whole life that different is wrong, but everyone at Astronuts is crazy, creative, and insane!


Norbert wants nothing more than to go back to earth where things are awful but at least they're familiar. But he soon realizes that being different could be better — and maybe the crazy farm is exactly where he belongs after all.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780316465410
Publisher:	Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
Publication date:	07/02/2018
Pages:	368
Sales rank:	695,074
Product dimensions:	5.30(w) x 7.70(h) x 1.30(d)
Age Range:	8 - 14 Years

About the Author

James Patterson received the Literarian Award for Outstanding Service to the American Literary Community from the National Book Foundation. He holds the Guinness World Record for the most #1 New York Times bestsellers, including Middle School, I Funny, and Jacky Ha-Ha, and his books have sold more than 350 million copies worldwide. A tireless champion of the power of books and reading, Patterson created a children's book imprint, JIMMY Patterson, whose mission is simple: "We want every kid who finishes a JIMMY Book to say, 'PLEASE GIVE ME ANOTHER BOOK.'" He has donated more than one million books to students and soldiers and funds over four hundred Teacher Education Scholarships at twenty-four colleges and universities. He has also donated millions of dollars to independent bookstores and school libraries. Patterson invests proceeds from the sales of JIMMY Patterson Books in pro-reading initiatives.


Joey Green, a former contributing editor to National Lampoon, is the author of more than sixty books. He has appeared on The Tonight Show, Good Morning America, The View, and other national television shows, and has been profiled in The New York Times, People, USA Today, and The Washington Post. A native of Miami, Florida, and a graduate of Cornell University (where he founded the campus humor magazine, the Cornell Lunatic, still publishing to this day), he lives in Los Angeles.

Hometown:

Palm Beach, Florida

Date of Birth:

March 22, 1947

Place of Birth:

Newburgh, New York

Education:

B.A., Manhattan College, 1969; M.A., Vanderbilt University, 1971

Website:

http://www.jamespatterson.com

Editorial Reviews

05/28/2018
Conformity is the ironclad rule on the United State of Earth, where individuality and imagination are banned, and middle school students wearing mandatory gray jumpsuits pledge subservience to the despotic Loving Leader daily. The laws of the land don’t sit well with seventh-grader Norbert Riddle, a creative cut-up who has lived with his servile aunt and uncle since his parents were whisked away by the Truth Police. Arrested after doing a mocking impersonation of Loving Leader, Norbert is banished to another planet to live at Astro-Nuts Camp for young earthlings who are deemed “different and dangerous.” He attempts to convince the camp honchos that he is a die-hard conformist loyal to Loving Leader, in hopes that he’ll be sent back to Earth and find his parents. Buoyed by Aly’s boisterous drawings, Norbert’s droll wordplay, wisecracking banter, and oddball characters, the comedy reaches farcical heights before careening to an unforeseen conclusion. The authors balance the inanity with real-life, affecting emotion, convincingly depicting Norbert’s fright as well as his yearning for his parents. A parting clue that Norbert has another space adventure ahead should get a thumbs-up from readers. Ages 8–12. (July)

Publishers Weekly

2018-05-28
In the United State of Earth, where difference is a disease and creativity is a crime, Norbert cracks a joke—big mistake.Seventh-grader Norbert Riddle lives a dreary life in Loving Leader's authoritarian regime, unsuccessfully searching for his parents since they disappeared seven years ago. When he impetuously performs an impression of Loving Leader for his classmates, the Truth Police descend, and Norbert is exiled to "the Astro-Nuts prison on planet Zorquat Three." Clocking in at 300-plus pages with little real action or humor, this attempt at a humorous twist on the dystopian genre falls short across the board. With just a glimpse of the dictatorship compared to the vast majority of the book describing the prison, some readers will have a difficult time inhabiting Norbert's perspective—is an ice cream sundae unusual because it's breakfast or because it's something he's never had before? Stilted phrasing, particularly to create tension at the end of chapters, backfires and makes the text drag. Constant use of language casually dismissive of mental diversity assumes an outmoded sensibility. Primary characters are described by hair color and have (paper-) white skin in the illustrations.Not nearly as nonconformist—or funny—as the title promises. (Dystopian adventure. 8-12)

Kirkus Reviews

Praise for Not So Normal Norbert:


A Barnes & Noble Best Book for Young Readers!
A Parents' Choice Awards (R) Winner!

"Readers will chortle at the relentless wordplay, a supporting cast made up almost entirely of caricatured grown-ups and young pranksters, and Norbert's winning mix of glibness and gullibility. Aly's scribbly ink-and-wash line drawings add punchlines as well as comical portraits of the major characters."—Booklist

"Buoyed by Aly's boisterous drawings, Norbert's droll wordplay, wisecracking banter, and oddball characters, the comedy reaches farcical heights before careening to an unforeseen conclusion. The authors balance the inanity with real-life, affecting emotion, convincingly depicting Norbert's fright as well as his yearning for his parents."—Publishers Weekly

"The humor, adventure, and lively illustrations will make this book enjoyable for reluctant readers."—Common Sense Media

From the Publisher