NEXT UP! 2 36 The Art of Being Normal by Lisa Williamson David Piper is an outsider with a big secret. His classmates call him a freak. His parents think he is gay while his two best friends know the truth. Leo Denton is the new student in school. His only wish is to be invisible. It turns out that David is not the only one with a secret. For Isla 1 One afternoon, when I was eight years old, my class was told to write about what we wanted to be when we grew up. Miss Box went round the class, asking each one of us to stand up and share what we had written. Zachary Olsen wanted to play in the Premier League. Lexi Taylor wanted to be an actress. Harry Beaumont planned on being Prime Minister. Simon Allen wanted to be Harry Potter, so badly that the previous term he had scratched a lightning bolt on to his forehead with a pair of craft scissors. But I didn’t want to be any of these things. This is what I wrote: I want to be a girl. […] 3 It’s the last Friday of the summer holidays. On Monday I go back to school. I have been fourteen years old for exactly nine days. I’m lying on the sofa with the curtains closed. Mum and Dad are at work. Livvy is at her best friend Cressy’s house. I’m watching an old episode of America's Next Top Model with a packet of Maryland double-chocolate-chip cookies balanced on my stomach. Tyra Banks has just told Ashley she is not going to be America’s Next Top Model. Ashley Before reading Read the introduction to the excerpt. What do you think David is hiding? Why do you think Leo wants to be invisible? Discuss with a partner. a freak – skrímsli a lightning bolt – elding craft scissors – föndurskæri gender – kyn Lisa Williamson (1980– ) comes from Nottingham, England. At the age of 19, she moved to London to study drama at Middlesex University. Between acting jobs on stage and TV, she worked at the Gender Identity Development Service. Encountering teenagers who struggled with gender identity inspired her to start writing. The Art of Being Normal (2015) is her debut novel.
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