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Table of Contents
About The Book
BANK STREET BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR
SILVER BIRCH AWARD WINNER
“Complex and satisfying. Written from Daniel’s point of view, this perceptive first-person narrative is sometimes painful, sometimes amusing, and always rewarding.” —Booklist (starred review)
From the author of Incredible Space Raiders from Space! comes a brand-new coming-of-age story about a boy whose life revolves around hiding his obsessive compulsive disorder—until he gets a mysterious note that changes everything.
Daniel is the back-up punter for the Erie Hills Elephants. Which really means he’s the water boy. He spends football practice perfectly arranging water cups—and hoping no one notices. Actually, he spends most of his time hoping no one notices his OCD habits—he calls them Zaps: avoiding writing the number four, for example, or flipping a light switch on and off dozens of times over. But everything changes when a girl at school, who is unkindly nicknamed Psycho Sara, notices him for the first time. She doesn’t just notice him: she seems to peer through him.
Then Daniel gets a note: “I need your help,” it says, signed, Fellow Star Child—whatever that means. And suddenly Daniel, a total no one at school, is swept up in a mystery that changes everything for him.
With great voice and grand adventure, this book is about feeling different and finding those who understand.
Excerpt
I first realized I was crazy on a Tuesday. I mean, I suspected it before, obviously, but I’d been hoping it was just a phase, like when I was three and I wanted to be a fire truck. But on that fateful October day she said hello after the last bell, and it was official—I was completely bonkers.
Tuesdays are usually my favorite day of the week. It’s a weird day to like, but for me, a gangly, eccentric thirteen-year-old social oddity with only one real friend, it has some serious perks.
For one thing, we don’t have football practice. Most kids probably like football practice, but when you’re the backup kicker, you mostly just sit there and watch bigger, stronger kids run into each other and incur lifelong brain trauma. I know they’re still studying that and all, but just talk to Dale Howard for a few minutes, and you can pretty much put a yellow warning label on the helmets.
Sometimes I get the team Gatorade—actually, I carefully arrange the cups into perfect geometric patterns to simplify drinking and reduce potential spillage—but that’s the only fun part. Usually I just sit on the bench by myself and think about what would happen if aliens attacked the field and started laying radioactive eggs in the end zone. Or if flesh-eating monsters that only ate football players emerged from the ground and chased Coach Clemons. Or if we were attacked by an evil supervillain named Klarg who shot fire out of his eyeballs and was strangely vulnerable to orange Gatorade, which of course I had in huge supply. You get the idea.
The result is always the same: I save the world and never have to go to football practice again.
You might be asking why I go to football practice at all. The problem is that my dad; my older brother, Steve; and my best friend, Max, all love football and may stop talking to me altogether if I quit. I think I’m already pushing my luck with Max, so I just keep on playing. Or sitting on the bench, anyway.
I do some other stuff at practice too, but those are harder to explain. Like count the players and tie my shoes a lot and rearrange the cups after they’re messed up. I think those are all fairly standard bored activities, at least for me. I do lots of things like that. Not really sure why. I spend most of my time hiding them from other people, so I can’t exactly ask what’s standard.
By the way, my name is Daniel Leigh. That’s like “lee,” not “lay.” People get that wrong sometimes. I did say I was a thirteen-year-old social oddity, which is true. Actually I’m not sure what else to add. People say I’m smart, and I was in the Gifted Program when I was younger, until they got rid of it because it was a bit confusing to tell the other kids that some students were gifted and they weren’t. Also I think they realized that if they continued the Gifted Program, us “gifted kids” would be separated our whole lives, but that happened anyway, so big deal.
I don’t even know what being “gifted” means. I remember things easily and read novels every night, but that doesn’t mean I’m smarter than Tom Dernt, who prefers to play football and is now superpopular. My teachers say I have a huge vocabulary and write way above my age level, but my brother told me to stop using fancy words or I’d never get a girlfriend. He has a girlfriend, so I have little choice but to heed his advice. I mean take his advice.
I also like to write. In fact, I am writing a book right now, though I don’t tell anyone that—even my parents. I don’t really want to share it, which will probably be an issue if I ever want to be published. It’s called The Last Kid on Earth. It’s an adventure story about a boy named Daniel.
Cryptic, I know. I have written the first page fifty-two times, and I am still not happy with it.
Oh, I also get distracted a lot and go on tangents. Which means I talk a lot about things you probably don’t care about, so how is that smart? Let’s get back to Tuesdays.
Geography is my last class of the day. It’s one of my favorite subjects and rarely results in homework, since the long-suffering Mr. Keats usually just gives up on us and creates a work period so he can sit behind his desk and read the paper. There’s no math that day either—another bonus, since I really stink at math. So no football, no homework, and, to make things better, Max usually comes over to play video games since his mom gets home late from work that night. Like I said, Tuesdays are the best. Well . . . usually. This Tuesday was not so great.
As usual, I was sitting next to Max, who was busy going on about our impending football game on Saturday morning against the Whitby Wildcats. He’s on the team too, but he actually plays. Max is the tight end, which is way more important than the backup kicker—though, in fairness, so is every other position on the field. Of course, Max tends to forget that I don’t even really like the sport and talks about it twenty times a day, but that’s all right. We’ve been best friends since kindergarten, and he didn’t ditch me when he got cool in the fifth grade and I didn’t. In fact, being friends with him even keeps me on the distant fringe of the popular crowd, where I would never be otherwise. I’m like the guy the cool kids know but wouldn’t actually call directly. That’s better than being the guy who gets shoved into a locker, who I definitely would have been otherwise.
In any case, on that fateful day we were sitting in geography class and he was talking about football, and I was looking at Raya. Raya is a girl that we hang out with. Well, Max does. I hang out with Max, who hangs out with Raya. She’s this cool girl who’s really mature and way too pretty to look at the backup kicker of the Erie Hills Elephants. Yeah, not a great football name. We do this whole trunk thing before games. Never mind.
Back to Raya. She wears clothes that don’t even make sense—cardigans and shawls and Technicolor stuff that aren’t usually considered cool. I think. I wear T-shirts and hoodies that my mom gets at Walmart, so I’m not exactly a fashion expert, though I read plenty of articles online in case Raya ever asks me about it. For instance I know that men should really wear fitted dress shirts and pants with pleats if they want to look successful and attract women. I considered it for a while, but my brother told me that he would personally beat me up if I went to school with pleated khakis, so I just kept wearing hoodies. I also know that some Parisian fashion designers still use ivory, which I find upsetting because it means they are killing elephants for a necklace that could easily be made out of plastic. I like elephants. They’re clever, compassionate, and reportedly remember everything, though I can’t confirm that. I’ll try to stay focused.
Raya’s hair is cut pretty short, and it always looks supertrendy and is usually died red or something. But I really don’t care about any of that stuff. Okay . . . her eyes are really nice—they look like hot chocolate with marshmallows circling the mug, which is one of my favorite beverages. And she has a pretty smile that leans just a little to the right, revealing one of those pointy fang teeth. Those are just evolutionary remainders from our ancestors biting into sinewy raw meat and muscles, but for Raya the pointy fang teeth are perfect.
She is also smart and funny, and she has this little dimple that deepens on her right cheek when she laughs. How long had I been staring again?
“You’re being a weirdo,” Max said, nudging my arm.
“What?”
He sighed. “Case and point, Space Cadet.”
Max calls me Space Cadet, by the way. I do this thing where my eyes glaze over and I stare at stuff and don’t realize I’m doing it.
“You know, she has her flaws,” Max said.
My infatuation with Raya Singh was well documented.
“No she doesn’t,” I said defensively.
“She does,” Max insisted. “Most important, she doesn’t like you.”
“How do you know that?”
“A hunch.”
I turned back to Raya and slumped, defeated. “You’re probably right.”
Max leaned in conspiratorially. “But you’ll never know unless you ask.”
I almost laughed. The class was kind of whispering to each other anyway, but a laugh might have been a bit too much and drawn unwanted attention. Mr. Keats was writing some stuff on the whiteboard, and we were supposed to be taking notes. I think a few people were, and I kind of wanted to, but Max always advised me that it was way cooler to not copy the notes. Worse for tests, though, I always noticed.
Max didn’t always give me the best advice. He was like a cooler version of me. He was lean and muscular, with closely cropped black hair and piercing blue eyes. Girls liked him, though he seemed a bit leery of them, which he probably picked up from me. I was flat-out terrified of girls. Especially Raya.
“What should I ask her?” I said. “?‘Raya, do you like me?’?”
He shrugged. “Sounds about right.”
I looked at Max incredulously. “That was sarcasm.”
“Oh. Well, I would just try it. What do you have to lose?”
“My dignity, pride, and self-respect.” I paused. “Point taken.”
I sighed and shifted my gaze to the whiteboard, where Mr. Keats had finally stopped writing notes and was now looking out at the class in disapproval. If I had to describe him in fashion terms, it would be striped button-down shirts buttoned to the top and pleated khakis. Oh . . . my brother was right.
Written at the bottom of the board was:
Geography Test: THIS Friday, October 19th. STUDY, PLEASE.
Frowning, I picked up my pen and wrote the date down. At least I started to.
As I began writing “19th,” my pen abruptly stopped on the page, halfway through the “1.” Then it hit. I call them Zaps. They do different things sometimes, but there’s a definite process that goes like this:
1. Bad thought
2. Terrible feeling or sensation like you just got attacked by a Dementor
3. Realization that you may die or go crazy or never be happy again if you don’t do something fast
This time it went:
1. There’s something bad about that number.
2. Tingling down neck and spine, stomach turns into overcooked Bavarian pretzel and hits shoes. You will never be happy again for the rest of your life and you will think about it forever.
3. Stop writing the number.
I don’t know if that makes sense. It’s like telling someone about a bad dream. They listen and they say “Oh, how terrible” but they don’t really understand and they only half-care anyway because it wasn’t real. And I think that’s what people would say to me, but it is real. It’s as real as anything. Think of the worst you have ever felt in your whole life—like if you got a bad flu or your dog died or you just got cut from a team you really wanted to be on—and imagine that happens when you take nine steps to the bathroom instead of ten. That’s kind of what Zaps are like.
This wasn’t a new thing. The Zaps happened, like, ten times a day—on some days, even more. I had no idea why, except for the logical reason that I was nuts. I didn’t feel crazy, and I sincerely doubted that writing “19th” down on a certain line in my notebook was going to result in the end of the world. And yet I couldn’t shake the feeling. I quickly scratched the number out.
“Why did you do that?” Max asked, glancing at me curiously.
I bit back a curse. I was extremely careful to hide the Zaps, but I had lost focus for just a moment and had forgotten to check if Max was looking. My cheeks flushed.
“It was too messy,” I said casually, avoiding his eyes. “Figured I’d miss the date.”
Max snorted and went back to doodling. “Like you’d miss a test.”
The rest of the class went by normally, with me stealing a few more looks at Raya.
Just before the day ended, the announcements crackled to life. The entire class jumped. Most had been either dozing off or talking quietly, as we had been given a work period to finish an assignment. I had already completed mine (which Max had copied), so we were talking about football. Well, Max was—I was just listening to him and thinking about how happy I was that there was no practice that night. Max was halfway through a story about a new route he had to run, when the principal’s gruff voice cut in.
“Attention, classes. I have a quick announcement for the intermediates before the end of the day.”
Principal Frost was not an overly happy guy. He looked like a cave troll and had a personality to match: dour and temperamental. Sometimes I wondered if he even went home after school, or if he just lived in his office surrounded by the piled bones of students who had gotten one too many detentions.
Principal Frost sounded even less thrilled than usual.
“As you may recall, our first annual Parent Council fund-raising dance will be happening two weeks from today,” he said, sounding like the idea of a dance was making him nauseous. “Council has asked me to remind you to get your tickets now before they are sold out. Your teachers all have tickets available. Also, the noise in the hallways at the end of the day will not be tolerated. I will be walking around this afternoon handing out detentions. That is all. Oh, and clean your shoes off on the mats!”
With that, the announcement ended. The class instantly buzzed to life, with some of the girls looking excited and some of the guys making jokes or groaning. The principal had announced the dance at the beginning of the year, but I think everyone had kind of forgotten about it. Now my mind was racing. My eyes darted to Raya, who was of course looking completely oblivious to the news and listening distractedly to her friends. Was this my chance? Would anyone actually bring a date? I looked around. There certainly seemed to be a lot of whispering.
“This sounds lame,” Max said.
“Agreed,” I said, shifting a little and glancing at him. “But are you going to go?”
Max paused. “Probably.”
Mr. Keats was shaking his head behind the desk, obviously realizing his assignment was long since forgotten. The bell rang, and he just waved a hand. “Run along,” he said. “Hand it in tomorrow.”
Max and I quickly packed our stuff up and hurried out of the class. The conversations around us were still squarely focused on the dance. Taj, one of Max’s football buddies, joined us, clapping Max on the shoulder and completely ignoring me. He did that a lot—probably because he was a foot taller and literally couldn’t see me.
“You gonna ask someone to the dance?” Taj asked, grinning.
Max laughed. “I doubt it.”
“No one is going to do that, right?” I chimed in.
“Why not?” Taj said. He was a big, burly kid who played linebacker. “I’m definitely going to. I don’t want to be the kid sitting with you chumps while the rest of the boys are out there with the ladies.”
“Ladies?” I asked, feeling my stomach flop over.
“An expression,” Taj replied dryly. “Maxy, you need to ask someone. How about Clara?”
“She’s a drama queen,” Max said.
Taj winked. “And a hot one.”
Max and Taj laughed while I hurried along beside them. So people were going to ask girls to the dance. Girls. Like Raya. Which meant I could theoretically ask her to go with me. I felt like I might vomit just thinking about it. Who was I kidding?
I was so preoccupied with the dance that I belatedly realized I was stepping on the tile cracks. There was no need to be reckless. I quickly adjusted my pace by three quarters so that my sneakers fell squarely on the dull white ceramic. I was a master of adjusting my stride so that no one would notice.
Up ahead a TA, Miss Lecky, was slowly walking down the hall, trailed by Sara Malvern. Sara was . . . different. She had gone to our school since preschool, but she was almost always taught separately from everyone else. She hadn’t spoken once in all that time. Eight years, and not a word.
I still remembered the first day she joined a regular class. It was fifth grade, and when I walked in, she was sitting in the corner with a TA. Her eyes were on the board, and she didn’t notice us walking in.
“Everyone say hi to Sara,” my teacher, Mrs. Roberts, said before class.
We did, but Sara didn’t even smile.
“Thank you,” her TA said.
She didn’t speak for weeks, of course. I saw her TA say things to her, but that was it. She just sat there and never responded.
It was November when she finally made a noise. She didn’t talk. She screamed.
She looked off that day; flustered and sweaty and fidgeting. She didn’t usually fidget. I wasn’t too far from her, so I saw it all. Her TA tried to calm her down, but it seemed to get worse. Finally I saw the TA try to grab her arm to calm her down. Sara screamed. The whole class jolted, and Mrs. Saunders dropped her chalk. Sara wrenched her hand away, pushed her desk over, and ran out into the hallway.
I never saw her in a regular class again.
I’m not sure if she could speak or if she had a learning disorder or what. Actually I had no idea what was wrong with her. Her big green eyes were always foggy and glazed over like she was looking at something far away. She didn’t look at anyone or even seem to notice where she was. She just went through her day like a zombie, her mind elsewhere. She always wore a bracelet with a few little charms on it that jangled around as she walked, but I never saw what they were.
The other kids all called her Psycho Sara, but I had never seen her do anything crazy, besides that one time. She just seemed distracted. I could sympathize. Sometimes I felt pretty distracted myself.
Max, Taj, and I were just passing Sara when something unexpected happened.
She turned to me, her foggy eyes suddenly looking clear and sharp.
“Hello, Daniel,” she said.
Reading Group Guide
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OCDaniel
Sara and the Search for Normal
By Wesley King
About the Books
Sara’s mind plays games: games like False Alarm, the Lead Ball, and Danger Game, each one more unnerving than the next. Her hope is to quiet the way her mind speaks to her and find her own “normal.” She meets with Dr. Ring’s therapy group and discovers that there are more kids like her, all searching for their own paths. One of them becomes a friend, and it’s Erin who welcomes Sara as a Star Child, someone who has special or unusual traits or abilities. After meeting Erin, Sara can feel the change inside her. Erin opens Sara’s world to new people and situations she never expected to experience, and she comes to find that she’s stronger than she ever believed she could be.
At school, Sara has noticed a boy named Daniel and suspects that he is also a Star Child. Daniel’s mind also does many unnerving things. Every time he sees a bad number, he gets a Zap. Before he can go to bed at night, he must follow an exact routine. If he falls into the Great Space, nothing makes sense in the world except for his fear and his desperate need to try to fix things. He is certain that his behaviors aren’t normal, and he carefully hides them from his friends and family. One day, Sara says hello to Daniel, and he begins to realize that she’s guessed some of his secrets. After she asks him to help her solve a mystery, the two begin spending time together, finding connections, strength, and friendship in their commonality.
Discussion Questions
1. Both Sara and the Search for Normal and OCDaniel look at mental health from inside the mind of someone living with depression, anxiety, obsessive-compulsive disorder, and other neurodiversities. Why do you think that it’s important to read and talk about mental health awareness? Had you heard about any of these mental illnesses before reading these books? If so, have you ever talked about them with anyone? Did these stories change anything about the way you think of mental illnesses? Explain your answers.
2. The author uses both slang and medical terminology throughout the books. Why do you think the author creates names for Sara’s and Daniel’s disorders? Do those invented names give you a better idea of what those disorders are like? Do you think it is important to use correct terminology when it comes to identifying and discussing mental health?
3. Discuss the inappropriate words that are used throughout the stories to describe mental health. Why do you think the author chooses to include offensive language when certain characters speak about and to Sara? Why do you think Sara uses some of these words to describe herself and others in the therapy group? Why does Daniel describe himself as “crazy” and “bonkers”? Explain your answers.
4. The opening line of Sara and the Search for Normal reads, “Introductions are hard, so let’s just start by punching something.” OCDaniel begins with “I first realized I was crazy on a Tuesday.” What do these lines tell us about the stories themselves, and about the points of view of the main characters?
5. When reading the introduction of Sara and the Search for Normal, how do you feel about Sara’s dressing room story and the way that she chooses to disclose her medical diagnoses? What is your first impression of Sara? Does that change throughout the book, or as you read OCDaniel? Explain your answers using examples from the books.
6. Daniel refers to himself as an “eccentric thirteen-year-old social oddity,” and gets embarrassed if he thinks anyone has witnessed his Zaps, but most of his friends don’t seem to think he’s as odd as he does. Does the text provide us with any clues about why he is so ashamed of his compulsions? When did he start to realize he was different? How did he handle that discovery? Explain your answers.
7. Discuss Sara’s self-talk. How does her view of herself and her brain contrast with the talk from her parents, Dr. Ring, Ms. Hugger, and others?
8. Both Sara and Daniel have an offbeat sense of humor, and Daniel’s helps him relate to some of the other kids. Do you think that being able to make light of things can help when living with mental illnesses? How are Sara’s and Daniel’s jokes different from others’ making fun of them? Why doesn’t it bother Daniel when Max calls him Space Cadet?
9. Talk about Sara’s and Daniel’s best friends. Daniel says that Max “didn’t ditch me when he got cool in the fifth grade and I didn’t.” What does that statement tell you about Max’s personality or the quality of their friendship? How does Max’s role as football star help protect Daniel and make him feel included on the team? Why do you think Erin instantly deems Sara her best friend? What influence does Erin’s friendship have on Sara?
10. Because she is taught in a separate room at school, Sara is more isolated from other students than Daniel. How does this impact her school experience or shape her goals for the year? Name other ways that the author depicts Sara’s alienation.
11. At one point, Sara says, “I was the worst bully of them all.” Daniel refers to “being bullied by [his] own mind.” What does their use of terminology tell you about how they view their illnesses? Do you think any of the tactics that kids use against bullies could help Daniel or Sara battle their own minds? Explain your answers.
12. Discuss Sara’s games and the terms that she’s created for them. Do you think having terms for the games is helpful for Sara’s mental health? Do you think the story that Daniel writes serves a similar function for him? What other coping mechanisms do you see in these stories? How do you handle stressors in your life? Explain your answers.
13. It’s clear in Sara and the Search for Normal that she feels closer to her dad than to her mom, and some possible reasons for this are introduced in OCDaniel. How does learning about what happened to Sara’s father make you feel? How does that relationship compare to Daniel’s relationship with his dad?
14. Unlike only-child Sara, Daniel has two siblings. Talk about how differently his brother, Steve, and sister, Emma, perceive him. What are their relationships like? Do you think they understand him? Do you think they wish that things were different? Explain your answer using examples from the book.
15. In both books, Sara and Daniel see each other having humiliating or difficult moments. Both realize that, as Daniel puts it, “watching someone else break [makes] me feel a lot less broken.” What do you think he means by that statement? Why might that be comforting? Explain your answers.
16. How are Erin’s tenets for Star Children similar to Sara’s rules for being normal? How are they different? Do you think one list is better for Sara’s mental health than the other? What is your definition of “normal”? Do you think it can change depending on the person? Explain your answers.
17. Daniel talks to many people at school, both in class and during football games. Sara says that she only speaks to four people. Throughout Sara’s story, we see her increase the number of people whom she’s willing to speak to. What happens that allows her to feel she can open up to new people? Are all the people whom she chooses to interact with supportive of her? Are all the people whom Daniel befriends supportive of him? What characteristics do you look for in a friend? Explain your answers.
18. What would you identify as a turning point in Sara’s or Daniel’s stories? How does Sara realize that “normal” isn’t what she’s searching for? What do you think she was searching for? What role does Sara play in helping Daniel accept that, as he says, “‘I wasn’t normal. I never had been.’”?
19. Daniel says, “‘We were only crazy when we thought we were alone.’” What does he mean by that? Connection is a major theme in both books. How does finding each other help Sara and Daniel understand and accept their mental illnesses?
Extension Activities across Books
1. There are many books, movies, and television shows portraying mental health. Select another show, movie, or book that you’ve connected with, and compare it to Sara and the Search for Normal or OCDaniel. Compare and contrast the ways they portray mental health.
2. After reading both Sara and the Search for Normal and OCDaniel, discuss another character in the books who you think should have their own story. Who is it? When or where would it be set? What would you like to know about them? Explain your answers using scenes from the books.
3. The author uses the designation Star Child to represent the differences and uniqueness of kids living with mental illness. Research and write a report on Star Children, and discuss your findings with the class. Which information most surprised you? What left the biggest impression on you? What do you think is most important for others to know?
Extension Activities for Sara and the Search for Normal
1. There are notes from Sara throughout the book. At first, these notes appear after each chapter, and then sporadically throughout. Select one of the chapters that does not have a note following it. Write a note in the same manner and tone used in other places. Consider why Sara feels the need to explain details in these notes.
2. The story begins with a very specific personal narrative of Sara in the dressing room. This narrative gives us insight into Sara’s character and shows us a very detailed account of an everyday activity in Sara’s life. Reflect on your everyday activities: going to lunch, attending practice, shopping with a parent, cleaning your bedroom, etc. Select one activity and write about it on a specific day, with specific details in mind. What makes this everyday activity different on this specific day? Why was it memorable? How were you feeling? Did it change the way you might experience the activity next time?
3. Think about how Sara’s list of rules for being normal affects her. What do you think about the rules on her list? If you could change the list to read “Rules for Being Happy,” what ten things would you put on your own list? Write them down. Then discuss with a classmate and see if the two of you wrote similar or different items for your rules. How do you think having a list of “Rules for Being Happy” might have affected Sara’s life?
Extension Activities for OCDaniel
1. Different people in Daniel’s life view him from their own perspectives, including Max, Emma, Steve, Raya, and his dad. Choose three of these people, and write a description of Daniel from each of their perspectives. Then write a description of how you view Daniel. Finally, write a description of how Daniel might view himself. Discuss as a class the differences in perspectives, and their impacts on Daniel. How can you work to better listen and understand each other?
2. After Daniel scores a touchdown and wins the football game, he says, “It [is] the best day of my life.” Think about the best day of your life, and write a story about it.
Lexile level, OCDaniel: Lexile ® 560L
Guide written by Bobbie Combs, a consultant at We Love Children's Books.
This guide has been provided by Simon & Schuster for classroom, library, and reading group use. It may be reproduced in its entirety or excerpted for these purposes.
The Lexile reading level has been certified by the Lexile developer, MetaMetrics®.
Product Details
- Publisher: Simon & Schuster/Paula Wiseman Books (April 12, 2016)
- Length: 304 pages
- ISBN13: 9781481455312
- Ages: 8 - 12
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Raves and Reviews
King (The Incredible Space Raiders from Space!) offers a candid and memorable account of life with OCD, inspired by his own experience with the anxiety disorder. Thirteen-year-old Daniel Leigh, a wryly funny narrator, has a popular best friend, a crush on a classmate, and a spot on the football team as backup kicker. But he also has a secret that is making him miserable: he is plagued by “Zaps,” his name for the triggers—such as an unlucky number or the wrong number of steps—that create a flood of horrible feelings that can only be quelled by certain actions such as flicking a light switch repeatedly. Writing is an outlet for Daniel, and excerpts from the novel he’s working on are interspersed throughout. When Sara, a selectively mute school outcast, suddenly begins to speak to him, she draws him into a potential murder mystery and becomes the first person to see and understand his struggle. Daniel’s pain and confusion at what he comes to realize is OCD is memorably portrayed in this moving story of self-acceptance
– Publishers Weekly
In a departure fromhis previous book, The Incredible Space Raiders from Space (2015), King offersthe story of an "eccentric thirteen-year-old social oddity" whodesperately wants to be normal. Exhausted by the excruciating nightly Routinethat keeps him from sleep for hours and his daily efforts to conceal hisobsession with numbers, Daniel Leigh believes he is crazy. Otherwise, Daniel isa typical eighth-grade white boy. He's desperate to fit in, to make his fatherproud, and to win the affections of the most beautiful and popular girl inschool, in this case Raya Singh. When Daniel (backup kicker and water boy) isplucked from the sidelines of the football field, he's given a shot at makingthose dreams come true. Then something strange happens. Sara Melvern, whohasn't spoken once in the eight years he's known her, invites him to help hersolve the mystery of her father's disappearance, and Daniel realizes thatsometimes dreams aren't all they're cracked up to be. Daniel's narration ischarming, funny, and occasionally heartbreaking, and a secondary cast ofwell-developed characters keeps the plot moving. . . . Part coming-of-age, part mystery, and part middle-grade social-problem novel,Daniel's story will resonate with a broad spectrum of readers. (Fiction. 8-13)
– Kirkus Reviews, 2/15/16
As the backup kicker on his football team, 13-year-old Daniel spends his time watching from the bench. Socially, he is an onlooker as well. But soon Sara, an ostracized girl at school, breaks through his shyness by demanding help with investigating her father’s possible murder. It seems heartless to refuse, though logically (and later, legally) he should. As tension mounts, his anxiety level rises, and “The Routine” he is compelled to follow at bedtime grows longer and more burdensome. Daniel knows that he is different, but he suffers alone and in silence. It’s a revelation when Sara offers him information on obsessive compulsive disorder and a path toward coping with it. A brief, appended author’s note dispels common misconceptions about OCD and calls Daniel “an almost autobiographical representation of myself at that age.” King creates convincing characters and writes engaging dialogue, and whether or not readers identify fully with Daniel, they will see parts of themselves in this vulnerable protagonist. Clues dropped in the first part of the book may lead readers to expect a conventional sort of happy ending, but the story’s conclusion is more complex and satisfying. Written from Daniel’s point of view, this perceptive firstperson narrative is sometimes painful, sometimes amusing, and always rewarding.
– Booklist, STARRED REVIEW, March 1, 2016
Awards and Honors
- Bank Street Best Books of the Year
- Maine Student Book Award Reading List
- Nutmeg Book Award Nominee (CT)
- Edgar Allan Poe Award
- A Toronto Public Library First & Best
- Forest of Reading Silver Birch Fiction Winner
- Great Texas Mosquito List
Resources and Downloads
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- Book Cover Image (jpg): OCDaniel Hardcover 9781481455312
- Author Photo (jpg): Wesley King Photo courtesy of the author(0.1 MB)
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