imported>Ser Amantio di Nicolao: /* top */ add {{Use mdy dates|date=March 2025}}

2025-03-28T05:29:55Z

top: add {{Use mdy dates|date=March 2025}}

New page

{{Short description|Novel by Sharon Creech}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=March 2025}}
{{Infobox book

| name =
| image = File:Absolutely Normal Chaos book cover; cropped.jpg
| caption = First edition (UK) cover, designed by SHARON CREECH
| author = [[Sharon Creech]]
| illustrator =
| cover_artist =
| country = United Kingdom
| language = English
| series =
| genre = [[Children's literature|children's novel]], journal, day-school story
| publisher = [[Macmillan Children's Books]]
| pub_date = 1990
| media_type = Print ([[hardcover]])
| pages = 201 pp
| isbn = 0-333-53218-X
| oclc = 22663752
| congress = PZ7.C8615 Ab 1995<ref name=LCC>
[https://archive.today/20121213080159/http://lccn.loc.gov/95022448 "Absolutely normal chaos"] (first U.S. edition). Library of Congress Catalog Record. Retrieved 2012-08-23.</ref>
| preceded_by =
| followed_by =
}}

'''''Absolutely Normal Chaos''''' is a [[children's literature|children's]] or [[young-adult novel]] by [[Sharon Creech]], published in the U.K. by Macmillan Children's Books in 1990. It was the [[Americans|American]] author's first book for children, completed at the midpoint of nearly two decades living in England and Switzerland.<ref name=sachs/> Although set in her hometown [[Euclid, Ohio]], it was not published in her native country until 1995 (HarperCollins), after she won the annual [[Newbery Medal]] recognizing ''[[Walk Two Moons]]'' as the preceding year's best American children's book.<ref name=LCC/><ref name=kirkus/>

''Absolutely Normal Chaos'' is a 13-year-old girl's "complete and unabridged journal for English class"<ref name=kirkus/> and can be classed as a [[bildungsroman]].

==Synopsis==
Mary Lou Finney is more than excited about her assignment to keep a journal over the summer. Not only does she have to keep a journal, but she must read the [[Odyssey]]. The Odyssey is continuously referenced within her own writing. She adds her own comments about the Odyssey that reference to her own life. As the novel unfolds, Mary Lou's cousin, Carl Ray stays with her family. Carl Ray does this in order to look for a job. As the novel progresses, Mary Lou learns about Carl Ray's difficulties in life and how he has struggled. After discovering this information, Mary Lou finds it easier to examine her struggles with her family, her friends, and herself.

Sharon Creech stated that the inspiration for this story was an occasion when, "I'd been living overseas (England and Switzerland) for about ten years, and I was sadly missing my family back in the States. I thought I'd write a story about normal family chaos and that's how this began, with me trying to remember what it was like growing up in my family. Writing the story was a way for me to feel as if my family were with me, right there in our little cottage in England.".<ref>[http://www.sharoncreech.com/ Sharon Creech website]</ref>

==Reviews==

(Children's Literature)
<blockquote>Mary Lou's efforts to make sense of Homer's Odyssey add depth and delight to the story, ... She sees parallels in her own experiences that adds to the comic elements in this original coming of age story. The results are in turn funny, wise, serious, and irreverent. This story is a winner for middle schoolers who may even be motivated to read Homer's classic poem.</blockquote>

Cindy Darling Codell, Clark Middle School, Winchester, KY (School Library Journal)<ref>[http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/absolutely-normal-chaos-sharon-creech/1100616109 Barnes and Noble]</ref>
<blockquote>Creech's dialogue is right on target. Her characterization is nicely done also. By comparison, this book is differently voiced than Walk Two Moons (HarperCollins, 1994), lacks that book's masterful imagery, and is more superficial in theme; but appropriately so. Creech has remained true to Mary Lou, who is a different narrator, and one who will win many fans of her own. Those in search of a light, humorous read will find it; those in search of something a little deeper will also be rewarded.</blockquote>

(Kirkus Reviews - reviewed on September 1, 1995)<ref name=kirkus/>
<blockquote>Creech's first children's novel, published in England but never before in the US, will quickly make its way into the hands of readers who loved Walk Two Moons (1994). ... Her voice rings 100 percent true, and although she has her serious moments, Mary Lou is a stitch. Much of the humor derives from Creech's playful use of language: When Mary Lou's mother forbids her using the words God, stupid, and stuff, Mary Lou makes a foray into the thesaurus with hilarious results. The plot takes unlikely turns, but Creech gets away with it because the characters are so believable. Tightly written, nary a word out of place, by turns sarcastic, tender, and irreverent, this a real piece of comedy about contemporary teen life from one funny writer. (Fiction. 10-14)</blockquote>

==See also==
{{Portal bar |Children's literature|Novels}} 

==References==
{{reflist |refs=
<ref name=kirkus>
[http://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/sharon-creech/absolutely-normal-chaos/ "Absolutely Normal Chaos"]. ''Kirkus Reviews'', September 1, 1995. Online reprint 2010. Retrieved 2012-08-23.</ref>
<ref name=sachs>
[https://web.archive.org/web/20050721081934/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1000653,00.html "Families: A writer who's 13 at Heart"]. Andrea Sachs. ''Time'', August 27, 2001. Retrieved 2012-08-23.</ref>
}}

==External links==
* {{worldcat |oclc=32664726 }} —immediately, first US edition 

{{Sharon Creech}}

[[Category:American young adult novels]]
[[Category:Novels by Sharon Creech]]
[[Category:1990 American novels]]
[[Category:Fictional diaries]]
[[Category:Novels set in Ohio]]
[[Category:Euclid, Ohio]]
[[Category:Macmillan Publishers books]]
[[Category:1990 debut novels]]
[[Category:British young adult novels]]
[[Category:British bildungsromans]]

Absolutely Normal Chaos - Revision history

imported>Ser Amantio di Nicolao: /* top */ add {{Use mdy dates|date=March 2025}}