Perfectly Norman is just about that in a children’s book

Children are fascinating creatures who are impossible to understand. They have secrets, friendships that are needlessly complex and make small matters seem like mountains that they’ll never be able to overcome. In short, children are just like us, except a couple decades younger and can text faster than you. Perfectly Norman by Tom Percival is a children’s book that perfectly encapsulates an element of what being a kids is like. It’s their belief that nobody is like me. Nobody has this and everybody else is living the life of Riley.

Norman is a perfectly normal kid until one day he isn’t. On that day he grows a pair of wings. Granted he had imagined that he would take on some of his father’s appearances, however, wings sprouting from his back were not on the menu. Norman starts to wear a jacket to keep his wings under wrap, but as time goes on the jacket does more to suppress who he is, rather what the wings look like or represent.

The art is one of the key reasons why Perfectly Norman is a stand out children’s book. Early in the book when Norman hasn’t found his mojo the pages are gray. However, once he finds his wings they’re a blast of color against an improving sky. But then after he wears the jacket that takes on a bright yellow color as if they joy and manic attitude of the wings can’t contain it. All the while his surroundings are a detailed gray, even when he’s at a birthday party with a large bounce house.

Sensing that Norman isn’t himself his parents suggest that he take of the jacket and be himself. After doing that and flying around the city for a moment he sees other kids have taken off their ‘jackets’ and are flying around him. It all happens on two pages of children flying around in glorious color in the sky, free from the weights that kept them from soaring. It is hard to fly like an eagle with you’re hanging with turkeys. Granted, they might not be turkeys, but from the perspective of a kid, there’s a reason why they might hesitate to really be themselves.

Perfectly Norman really understands children, the questions and confusion that they’re going through. It’s teaching by metaphor and it’s our favorite theme for a great children’s book. Much like Giraffe’s Ruin Everything (another book we loved!), this book tells kids what’s going on, without actually telling them. You can see the a-ha moment when kids realize that the wings are just a device and that everyone, yes everyone has some form of ‘wings’ that make them different.