Normal Sucks: How to Live, Learn, and Thrive, Outside the Lines - Paperback

by Jonathan Mooney (Author)

Confessional and often hilarious, in Normal Sucks a neuro-diverse writer, advocate, and father offers a radical message of acceptance and empowerment.

Jonathan Mooney blends anecdote, expertise, and memoir to present a new mode of thinking about how we live and learn. As a neuro-diverse kid diagnosed with dyslexia and ADHD who didn't learn to read until he was twelve, the realization that he wasn't the problem--the system and the concept of normal were--saved Mooney's life. Here, he explores the toll that our narrow conception of normal takes on kids and adults both. But, he argues, if we can reorient the ways in which we think about diversity and disability, we can start a revolution.

Mooney has been inspiring audiences with his story for nearly two decades. Now he's ready to share what he's learned from parents, educators, researchers, and kids in a book that is both a survival guide and a call to action. Whip-smart and inspiring--and movingly framed as a letter to his own young sons--this book will upend what we call normal and empower us all.

Author Biography

Jonathan Mooney's work has been featured in The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, The Chicago Tribune, USA Today, HBO, NPR, ABC News, New York Magazine, The Washington Post, and The Boston Globe, and he continues to speak across the nation about neurological and physical diversity, inspiring those who live with differences and advocating for change. His books include The Short Bus and Learning Outside the Lines.