Just Like Everyone Else
When you’re a tween all you want is to be ‘just like everyone else’, preferring not to stand out. This interesting coming-of-age story for older kids and teens explores this feeling, looking at issues such as identity, family, difference, and self-acceptance. The award-winning author Sarah Hagger-Holt,has twice been nominated for the Carnegie Medal and in her latest novel also deals sensitively with the topic of surrogacy.
The plot centres around thirteen-year-old Aidan who is finding it hard to cope in his crowded family home. His favourite pastime, running, is his only respite from his very involved, demonstrative, and rather off-the-wall parents and his four very loud younger sisters. Then his mum makes a very surprising announcement that she's having another baby. However, this time it's not for her; she plans on becoming a surrogate for her new friends, a gay couple, Justin and Atif.
Aidan is shocked. It’s not as if his family wasn’t embarrassing - or big enough already. He’s also very scared because he suspects that he himself might be gay, and really struggling to accept this possibility. Never mind anything like coming out! But what if even being around Justin and Atif exposes him as gay? If only he was just like everyone else.
A complex, interesting novel that would entertain anyone and maybe even educate them about how difficult it can be for a young gay person to exist in an unthinking, often anti-gay society.
