Hey, Nobody's Perfect by Ann Herrick (2012)
My rating 3.5 of 5 stars
Unclench those teeth. Believe me, there’s a side of me that’d like to punch the guy. But I know that somewhere in the primitive part of Todd’s brain is this illogical fear that he’ll ‘catch’ what I ‘have.’ – Keeley Parrish
Nothing ‘happened.’ I was just born this way. I’m a person with a disability. Basically all that means is that I’m inconvenienced, and just have to do things a bit differently to get around it. - Keeley Parrish
Hey, Nobody’s Perfect is a good book for confronting your own prejudices. Keeley is a wonderful character, he’s not just surviving he’s living and he was born with his disability. I really liked the inclusion of wheelchair basketball as a sport, it’s something we don’t see often enough and as a sport it is ruthless. If you’ve never seen it, you need to. Silvia is a great choice as a protagonist her reactions are natural and human, her family pressures affect her correctly and just her teenagerness feels right. Her family while annoying also feel right, we see them through her eyes.
The plot is simple, it is more a slice of life than anything else but does include Keeley, a new student arriving in a town. The ensuing story is Silvia trying to disentangle her own emotions about her family situation (recently divorced parents, brother eating his emotions), the pressure to be perfect, and Keeley. In many ways, it is a classic teenage romance novel but the addition of Keeley’s wheelchair, his confidence and her response to it move away from that.
Hey, Nobody’s Perfect book walks a fine line between being a parody of reality and realistic. I don’t think a young woman would be nearly as accepting of the apology receives after the actions perpetrated by a character, the book is conscious of that. And his accident changes things. But I think that there are some very realistic actions in here too, mainly where they need to be, around Keeley.
I forget that many people aren’t exposed to wheelchairs at a young age, they don’t develop that awareness and empathy. For a short book, this is a great one to create thought and discussion. There may be others but it is difficult to find representation of wheelchairs in YA. This is a good one.
My reading experience in a gif:
References
Cover for Hey,
Nobody's Perfect. (n.d.). Ann Herrick.
[Image File]. Retrieved from http://annherrickauthor.com/images/books/bk_hey1.jpg
Herrick, A. (2012). Hey,
nobody's perfect [Kindle]. Retrieved
from: https://www.amazon.com.au/dp/B07CJNHMD2/ref=docs-os-doi_0
McPherson, C. (2018, May 8). Catherine McP's review of Hey, Nobody's
Perfect. Goodreads. [Goodreads
Review]. Retrieved from https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2384442853
Thoughts. (n.d.). Giphy.
[Image File]. Retrieved from https://media0.giphy.com/media/jx8ywQbNcgUhy/giphy.gif
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