The Terrible Thing that Happened to Barnaby Brocket by John Boyne - OPTIONAL

Boyne, John  The Terrible Thing that Happened to Barnaby Brocket, 277 pgs.  Alfred A. Knopf, 2012.  $16.99 

Content: Language: PG (7 swears-all “Hell’s bells”); Mature Content: PG; Violence: PG.  

The Brockets are a normal family and they are obsessed with being normal and having normal lives, so imagine their surprise and disapproval when their third and last child, Barnaby, is born floating.  Barnaby can’t help that he floats and it causes problems for him and his family.  The Brockets decide that they can’t handle the attention that Barnaby brings to their normal lives, so one day Mrs. Brocket lets Barnaby float away.  Luckily he is saved by two women in a hot air balloon and his adventures around the world begin where he meets many more fantastic and not normal people.  

This book has the important lesson that we shouldn’t judge people if they aren’t “normal” because normal means something different to everyone.  But there is also the disturbing theme of parents that don’t love their children when they don’t meet the parents’ expectations, a theme that is presented multiple times throughout the book.  Barnaby meets many different people, but he wants his parents to love him the way he is, but that is not how it works in the end making the book just seem sad instead of being about loving each other the way we are.  

EL, MS-OPTIONAL.  Reviewer, C. Peterson.