Normal Sucks ― How to Live, Learn, and Thrive Outside the Lines

A fun, voice-driven, and practical take on education, arguing that we need to stop trying to fix people who reside outside the norm and start empowering them to succeed.

Jonathan Mooney blends anecdote, expertise, and memoir to present a new mode of thinking about how we learn—individually, uniquely, and with advantages and upshots to every type of brain. As a neuro-diverse kid diagnosed with dyslexia and ADHD who didn't learn to read until he was twelve, the realization that that he wasn’t the problem—the system was—saved Mooney’s life and fundamentally changed his outlook. Here he explores the toll that having a neurological or physical disability takes on kids and adults when they’re trapped in environments that label them, shame them, and tell them, even in subtle ways, that they are the problem. But, he argues, if we can reorient the ways in which we think about disabilities, we can start a revolution in learning.

A highly sought after public speaker, Mooney has been inspiring audiences with his story and his message 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 as much a survival guide as it is a call to action. Whip-smart, insightful, and utterly inspiring, this book will upend what we call normal and empower us all.