Skip content
Give audiobooks, support local bookstores! Start gifting
A Different Sort of Normal by Abigail Balfe
  Add to Wish List

Almost ready!

In order to save audiobooks to your Wish List you must be signed in to your account.

      Log in       Create account
Illustration of person sitting

Shop small, give big!

With credit bundles, you choose the number of credits and your recipient picks their audiobooks—all in support of local bookstores.

Start gifting
Phone showing make the switch message

Limited-time offer

Get two free audiobooks!

Now’s a great time to shop indie. When you start a new one credit per month membership supporting local bookstores with promo code SWITCH, we’ll give you two bonus audiobook credits at sign-up.

Sign up today

A Different Sort of Normal

A real-life completely true story about being unique
Due to publisher restrictions, this audiobook is unavailable for purchase in your selected country.
Narrator Abigail Balfe

This audiobook uses AI narration.

We’re taking steps to make sure AI narration is transparent.

Learn more
Length 3 hours 9 minutes
Language English
  Add to Wish List

Almost ready!

In order to save audiobooks to your Wish List you must be signed in to your account.

      Log in       Create account

Summary

Brought to you by Puffin.

The beautiful true story of one girl's journey growing up autistic - and the challenges she faced in the 'normal' world

I'm not like the other children in my class . . . and that's an actual scientific FACT.

Hi! My name is Abigail, and I'm autistic. But I didn't know I was autistic until I was an adult-sort-of-person*.

This is my true story of growing up in the confusing 'normal' world, all the while missing some Very Important Information about myself.

There'll be scary moments involving toilets and crowded trains, heart-warming tales of cats and pianos, and funny memories including my dad and a mysterious tub of ice cream. Along the way you'll also find some Very Crucial Information about autism.

If you've ever felt different, out of place, like you don't fit in . . . this book is for you.

*I've never really felt like an actual-adult-person, as you'll soon discover in this book...

Told through the author's remarkable words, this is the book for those who've never felt quite right in the 'normal' world.

Very important, very funny and very informative. This is the book the world needs right now.

'Funny, poignant and wise, with a rich seams of understanding and empathy . . . one of the best children's non-fiction books I've read in long time' The Bookseller

'This book is what I needed as a kid! Empathetic, joyful and beautifully authentic. I loved it!' Elle McNicoll, author of A Kind of Spark

© Abigail Balfe 2021 (P) Penguin Audio 2021

Illustration of person sitting

Shop small, give big!

With credit bundles, you choose the number of credits and your recipient picks their audiobooks—all in support of local bookstores.

Start gifting
Phone showing make the switch message

Limited-time offer

Get two free audiobooks!

Now’s a great time to shop indie. When you start a new one credit per month membership supporting local bookstores with promo code SWITCH, we’ll give you two bonus audiobook credits at sign-up.

Sign up today

Reviews

A funny, fascinating illustrated memoir that conveys - via joyous tangential leaps, vivid doodles and informative notes - how it felt to grow up autistic and undiagnosed . . . a rewarding and highly entertaining read I REALLY love it. It's the book I wish I'd had when I was a kid (I'd have known I was autistic immediately, right down to the cats). Buy it for your kids, your parents, your grandparents. Mostly buy it for yourself Illuminating A hugely engaging, funny and informative account of being neurodivergent This book is what I needed as a kid! Empathetic, joyful and beautifully authentic. I loved it! Insightful, accessible and easy to navigate, this is an essential book for autistic and allistic (non-autistic) readers of all ages An amazing, life-changing hug of a book I wish I had when I was growing up. It's funny, eye-opening and supremely reassuring and an important, myth-busting look into autism and how that experience can vary so much. For anyone and EVERYONE who has ever felt different. Time to reclaim it and celebrate it This book is a great explainer, full of empathy for different situations, which explodes many misconceptions about autistic people along the way! I wish I had had this available many years ago when teaching an autistic child on a one-to-one basis What a difference Abigail Balfe's new book is going to make for so many people! A Different Sort of Normal is a wonderful blend of humour, information & reassuring comfort Highly illustrated, beautiful and an essential book for young autistic people Funny, poignant and wise, with a rich seam of understanding and empathy . . . one of the best children's non-fiction books I've read in a long time It is an outrageously beautiful, interesting, quirky, personal, funny introduction to autism. It has super gorgeous illustrations and details on every page, and covers SO MANY important topics. Your book means so much to me and others - it was like reading about my own life, even down to the special interests, as we are a similar age! Such an important, accessible and wonderful book. I wish I could go back in time and hand deliver A Different Sort of Normal by Abigail Balfe to my younger self. But even thought I can't, the Lucy of now very much appreciates feeling seen and understood and is having to stop herself from tearing up. It is honest, real and downright brilliant. Abigail writes in such a brilliant creative way that really will draw in readers of all ages. Seriously, ever since I discovered this book I knew it was going to be special, that it would go places. It’s award winner worthy, and I don’t think I’ve ever said this about any book. How dyslexic-friendly is it? This is probably the most accessible & engaging book I have ever read. The authors' creativity and skill for illustrations (she did them all herself!) and explaining things makes it fun, pleasing to the eye and enjoyable. Expand reviews
Give audiobooks, support local bookstores! Start gifting