“Ellie Haycock Is Totally Normal” by Gretchen Schreiber
4 out of 5 stars. Ellie Haycock Is Totally Normal by Gretchen Schreiber is just my kind of book: the main character(s) have some sort of medical condition/ chronic illness/ disability and yet it touches on everyday stuff like friendship, love, self esteem, family dynamics etc. in Ellie Haycock is totally normal we meet Ellie, a high schooler with a rare genetic condition that affects both her physical appearance and her internal organs. Her mom runs a blog that has chronicled Ellie’s life from the very beginning. it serves as a way for her to connect with others and raise money to support and raise awareness about the things families experience when raising a child with a disability. This is a huge source of frustration and hurt for Ellie though (more on that later). The reader quickly learns that Ellie is experiencing persistent breathing issues that her local doctor can’t figure out. Therefore she and her mom are going to see a specialist and stay at “The Home” (essentially a Ronald McDonald House) for a bit. The reader also learns that Ellie is very deliberate in keeping her “hospital life” and “life-life” separate. She has hospital friends and non-hospital friends and they don’t know anything about each other.