How Not To Be Weird by Dawn McNiff

Synopsis (from Goodreads) 

Pages: 272

Publisher: Piccadilly Press 

Released: 7th of April 2016 

Woody wants to get un-weird - and fast! And he'll find help in the most unlikely of places.

Woody is forever worried about being different. He thinks himself weird and a bit of a wuss, and two bullies Della and Casey make sure he doesn't forget that. It doesn't help that his mum is slightly bonkers. She dresses up as a sheep for a living - mostly for her job as a children's entertainer. And not to mention the fact that she forces Woody to wear old granny jumpers that she finds down the local charity shop. Gooner the dog doesn't help either, always getting Woody in some awkward, smelly and rather messy situations! 

But Woody's got a plan to get unweird - and fast! Just in time for his first day at secondary school. He starts off with some rules . . . 'Don't listen to Mum about anything to do with your life, ever'. . .and. . .'don't wear old lady clothes'. And with the help of his way more normal, yet rather extravagant GlamMa and the discovery of his Dad's peculiar lucky charm, he soon finds a new sense of charm, un-weirdness and a heap load of shenanigans come his way! 

What I Have to Say 

A cute story embracing weirdness and difference, despite what the title says, How Not To Be Weird has many important messages about being your own person and knowing what you want. Woody is an interesting, quirky and naturally weird character who suffers a lot of self esteem issues who I'm sure many children and young teenagers can relate to. 

In general, I enjoyed the book. I found Woody fairly easy to relate to in a lot of ways but with some differences to make him interesting. He felt like a real kid, struggling to fit in and thinking that he had to change everything about himself to fit in, I know I felt this way when I was his age.

The only complaint I really have is that the story wasn't really compelling. I didn't have the drive to read on and find out what would happen next. The ending was fairly predictable and it just didn't capture me. 

All in all, it was good though. I like the style that McNiff writes in and will continue to read her books. 

My thanks go to Hot Key Books for providing me with this copy for review.