George Harrar: Books:
Not As Crazy As I Seem

A Novel for Young Adults
Published by Houghton Mifflin, 2003

Click to Enlarge

Devon Brown is a lot neater than most 15-year-old boys. He lines up his sneakers under his bed. He hangs up his shirts by colors and buttons them from top to bottom. Germs bother him so much that he washes his hands dozens of times a day. To ward off bad luck, he does things in fours. Where do his compulsions come from? That's what his parents and shrink would like to know. Some people say he's crazy, but Devon thinks he'd be just fine if everyone just left him alone and stopped trying to fix him. Besides, the last thing in the world he would want to be is normal.

Read the Prologue to Not as Crazy as I Seem

Buy Not as Crazy as I Seem at Amazon.com

From Booklist:
Grades 7-10 Fifteen-year-old Devon does everything in four's. He eats four quarters of a sandwich and four M&M's for lunch, is the fourth person to walk into school, and buys paperbacks that are 4 1/4 X 6 3/4 inches for his bedroom bookshelf. He also covers his hands before opening doors, refuses to eat in the school cafeteria, and washes his hands constantly, all to protect himself from germs. Devon has obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), and this is his life--a life his mother is trying to comprehend, his father abhors, the kids at school ridicule, and Dr. Wasserman is helping to change. Harrar paints a very human picture of Devon, his family, and his friends, revealing the frustration of a teen afflicted with OCD who yearns to understand himself, fit in, and stay out of trouble. At once humorous and poignant, frustrating and sympathethic, this will leave readers wondering if they could be a little obsessive-compulsive themselves. ---Frances Bradburn



From School Library Journal:
...a novel that may have bibliotherapeutic potential.

Home