Norman

Norman would like to be able to teleport, like his favorite superhero Quark. Or transmit thoughts over distances, like his best friend Agatha. Or walk through walls, like his dad. Well, as a last resort, to sweat smelly green glue, like that poor fellow his grandmother spoke about. But thirteen-year-old Norman Neville is the only person in the world without superpowers.
And ahead lies mandatory testing for super strength, since the main school subject is power studies, where they teach how to use your supernatural talents. And if the supercomputer reports that Norman has no abilities, he won't have a peaceful life: they will take him to some laboratory and study him as an unprecedented phenomenon. Norman’s friends, Agatha, Frank, and Jibril, come up with ways to help him hide his secret from teachers and parents — but it seems they have gone too far…
“Norman” by French writer Kamel Benkiran (born in 1981) won first place in the debut novel competition for teenagers, organized by Gallimard Jeunesse, RTL channel, and Te.le.rama magazine. In past years, this competition introduced readers to “The Secrets of Larispeama” by Lucy Pierre-Pajo and “Through the Mirrors” by Christelle Dabo, and now it has introduced them to the fantastic universe of “Norman,” where young superheroes, like Spider-Man or the X-Men, learn to control their abilities while building relationships with the world around them.