"All twelve year-old Daisy Fisher wants is to be normal--or at least to not stick out like a sore thumb. But growing up in the house disparagingly referred to as the "Jungle" makes that pretty much impossible. When your parents' activism brands them as a nuisance and your house is overrun with vines and critters, it's not so easy to fit in. And it definitely doesn't help when the neighbours declare your family public enemy number one. Or when your twin brother's cancer might be growing back. Or when your best (and possibly only) friend leaves for summer camp . . . and forgets you exist. Will this be the summer Daisy changes things for the better? She can't help where she lives, but if she could find a new friend, cultivate some courage and figure out a way to keep her brother healthy, maybe life will finally be normal. Or will it? When her anxiety about her brother getting sick again threatens to boil over just as the Jungle comes under investigation, Daisy has to face down her greatest fears, not to mention the neighbours who are threatening her home. In the process, she learns some surprising truths about herself, and that maybe "normal" isn't all it's cracked up to be. My Deal with the Universe is a contemporary middle-grade novel by Deborah Kerbel about tolerance, diversity, individuality, friendship and the strength of family. "--

Issued also in electronic format.