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A review by fidgetyknitter
The Earth, My Butt, and Other Big Round Things by Carolyn Mackler
4.0
Virginia has successful, athletic parents. She has successful, athletic siblings (an older sister and an older brother). They’re all successful. They are all educated. It’s not uncommon for the family to speak only in French around the dinner table. By contrast, Virginia is 15, overweight and while she is a great student, Virginia can’t speak French to save her life. Add to that a best friend who has moved away for the year, a mother who is embarrassed about her weigh and a girl in the school who would rather be dead than weigh as much as Virginia, and you have a young woman who binge eats and self-mutilate.
This was the first book I read on my summer reading list. This was one of the top “challenged” books in libraries for 2009 because it’s sexually explicit and for language (among other reasons). Of all the things that happen in this book, language and sexually explicit story lines are not the first I would have ever answered to the question, “Why shouldn’t kids read this book?”.
The story is told in first person. Readers are taken along as Virginia deals with with a mother who is so ashamed of her own overweight childhood that she acts and speaks to her overweight daughter in ways that are devistating to a 15-year-old psyche. She has a father who says those words every overweight girl has heard (and which has killed every one of them a little each time it’s said), “You would be so pretty if you lost a little weight.” Her sister has moved out (and across the world) and her brother is the Big Man On Campus in a nearby college. While they had been close, Virginia’s brother doesn’t have time for her any more. Eventually everything comes crashing down as Virginia’s brother makes a choice that shakes the whole family and leaves his own future uncertain. Her parents treat this as a little bump in the road, though, and not the tragic event it really is. This doesn’t leave any room for Virginia to process everything and heal. She doesn’t have any friends at school. She doesn’t have any friends at home. She kind of has a boyfriend, but she keeps him at arm’s length because Virginia is sure he wants nothing to do with an overweight girl. Slowly, we see Virginia take control of her life the only way she can: Through not eating (if she was thin, Virginia believes, she would be loved by her family and liked by her friends) and self-injury (like burning her hand on a candle and pinching the fat on her body until she is black and blue from head-to-toe).
So, if you asked me why shouldn’t kids read this book, my answer would be a resounding, “They should read this book if they’re over 13.” Shielding teens from books like this doesn’t stop kids from feeling the way Virginia feels in this book. Keeping this book off the shelves in the library isn’t going to stop kids from wondering about kissing a boy. It isn’t going to stop girls from eating disorders. It isn’t going to stop kids from feeling alone in their own families. Parents of teenage girls probably should also read this book. If school has taught me nothing else, it has taught me that the teen years are not like they were when I was a kid. This book may be fiction, but really, it’s not.
Obviously I would recommend this book, not just to teens, but their parents as well. Aside from the topic, this is also a well-written narrative. Mackler writes to a teen audience, but she doesn’t talk down to them. The topic is serious, but this could be a great jumping-off point for conversations with your teen. I hope you find a reason to read this “challenged” book!
This was the first book I read on my summer reading list. This was one of the top “challenged” books in libraries for 2009 because it’s sexually explicit and for language (among other reasons). Of all the things that happen in this book, language and sexually explicit story lines are not the first I would have ever answered to the question, “Why shouldn’t kids read this book?”.
The story is told in first person. Readers are taken along as Virginia deals with with a mother who is so ashamed of her own overweight childhood that she acts and speaks to her overweight daughter in ways that are devistating to a 15-year-old psyche. She has a father who says those words every overweight girl has heard (and which has killed every one of them a little each time it’s said), “You would be so pretty if you lost a little weight.” Her sister has moved out (and across the world) and her brother is the Big Man On Campus in a nearby college. While they had been close, Virginia’s brother doesn’t have time for her any more. Eventually everything comes crashing down as Virginia’s brother makes a choice that shakes the whole family and leaves his own future uncertain. Her parents treat this as a little bump in the road, though, and not the tragic event it really is. This doesn’t leave any room for Virginia to process everything and heal. She doesn’t have any friends at school. She doesn’t have any friends at home. She kind of has a boyfriend, but she keeps him at arm’s length because Virginia is sure he wants nothing to do with an overweight girl. Slowly, we see Virginia take control of her life the only way she can: Through not eating (if she was thin, Virginia believes, she would be loved by her family and liked by her friends) and self-injury (like burning her hand on a candle and pinching the fat on her body until she is black and blue from head-to-toe).
So, if you asked me why shouldn’t kids read this book, my answer would be a resounding, “They should read this book if they’re over 13.” Shielding teens from books like this doesn’t stop kids from feeling the way Virginia feels in this book. Keeping this book off the shelves in the library isn’t going to stop kids from wondering about kissing a boy. It isn’t going to stop girls from eating disorders. It isn’t going to stop kids from feeling alone in their own families. Parents of teenage girls probably should also read this book. If school has taught me nothing else, it has taught me that the teen years are not like they were when I was a kid. This book may be fiction, but really, it’s not.
Obviously I would recommend this book, not just to teens, but their parents as well. Aside from the topic, this is also a well-written narrative. Mackler writes to a teen audience, but she doesn’t talk down to them. The topic is serious, but this could be a great jumping-off point for conversations with your teen. I hope you find a reason to read this “challenged” book!