The Earth, My Butt, and Other Big Round Things

The Earth, My Butt, and Other Big Round Things by Carolyn Mackler

Kindle edition

ISBN: 9780763620912

Cambridge, MA,  Candlewick Press:  2003

Plot - If only Virginia weren't fat.  If only Virginia had dark hair, fair skin, and a penchant for succeeding at everything she touches, as the rest of her family appears to.  If only Virginia could just feel all her insecurities as intensely as she does some of the scratches she sometimes gives herself, and just be done with them.  But Virginia does not fit the mold, and she knows it.  Always having lived on the fringes of what she saw as beautiful, Just Right people around her, when she overhears one of the popular girls at her school say that if she were as fat as Virginia she would kill herself, Virginia begins to take drastic measures to be more like her perfect brother, Byron, to lose weight like her mother pressures her to, and to be enough of a person for her father.  Suddenly, though, she finds out that things are not as they always have seemed in her family.  When her brother falls from grace in her own eyes, Virginia begins to emerge from all the things she is not to discover what and who she really can be.

Critical Evaluation - This book is a lot of fun, and a slice of the other side of teenage American Pie.  Mackler hits the mark with Virginia, deftly capturing every one of her fears and insecurities, her willingness to be put down my her family, her complete unwillingness to see that a boy truly likes her, all the while exposing to the reader the roots of her eventual triumph over these painful times.  Told in first person, the tone varies from ironic and light to very, very serious.  One wonders if perhaps the author has painted the family picture slightly melodramatically--psychologist mother constantly exercising and pressuring the younger daughter to be skinny, parents always busy and away from the house, perfect brother's monumental mistake glossed over while all efforts are made to help him feel better about getting kicked out of school.  On the other hand, it is easy to see these very issues played out in young people's lives every day if one looks around much.  The book's only weakness is the speed with which Virginia grows up and out of her insecurities, expressing who she is, including being fat, as a truly fearless leader. 
Genre - YA fiction, Chick Lit, YA Problem Novel
Curriculum Ties - None readily apparent
Booktalk ideas - 

1. Read location 436-450, scene in which Dad brings in huge plate of food, offers Virginia pastries, and then comments on beautiful skinny woman on TV through just before Virginia's email to Shannon.  Ask readers to comment on what's wrong with this picture, and guess as to how Virginia gets control of her life in the face of such odds.
2. Read location 2078, where Virginia's mother is raging at her for not being there to play the lucky daughter at her mother's interview, though to the place where Virginia tells her mother that she already has a ticket to Seattle on Thanksgiving.  The drama is high, and we finally see Virginia standing up for herself.

Reading level - YA, Booklist and School Library Journal agree on grades seven through ten.

Challenge issues -date rape issue, some self mutilation, unhappy family.  The book was actually banned for a period of time beginning in February, 2008 in Colorado Springs, CO, according to the National Coalition Against Censorship.

Challenge defense ideas:

• Librarian must read the book carefully and include it as a resource intended for teens.
• Refer to school's or library's collection development policy
• Librarian greets students and regularly discusses their reading choices, providing age-appropriate guidance in book choice.
• Explain the ways in which the librarian accompanies and guides younger students looking for books, and knows students well as individuals.

Why I included this book - The Earth, My Butt, and Other Big Round Things was chosen in 2004 as a Printz Award Honor Book for literary merit.  It's the story of a girl growing up, and she is fat in her own eyes and in the eyes of the world; it is not the story of a fat girl.  That is, we learn about being a fat teenage girl, about idolizing family members, and the joy and encouragement of surrounding oneself with the right people without ever pitying the character who shows us all of this.  A worthwhile read for any young person interested in reality fiction.