The Earth, My Butt, and Other Big Round Things

by Carolyn Mackler

First published 2018

Virginia Shreves stands in front of her mirror, cataloging everything wrong with her body. At fifteen, she towers over her classmates and weighs more than anyone in her seemingly perfect family. Her older brother Byron excels at everything while she struggles to fit in anywhere. Her best friend has moved away, leaving Virginia to figure out boys on her own. She likes Froggy Welsh, and he seems to like her back, but she worries what will happen when he sees her without layers of baggy clothes. Virginia creates her own survival guide, the Fat Girl Code of Conduct, with rules about what to eat, how to dress, and how to act. The system works until her family's perfect image shatters completely. When scandal destroys everything Virginia thought she knew about her brother and parents, she must decide whether following her rules matters more than being honest about who she really is.

Genres: fiction, american-fiction, coming-of-age, contemporary, adolescence, young-adult, realistic-fiction, family-drama

Vibes: emotional, intimate, thought-provoking

Tropes: coming-of-age, found-family

Setting: United States

Period: 21st Century

271 pages · Kindle Edition · Bloomsbury USA Childrens

Content warnings: self-harm

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