School's out, but you can still exercise your mind this summer.
This week's pick, "The Earth, My Butt and Other Big Round Things," comes from teenreads.com.
Each week, we'll spotlight a book that was either recommended by teen-literature experts or found on a school's required summer reading list.
This week's pick comes from teenreads.com.
'The Earth, My Butt and Other Big Round Things'Virginia Shreves loves making lists.
The plus-size student at a prestigious academy in New York City makes lists for everything, from the "Fat Girl Code of Conduct" to "The Earth, My Butt and Other Big Round Things."
The lists, she explains, help her brain process the everyday situations and stresses she encounters as the oddball in a family of perfect specimens.
Her older brother and sister — Byron and Anais — are impossible to live up to. Both are attractive, slim overachievers. Her mother, an adolescent psychologist, and her father, who worships thin women, round out her perfect family.
Virginia, on the other hand, is larger-than-average, the only blond in the dark-haired bunch and thinks she has nothing in common with the people she lives with.
"I'm not saying I'm a huge loser," she says. "It's just that I'm not exceptional like the rest of them."
While her family members are busy at the gym, appreciating jazz, taking in museum exhibits or golfing at the country club, Virginia prefers to plant herself in front of "Entertainment Tonight" and devour a bag of Cheetos.
"I love sitcoms and reality shows and cheesy blockbuster movies," she says. "I'm not crazy about artsy films (they don't star anyone cute!) or jazz (no lyrics!) or museum exhibits (all the artists are dead!). ... I am definitely the weakest link in the Shreves clan."
To make matters worse, Virginia's best friend has moved to Walla Walla, Wash., for a year, leaving Virginia to fend for herself at a school where being thin is valued as much as academic prowess.
And she has no one to talk to about a tenuous relationship she's started with Froggy Welsh the Fourth, a geeky classmate who enjoys spending Monday afternoons fooling around with Virginia before his trombone lesson. But following the "Fat Girl Code of Conduct," no one in school knows they're together, because you can't be seen in public dating a fat girl, Virginia says.
Just when Virginia thinks things can't get any worse, a phone call changes everything.
Upon learning her brother has committed a crime that's gotten him kicked out of college, Virginia begins to see her family for who they really are. She realizes that idolizing her brother has prevented her from seeing the truth, and in the process, has prevented her from seeing how special she is.
Throughout the book, Virginia grows as a person, coming into her own as a funny, outspoken and strong teen who learns to stand up for herself — and truly stand out in a family of former standouts.
THE DETAILS
"The Earth, My Butt and Other Big Round Things," by Carolyn Mackler
Candlewick Press, 246 pages
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