Module 15: The Earth, My Butt, and Other Big Round Things

Our final module was a discussion and study of censorship, selection, and challenged books.  I read The Earth, My Butt, and Other Big Round Things, by Carolyn Mackler.  While I can understand why some parents or students may challenge this book's presence in a library, the reasons I imagine they would give for doing so are precisely the reasons I think that this book is important to include in a library.

Image credit: www.parentbooks.ca

This book tells the story of Virginia Shreve, an overweight girl who feels out of place in her perfect, skinny family, living in New York City.  Throughout the course of the novel, Virginia struggles with her weight, her body image, sexual experimentation, and loneliness.  Her best friend has moved to Walla Walla for the year, so Virginia feels she has no one to talk to.  Her brother gets kicked out of Columbia for date raping a girl, which shatters Virginia's beliefs about who he is.  She turns to crash dieting, self-mutilation, and teenage rebellion to try and cope with the immense emotions she is experiencing during this time.  In the end, she begins to accept herself for who she is and begins an outlet for herself and other teens at her school to express their true feelings.

Booklist reviewer Ilene Cooper says about The Earth, My Butt, and Other Big Round Things: "There's a lot going on here, and some important elements, such as Virginia's flirtation with self-mutilation, are passed over too quickly. But Mackler writes with such insight and humor (sometimes using strong language to make her point) that many readers will immediately identify with Virginia's longings as well as her fear and loathing. Her gradually evolving ability to stand up to her family is hard won and not always believable, but it provides a hopeful ending for those trying stand on their own two feet."

I felt that this book may be challenged because of the many issues the author discusses, including date rape, self-mutilation, disordered eating, confronting authority, and others.  However, I firmly believe that teens need to read books that depict situations that they may be facing in real life, and the reality is that these issues are encountered by teens every day.  Providing materials that these readers can connect to and find hope in is an important thing for librarians to do, and they should make sure that they have strong censorship and selection policies in place and a plan for handling book challenges, in order to safeguard the rights of teen readers to the books they are interested in and in need of.  For more information about censorship and other barriers to intellectual freedom in libraries, please visit the American Library Association's web page on this topic.

I think this book would be excellent for a teen girls' book club selection.  As I mentioned before, it highlights a lot of issues that teens encounter every day, from feeling alone and out of place to disliking one's body.  There is plenty to talk about in this book, and I imagine the discussion would flow pretty easily without much direction or intervention from the librarian sponsoring the group - which is important, since the teens should feel free to express their feelings and thoughts about issues that are important to them without the nay-saying or criticism of adults.
 
References:
Cooper, I.  (2003).  The Earth, My Butt, and Other Big Round Things (Book).  Booklist, 100(1), 115.
Mackler, C.  (2003).  The Earth, My Butt, and Other Big Round Things.  Cambridge, Massachusetts: Candlewick Press.