Jo Knowles

Noah, his parents, and his sister, Emma, are a normal family living in small-town America. But they have a sword hanging over their heads - Emma's eating disorder - that they are afraid might fall at any moment. They tiptoe around "The Thing They Don't Talk About", hoping they are not seeing what they think they are. Unfortunately, they really have been seeing the signs: Emma has not been eating again, and must be hospitalized.

Noah can't understand why Emma won't just eat. He worries that he show more and his parents should have somehow stopped it from happening again. And he feels guilty for being angry at Emma for the disruption in their lives and the attention she always gets, due to her eating disorder. Noah must work through all these feelings and come to the realization that there will not be an easy resolution to their problems. He feels like Emma was their family's pivot, and now he's got to find his own emotional balance in the middle of a complex and not-easily-resolved situation.

Knowles has a deft touch, able to present a complex disorder (and the complex and sometimes-conflicting feelings that come with being the loved one of a person who suffers from it) in a way that is approachable for middle school kids. Noah is a very likable and believable protagonist. Secondary characters like his friends and family have strong voices of their own. Emotionally resonant. I highly recommend this story. show less

This book should come with a warning label: DO NOT READ IF YOU LOVE A CHILD. Because, ugh, what a heartbreaking punch to the gut. Very, very glad I read it at home and not, say, on the subway or something.

Very real characters you get to know and love quickly. Also nice to see the gay-kid storyline as just a regular thing, not This Is A Huge Deal And Everyone Is Freaking. It's just something that is, and I liked how that was handled.

I read this book because a principal who was involved in banning it from schools was convicted of having child pornography a few weeks ago.

It's incredibly ironic because the central theme of the book is how hiding child sexual abuse destroys lives. Of course sexual predators wouldn't want girls to read this book.

Other people have said this is 16 , but the publisher's guidelines say 13 , and I've recommended it for younger. Yes, it contains dark themes. But sunlight is the best disinfectant. show more Child sexual abuse thrives because of secrecy, a central theme of this book.

Children who haven't been sexually abused aren't going to be traumatised from reading a book about it, and children who recognise themselves in the book - and there will be some who sadly will - could be empowered to protect themselves, or at least feel less alone. By "protecting" children from learning sexual abuse exists by preventing them from reading this book, we leave children who are actually being sexually abused in the darkness. show less

When Ellie gets pregnant after a one-time encounter with Josh at a party, she's not the only one affected. This book looks at teen pregnancy from multiple viewpoints--Ellie, Josh, and their respective best friends--as they confront the end to all their innocence.

While I liked the multiple POV and the honest acknowledgement of the teen father's emotions as well as the teen mother's, there was a troubling undertone of "If you have sex, your life will be ruined. Ruined!!!!"

The two best show more friends, who hooked up but hung onto their virginity, finish the book happy and positive, while the two teen parents are lost and depressed. Ellie drifts along, looking at every baby and missing her own, while Josh actually changes schools to get away from Ellie and the reminder of what he lost without ever really having it.

I'm not saying they should have forgotten the whole thing and gone back to algebra class, but some kind of epilogue that shows the way the experience changed them without totally destroying their lives would have satisfied me. show less