The Year My Life Went Down the Toilet

Ashkenazi Jewish seventh grader Al would much rather be “a brain in a jar connected to a supercomputer” than have to manage the complications that come with a chronic illness or navigate her burgeoning feelings for another girl. This proves especially true as, following a visit to a porta potty during gym because she can’t control her aching kishkes (“guts” in Yiddish), an appointment with a gastroenterologist reveals she has Crohn’s disease. At her mother and doctor’s urging, Al joins a middle school inflammatory bowel disease support group—which the attendees affectionately dub the Bathroom Club—to meet kids like her. She immediately crushes on Mina, who also has Crohn’s. But even as Al gets closer to her new friends, she struggles with adapting to her diagnosis and dealing with feelings of loneliness when her best friend Leo joins the drama club and begins spending less time with her. Via Al’s plucky, plain-spoken first-person narration, Arlow (How to Excavate a Heart) presents an honest and exceptional story of a tween’s experience dealing with rapid and abundant change, while tenderly reflecting upon themes of chronic illness, found family, interdependence, and queerness. Supporting characters are intersectionally diverse. Ages 10–14. (Aug.)