The Year My Life Went Down the Toilet

A hilariously honest book about surviving middle school while navigating a chronic illness from the Stonewall Honor-winning author of Almost Flying.

Twelve-year-old Al Schneider is too scared to talk about the two biggest things in her life:

1. Her stomach hurts all the time and she has no idea why.
2. Shes almost definitely 100% sure she likes girls.

So she holds it inuntil she cant. After nearly having an accident of the lavatorial variety in gym class, Al finds herself getting a colonoscopy and an answershe has Crohns disease.

But rather than solving all her problems, Al's diagnosis just makes everything worse. Its scary and embarrassing. And worst of all, everyone wants her to talk about ither overprotective mom, her best friend, and most annoyingly her gastroenterologist, who keeps trying to get her to go to a support group for kids with similar chronic illnesses. But, who wants to talk about what you do in the bathroom?

The Year My Life Went Down the Toilet is a wildly funny and honest story about finding community, telling the truth even when its hard, and the many indignities of middle school life. See more