Believarexic - Hardcover

Johnson, J.J.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 156145771X ISBN 13: 9781561457717

Publisher: Peachtree Publishing Company, 2015

Synopsis

Asking for help is only the first step.
Jennifer can’t go on like this―binging, purging, starving, and all while trying to appear like she’s got it all together. But when she finally confesses her secret to her parents and is hospitalized at the Samuel Tuke Center, her journey is only beginning.
As Jennifer progresses through her treatment, she learns to recognize her relationship with food, and friends, and family―and how each is healthy or unhealthy. She has to learn to trust herself and her own instincts, but that’s easier than it sounds. She has to believe―after many years of being a believarexic.
Using her trademark dark humor and powerful emotion, J. J. Johnson tells an inspiring story based on her own experience when she was hospitalized for an eating disorder as a teenager. The innovative format using blank verse and prose, changes in tense and voice, and forms, workbooks, and journal entries mirror Jennifer’s progress toward a healthy body and mind.

About this title

About the Author

J.J. Johnson graduated from Binghamton University and worked an internship coordinator for programs such as The Learning Web and Youth Advocacy. She earned a Master of Education from Harvard University, with a concentration in Adolescent Risk and Prevention. Johnson lives in North Carolina.

From School Library Journal

Gr 8–10—Jennifer's eating disorder is so severe that her entire existence is limited to restricting, bingeing, purging, and sometimes getting drunk. She confides in her mother that she needs to be hospitalized. The first chapters in this emotional book use a lighter, softer typeface, and the protagonist's desperation is described through sparse third-person verse. As Jennifer makes progress, the print becomes more substantial and the tense eventually changes to first person. The novel transitions to standard prose as Jennifer's voice gets stronger and she works to reach a healthy weight and to address her personal and family issues. The unique format and detailed portrayal of a teen girl's recovery in an in-patient hospital setting help readers feel as if they are on this journey with her. However, the amount of problems tackled in this book is overly ambitious. While in treatment, Jennifer confronts her eating disorder, alcoholism, and family issues. In a one liner buried amongst other musings, Jennifer questions her own sexuality—but this is never revisited or fleshed out. The complexity of her friends and fellow patients and the machinations of one of her nurses do not contribute to the main theme of recovery and, at times, detract from the overall story line. This work is set in the 1980s, but other than some cultural references and a now-revised diagnostic schema for eating disorders, it could have taken place anytime. Johnson carefully avoids potential triggers for readers suffering from disordered eating and body image by focusing firmly on recovery. VERDICT For general audiences, this title is enjoyable but too far-reaching, though for the many who have been personally affected by eating disorders, it can offer hope.—Tara Kehoe, New Jersey State Library Talking Book and Braille Center, Trenton

About this edition

• Publisher: Peachtree Publishing Company
• Publication date: 2015
• ISBN 10: 156145771X
• ISBN 13: 9781561457717
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 464