Seventh grade is off to a rough start for Al: She’s just been diagnosed with Crohn’s disease. This explains the stomach pain she’s been having, but it doesn’t make it any less embarrassing to leave class every time she needs to use the bathroom—or worse, has an accident at school. Though she’s initially reluctant to attend, Al (white and Jewish) finds unexpected friendships and solidarity in a support group for kids with Crohn’s or ulcerative colitis; to her surprise, the kids there talk openly about, and even find humor in, their symptoms. These new friendships are especially welcome since Al’s best friend, Leo (Filipino American, Jewish), hardly has time for her now that he’s been cast in the school play. And at home, Al’s relationship with her single mom—who constantly questions Al’s food choices and recently started dating a woman—is strained. Al, too, has started dating a girl from her support group, but now she feels she can’t come out. What if everyone thinks she’s just copying her mom? While it does not shy away from describing the physical and emotional toll of chronic illness, this well-balanced novel shows that chronically ill children can thrive when provided with the right support system and a space to talk about their experiences without shame. (Ages 8–12)

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. She’s almost definitely 100% sure she likes girls.

So she holds it in…until she can’t. After nearly having an accident of the lavatorial variety in gym class, Al finds herself getting a colonoscopy and an answer—she has Crohn’s disease.

But rather than solving all her problems, Al's diagnosis just makes everything worse. It’s scary and embarrassing. And worst of all, everyone wants her to talk about it—her 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 it’s hard, and the many indignities of middle school life.