Manning Up
Jack is at the top of his game. He’s a senior running back on the football team, dominating every opponent in his way.
To everyone else, Jack is totally in control. In reality, he struggles with an eating disorder that controls every aspect of his daily life.
When Jack starts using steroids, he feels invincible, but will the steroids help him win the big game, or will he lose everything he’s ever worked for?
“A lightweight for reluctant readers, a heavyweight for those facing body dysmorphia.”
— Kirkus Reviews
“I wish this was 100 pages longer.”
— Good Reads
“A hi-lo novel in verse that’s wildly appealing to reluctant readers and sports fans. An instant buy and hit in our 7th grade classroom library. 4 stars.”
-writeonwithmissg.com
Named a “2021 Quick Pick for Reluctant Young Adult Readers”
by the Young Adult Library Services Association
Google Books | Library Thing | New York City School Library System | Texas Library Association |
There are countless books dealing with eating disorders and body dysmorphia for women, and rightfully so, there are far fewer books addressing the issue from other perspectives. This article from The New York Times discusses research done around the socialization of children from emotive youths to guarded adolescents. If others had more exposure to issues normally focused on women, we may be able to avoid them developing into the toxic hyper-masculine men who on the shallow-end, are emotionally closed-off in their interpersonal relationships, and on the deep end, commit heinous crimes.
Manning Up attempts to fill the vacuum of young adult literature for young men with eating disorders and body dysmorphia, in the hopes of moving us in the direction of raising and educating children the same way.