The Disability Book Archive

[ID: Cover for the book “The Year My Life Went Down the Toilet” by Jake Maia Arlow. The author’s name is written at the top in white capitals. The title is written down the centre, on art of a toilet stall door, in mostly blue capitals. “Life” and “Toilet” are written in large, red cursive. Small blue text reading “Keep your friends close and the bathroom closer.” is written at the bottom of the cover, on an an unravelled strip of toilet paper. Colourful cover art shows a person in a large yellow toilet stall. The doors are decorated in various colourful stickers. Only the legs and feet of the person are visible. They are wearing blue pants cuffed at the ankle and red sneakers. An orange and purple backpack is on the floor beside them. The unravelled toilet roll continues to unravel behind them. /end]

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Content Warning:

• Medical Procedure Descriptions
• Hospitalisation
• Description of Being Put Under Anaesthesia
• Minor mentions of blood
• Excrement

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Summary:

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

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.

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Notes:

There is a kindle edition.

There is an audiobook.

Here is a link to the author’s website.

Awards this book has been nominated for:

• Washington State Book Award for Young Readers (2024) (Finalist)
• Garden State Teen Book Award (Finalist)

This book was illustrated by Aishwarya Tandon and designed by Kaitlin Yang.

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Archivist Comments:

Some people are complaining that Arlow has “obviously” written the book they wished they’d had as a queer, Jewish teen growing up with Crohn’s, but I don’t see what the problem is with that. I was dealing with a sexuality crisis, IBS and undiagnosed lactose intolerance when I was the same age as the books protagonist- these experiences aren’t as “unrealistic” as some people like to believe.

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