Light Enough to Float

Deeply moving and authentic, this debut novel in verse—winner of a Schneider Family Book Award Honor—follows teenage Evie through her eating disorder treatment and recovery―a perfect choice for readers of Wintergirls and Louder Than Hunger.

Evie has just barely acknowledged that she has an eating disorder when she’s admitted to an inpatient treatment facility. Now her days are filled with calorie loading, therapy sessions, and longing—for home, for control, and for the time before her troubles began. As the winter of her treatment goes on, she gradually begins to face her fears and to love herself again, with the help of caregivers and of peers who are fighting their own disordered-eating battles. This insightful, beautiful novel will touch every reader and offer hope and understanding to those who need it most.

Lauren Seal is a writer, librarian, and the Poet Laureate of St. Albert in Alberta, Canada. She mentors the teen and young adult poets of a spoken word youth choir and her poems have been published in various anthologies. This novel-in-verse, her first book, is inspired by her own experiences with anorexia, anxiety, and hospitalization. When she’s not busy recommending books to library patrons, Lauren can be found reading, writing, and composing poems in her head on long dog walks.

ISBN: 9780593700143
Format: Hardback
Pages: 352
Publisher: Penguin Young Readers Group
Published: October 08, 2024

Schneider Family Book Award Honor Winner

"Skillfully crafted . . . A realistically complex yet hopeful account of eating disorder treatment." —Kirkus Review

"An emotionally complex novel that that will linger in readers' minds."—Booklist

"The tone and tempo of this verse novel tracks with Evie’s journey toward healing. Spare, hyper focused, and compulsive at first, the cadence moving with a staccato franticness; as she comes to terms with her diagnosis and treatment, eventually a steadiness—fragile, to be sure—threads through the text. . . . A smart acknowledgment of the effect that social media has on disordered eating." —The Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books