Picture Book, 3rd draft

pg.1: I woke up today not feeling like myself. I reached up to pat my head, thinking that maybe my favorite pink bow had fallen off while I was sleeping...it was still there.
pg.2: I pushed my covers down, stepped out of bed, and walked toward my mirror. I gasped. I was a green, hairy, slimy, fat, gross monster! I touched my hair and felt worms. I poked my stomach, and green slime oozed on my finger. I opened my mouth, and out came bug juice. “AHHHHH!”
pg.3: When my friends came over, like they usually do on Saturdays, they rang the doorbell and I peeked out of the mail slot. Ava and Julie looked down and smiled at me. I opened the door, and then after they were inside slammed it shut. Luckily, no-one but Ava and Julie were outside to see me. “What’s wrong?” Ava asked. I shushed them and pulled them up the stairs to my room.
pg.4: “I woke up today,” I gulped, “A MONSTER!” They looked at each other, then replied “No silly! You’re not a monster! You’re pretty! Now can we go back outside to play house? You can be the mommy this time!” “Are you crazy! I can’t go outside looking like this! I am ugly and fat and green and slimy! Can’t you see?” “What are you talking about? You look completely normal!”
pg.5: After Ava and Julie left early, since they were bored with me stuck inside, my mom asked if I wanted to go out for pizza, or maybe ice-cream. Yikes! I thought. I can’t have all my friends seeing me like this! They will laugh at me! “No thanks mommy. Let’s just stay home tonight.”
pg.6: On Sunday, instead of playing with my friends like I usually do on Sundays, I was sitting on my couch, waiting for them. And waiting. And waiting. And waiting. They never came!
pg.7: I was looking out the window when I saw Ava and Julie walking straight towards my house, ice-creams in hand, laughing in the sun. Finally! But then...they walked past my door to go a few houses down to Julie’s house. I jumped up and through the mail slot called out to them. “Guys! Why didn’t you come over?” “Um, well, yesterday all you did was sulk around your room. Today we kind of wanted to go outside to have fun! You aren’t a monster, and we don’t know how many more times we have to say it!” Then they walked away. Tears started coming to my eyes, and my face grew hot and red.
pg.8: I stormed back up to my room to the mirror. “HEY! Everyone says I look normal, so they must be right! Stop lying to me about who I am! I am not a monster! I know if I went outside, no-one would look at me strange. Go away!”
pg.9: And just like that, the monster slowly became me again.
MAYBE: pg.10: When I woke up the next day, feeling totally normal, bow still on my head, I walked towards my mirror. There was a girl standing there, with plain black hair, pale skin, and only a tongue in her mouth. (OR just show image)
pg.10 (IMAGE):- Annie’s back (mostly dominant part of page), then front in mirror (smiling) and have room colorful and happy, with girl with messy black hair, petite, skirt, etc with a pink bow on her head
pg.11: It was me OR/AND I was back

Research Assignment Topic #1: Anorexia

When reading articles on anorexia, all of them said that doctors and therapists were trying to study the disease to control it. After reading books and other articles on anorexia, I realized what to study in anorexia would be the mind. Anorexia is mostly a disease of the mind, in where the mind turns against your body and forces it to shut-down to ‘look better’ in the critical eyes of the world. Anorexia and starving yourself is not easy to ‘do’, or get out of, for it is a vicious cycle. Through these poems, though not a simple task, I tried my best to jump in the mind of an anorexic, or lover of an anorexic, and see how they feel and what goes on to make them starve themselves of food and love.

In my eyes, the 1st poem portrays how an anorexic thinks, and how they believe the world sees them. The 2nd poem's intention was simply to show how hard it can be to move past something like anorexia. The final poem was an overview of how you go from a normal, happy person into an anorexic, which to me is one of the saddest stages you could fall to.

If I did write a picture book based off of anorexia, I think I would do it something like a girl’s world is good, life happy, but she still isn’t happy with how she has it and who she is. Maybe she would have these small moments/feelings I put in the poems above, and then, since it is a children’s book, learn to accept herself how not only others/media see her, but how she sees herself.


The Mirror

The mirror frowns at me
cold and mocking
whispering words that penetrate my heart
more than the hunger penetrates my stomach

I cross my arms
the mirror smirks
I cry
the mirror watches
It knows
for it’s seen it all
the girls shedding rapidly
shrinking, their silhouette melting
as they fall
one by one
ears too accepting
to the critical world
stomach too small
to want more food
hearts too dry
to accept more love
bodies too used

to the way they made it


1 Step Forward, 2 steps Back

pushing
walking
stumbling
running
stopping

stopping

stopping

Give it back
Take it all

pushing
walking
stopping

stopping

stuck



Girl

The girl laughs
turns her head,
the light hitting it at an angle
to make it glow

She dances in the rain
singing and skipping
kicking off her boots at the door
trudging through the house

The mom laughs and says
“You got water on the floor!”

“Let the heat dry it”
she says

The girl is older
she comes home,
plays the music filled with
words of anger and obsession
stomps around
searching for love,
and clothes
and hair

The girl is now
sad
no love
just glances

No clothes
that fit at least

No hair
for it falls out as she combs

The routine is simple
don’t eat

That’s it
In all its nothingness

She doesn’t like how hard it is
misses the things
and people she used to love

All she does now
is dream about a life
A normal life


Silly little girl
she gave it up that day
when she started losing
to all the winners in the world

2 sources:
Deardorff, Julie. "Eating with an Anorexic Child: A Controversial Treatment." Chicago Tribune (Chicago, IL). 25 Jun 2010: n.p. SIRS Researcher. Web. 27 Nov 2010.

Marano, Hara Estroff. "The Skinny Sweepstakes." Psychology Today Vol. 41 No.1. Jan/Feb. 2008: 88-95. SIRS Researcher. Web. 14 Nov 2010