Bouncing Bet

In 1921, a girl named Betty Pogany learned that being large and awkward in a world that celebrates smallness is its own kind of magic. Called "Bouncing Bet" by the cruel children who couldn't see past her size, Betty has spent her life shrinking from gazes that linger too long, laughing along when the joke is really on her. But then there's Tommy Finnemore, a country boy with a head full of tricks and a heart that sees differently. When Tommy describes Betty to a curious neighbor, we understand what this novel knows in its bones: there is nothing wrong with Betty. There is everything wrong with a world that measures worth in inches. Joslyn Gray's novel traces the tender friendship between Betty and Tommy as they navigate the small cruelties and unexpected kindnesses of small-town life in South Paulding. Through magic tricks and stolen moments, through the judgments of neighbors and the silent wars fought at school, Betty begins to suspect what Tommy has always known: that her bigness is not a flaw to be corrected but a fact to be inhabited with pride. This is a story about growing up with a body that doesn't match the world's ideals, and finding the people who love you anyway.