Wonder WorldBook Cafe
Welcome to Season 5! ✨✨
Title: Louder than Hunger
Episode: 80
Author: John Schu
Publisher: Candlewick Press
Tags: anorexia, depression, grief, anxiety, obsessive compulsive disorder, healing, writing, mixtapes, coming of age
Intended Audience: upper middle grade, young adult
Pages/Format: In verse, 513 pages
More: SDG 3 (Good Health) Audio Books are Reading, Libro.fm ALC, Jarett Learner’s A Work in Progress , Bookelicious
Windows, Mirrors, and Sliding Glass Doors Rudine Simms Bishop
Question: Who do you know that needs to read this story?
Quote
“As Dr. Parker and I walk through
the maze of hallways
that lead to the lobby,
she says,
I think music, art, and theater help you heal.
Stories help you make sense of the world.
They help you tell your own story. The story of Jake” (497).
Meet Jake, a young teen, as he tentatively moves forward after a year of treatment for disordered eating.
Intro
Welcome to episode 80 where I’m sharing a book written in verse, Louder Than Hunger by John Schu. Officially this story is shelved as middle grade, though readers well beyond their teen years need this one.
Set the stage
Sometimes when finishing a book, I can’t stop thinking, worrying, or wondering about a character. How are they doing now? What happened after the last page? Louder Than Hunger gives us a rare opportunity to know what happens years after the story ends because here, the author shares how this story reflects many of his own experiences.
Summary
It’s 1996.
8th grader Jake is being bullied.
Bullied by hateful kids and one other exceptionally loud, relentless bully: a voice that lives inside of him that will not quit. This innerbully constantly tells him he’s repulsive, undeserving of anything good like love and kindness and food.
Frequently weighing himself, sometimes 20 times a day, he eats less and less. In fact, he says, "The less I eat, the less I feel…I punish myself for being me” (17, 18). Then, he excessively exercises to burn calories. Jake lives in fear people will find out he’s starving himself.
Few people are comforting. One person is Jake’s only friend, his dearly loved grandma. The other may be an angel statue in the park that he calls Frieden to whom he confesses his fears (he’s scared and needs help). And the last is Ms. Burns, the blind woman Jake reads to while satisfying his 8th grade community service requirement. In fact, it’s Ms. Burns’ intuition that something is wrong with Jake, that leads to his treatment. Her call to Jake’s mom, followed by a doctor’s appointment results in Jake’s admittance to Whispering Pines, a facility that can hopefully treat his anorexia nervosa. Now, does he listen to the Voice (that’s Voice with a capital V) that tells him to lie about his condition or listen to himself saying, “We need help. We’re going to die”?
Now, with Jake at Whispering Pines, his story unfolds with daily entries: day 1, day 2, and so forth…Jake meets his team of healers: a psychiatrist, counselor, dietitian, and art therapist. His days now consist of school work, group therapy, and trying to earn privileges like using the phone and having visitors, and the Voice continues, always the loud tormenter.
Being severely underweight causes an abnormally slow heart rate and now, Jake is forced to use a wheelchair, and yet he’s still trying to exercise and refuses to talk, yet wonders: if he did want to talk, would the Voice allow it?
Then another blow: Jake is also diagnosed with obsessive compulsive disorder, and depression. None of which are surprising, but still…The Voice won’t stop and new medications bring difficult side effects. Later still, another diagnosis: osteoporosis.
People in Jake’s group therapy come and go, and by Day 87, Jake wonders how much longer until he can leave. He wants to go home so he can restrict his calories and stop playing the Whispering Pines game. Finally, on day 99, Jake is now an outpatient, still receiving services, but able to live at home, but his homegoing is met with a visit to his grandma in the hospital hooked up to machines.
The Voice continues, and Jake is readmitted to Whispering Pines. More therapy. More questions. With Jake’s refusal to eat, there is no choice: Jake now has a feeding tube. A catalyst for Jake to finally share his feelings with his doctor: Jake felt this Voice was his friend and now, he has permission to tell that so-called friend otherwise as he’s reminded and finally listens to Dr. Parker explaining his recovery is difficult work and despite that, she believes Jake can do it.
Does Louder Than Hunger, sound like a story somebody you know needs to read? Through journal entries, letters, a variety of poetry forms, sparse at times, and confessions readers will feel the intensity of Jake’s seemingly insurmountable battle as he fights with the voice. Rest somewhat assured as the story ends, we see glimmers of slow yet steady strides toward recovery.
Since not every story is for every reader, I’d like to mention…
Jake’s story is honest. Raw. Real and agonizing at times; some parts are difficult to read. John Schu does not shy away from a tough, much needed to know about topic. Jake’s grandma passes away. Second grade Jake tried to save an abused dog; his retelling is tough to read. School is not safe for Jake with continuous vicious comments and incessant teasing. The author reminds readers who may be struggling with disordered eating or know someone who is to ask for help and provides a list of resources where readers can get more information about depression, OCD, and disordered eating.
Wondering who might be interested in this story?
Jake struggles with mental health and his story offers a mirror for some readers - who will feel seen and encouraged to ask for help while validating how difficult this work truly is. Louder Than Hunger also offers a glimpse into a world perhaps unknown to some.
If just one reader sees themselves reflected through Louder Than Hunger then that is enough, though I suspect Jake’s story will resonate, in some way, with countless teen readers. Who do you know that needs this story.
I LOVE knowing author's backgrounds! Inevitably pieces of their lives very often land on the pages of their story, one way or another. This is certainly the case for Louder Than Hunger.
John Schu is a librarian for Bookelicious and a lecturer at Rutgers University. “Schu invites us to imagine the many ways books can foster connection and understanding” (bookelicious.com). He explains that Jake’s story is rooted in his own experiences as a young person. While this is a work of fiction, the author says that he has experienced many of the same struggles and also spent time in treatment programs, similar to Jake. The author reminds us, “Recovery requires work” and says, “every so often, the voice wakes up…I roar bak. I reach for all the skills and strategies therapists and group therapy have taught me.”
On these pages, there’s much to love!
Numerous mentions of music give Jake and readers a sense of hope: He loves
Barbra Streisand and Broadway (Into the Wild, The Wizard of Oz, The Sound of Music)
Mixtapes with Sarah Mclachlan, Tina Turner, and Alanis Morisette!
Jake’s precious relationship with his grandmother
Jake’s story is just so, so honest, something young readers appreciate.
Since disordered eating is more commonly discussed among females, Jake is a gift. ( I LOVED A Work in Progress by Jarett Learner’s A Work in Progress.)
I found a quick video where John Schu reminds us that audio books are reading books. So timely as I first listened to Louder than Hunger via Libro.fm’s advanced listener copy program - a much, much appreciated, free of charge benefit available to educators. (I talked more about this at the end of episode 59). After listening, I picked up a hard copy; I wanted to see the juxtaposition of the words with different fonts and varying degrees of sizes and darkness, all skillfully used to allow readers into Jake’s heart and mind.
Take a look at the episode notes if you’d like a transcript and many resources related to Louder Than Hunger.
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I’m wondering; is there anybody you know that should read this story? If so, please share this podcast and while you’re there, a quick review or rating keeps me motivated!
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