We've got your back. With the Tough-O-Meter, you'll know whether to bring extra layers or Swiss army knives as you summit the literary mountain. (10 = Toughest)
(3) Base Camp
The prose in The Earth, My Butt, and Other Big Round Things isn't challenging, but the book does get off to a bit of a slow start. At first, it appears to be another litany of everyday problems by another unhappy high school girl, and you might wonder if anything's going to happen. Stick with it, though, because in Chapter 12—around a hundred pages in—the Shreves family gets a phone call that makes the plot take off like an Olympic speed skater. It's well worth the wait, and the book careens toward the end from this point on.