Underneath

Abstract

Underneath is a full-length novel that follows Maggie Lawrence, a twelve-year-old girl growing up in the late 1970s, through the first eight months of her parents' divorce. To escape their fighting, Maggie crawls under her bed. There, she is transported to the Forest, a place where all the animals who were in the tree when the tree was cut down to make Maggie's bed are trapped. Maggie helps her friends attempt to escape the Forest, a place where nothing can change or grow, while struggling with the feeling that, in her real world, Maggie doesn't want anything to change or to grow. In an attempt to remain thin enough to fit under her bed and visit the Forest, Maggie develops an eating disorder, which eventually places her in the hospital. Through recovery, Maggie must learn to adapt to new changes in her life and accept her parents as they are, while also finding her own reasons to want to grow up and reflect these adults who aren't always perfect.