This memoir, written as a collection of essays, details Funk's upbringing in the Mennonite Community of Vanderhoof, British Columbia in the 1980s and 90s.
In the chapter called "The Changeroom" Funk describes the cringey awkwardness of her mother and older girl cousins trying to explain puberty to her in a world where euphemisms around body parts and bodily functions abound. In universal adolescent fashion a young Funk rolls her eyes at her mother and declares that she probably knows more than her mother, having read the "secret book" in the library of the Christian school she attended, that explained how the human body worked - including a "single page dedicated to reproduction". She and her friend attempted to sound out words that they'd never heard before and Funk confidently proclaims that "it rhymes with tennis" only to learn in a rather humiliating manner that penis has a long "e" sound. They didn't dare to ask any adults the correct pronunciation of any of the words because they (the adults) couldn't possibly be aware that the school's four-shelf library "contained a book with such forbidden language".
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