Deenie is a 1973 young adult novel by Judy Blume, about Deenie, a middle school girl with scoliosis. It also includes other aspects of adolescent development, but unlike Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret, which covers a girl's coming of age in general, this book focuses on Deenie's scoliosis.
Deenie is a seventh grader in Elizabeth, New Jersey whose mother wants her to be a model. While trying out for modelling and cheerleading, she has problems with her posture, which are soon revealed to be due to scoliosis, and the book goes into some detail (probably accurate at the time) about the diagnosis and treatement of scoliosis, including needing to be fitted for a brace. These medical procedures cause stress on her family, as her blue collar father has to figure out how to pay for all of this, and her pushy mother has had her dreams of having a daughter who is a model dashed---at least for a while. And also, she is afraid of her friends seeing her in the brace. But by the end of the story, she has managed to feel some sort of self-confidence, and has stood up for herself against her mother. The story does something difficult---mix real character development with a didactic guide to scoliosis (and, by extension, other adolescent health conditions). Deenie learns to be less judgmental, becoming friends with a girl with eczema who she had previously excluded, and also learning that masturbation is natural and good, and doesn't cause scoliosis.
A point about that: parts of this book, like much of Judy Blume's, are very forward thinking and instructive, even fifty years later. As I have mentioned several times before, young adult fiction has gotten further from normal life. But other aspects of this book seem somewhat dated. One of the things that struck me the most was Deenie's mother, who in the book is seen as difficult, but not actually abusive. I think today, the idea of a mother driving a 12 year old girl into modelling, an activity that at some level is always going to be sexualized, would be seen as much more controversial than it was in the early 70s. Another thing that seems out of date is how aggressive the sexual advances of the boys in her class towards Deenie are. In one scene, a boy that Deenie likes pushes her against the wall and kisses her, the question is not whether she consents to it, but whether she is self-confident to "go along with it" even though he might feel her brace. I get the point of the scene, but it definitely feels dated.
"Deenie" isn't considered a classic the way that "Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret" is, but I feel it is a good example of Blume's work, and is interesting to a modern reader, despite the things in it that seem dated.