Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of emotional abuse, child sexual abuse, and rape.

Fern and Zinnia bond over their shared love of reading. Along with Holly and Rose, they agree to check out books together from the Bookmobile. It only comes every other week, and the girls are only allowed one book each. By choosing books that they all want to read, they reason that they will have the opportunity to read four books in the next two weeks rather than one. When the bookmobile arrives, the girls’ first choices are rejected; they are not allowed to read books that have been deemed inappropriate for their age. They are also forbidden from reading books on childbirth, a topic that Fern desperately wants to learn more about. Mrs. Parcae, the librarian, sympathizes with Fern’s desire to know more about pregnancy and childbirth. She pushes a book into Fern’s hands and tells her that it will help her understand how to be a woman. When Fern tells her how badly she has to urinate, Mrs. Parcae adjusts the fetus inside Fern’s belly, explaining that it has been pressing against her bladder.