SLOB by Ellen Potter
SLOB is the story of twelve-year-old Owen Birnbaum, the fattest kid in school. The reasons behind Owen’s eating disorder are revealed as Owen: attempts to build Nemesis (a device that will capture the events of the past), suffers through humiliation after humiliation at the hands of a cruel gym teacher, and as Owen tracks down a thief who takes his lunch time Oreo snack.
The prose often struck me as insightful. This passage, on page 29, jolted me:
Everyone thinks they know the fat kid. We’re so obvious. Our embarrassing secret is out there for everyone to see, spilling over our belts, flapping under our chins, stretching the seams of our jeans.
That doesn’t mean we don’t have other secrets that you can’t see.
I also enjoyed the occasional clever metaphor: “She may not be supersmart, but if you stick her in a crowd of people, she just pops, like a zebra-stripped jeep in a shopping mall parking lot” (p 80).
The ending kept me guessing. It’s not often you read about a boy with an eating disorder but this is an exception read. I’m sure it will be in the run for a Printz (though I’m pulling for The Devil’s Paintbox). I believe it also qualifies for the Newbery.
Body Image Challenge Report and Contest
As I posted on the Body Image Challange over at MyFavoriteAuthor, I pondered their parting question: What are you going to do next to keep the positive effect of the challange working for you in your life?
It can be tough but it’s absolutely necessary to address this question. I am in fairly good health now, but health is so flexible. Like my iron count. Some days, my iron count is fine and I can walk into a blood drive clinic and donate. The next week, my iron count can tank (opps, forgot to eat my greens) and I’m no good. A health body is a lifestyle commitment.
The Body Image Challange tackles an important issue: feeling good about yourself. But I don’t believe it’s enough just to feel good about yourself. Certainly, don’t allow others to dictate whether you feel beautiful, fat or thin, etc. Embrace yourself!
That being said, it does you no good to love yourself as you devour a Sara Lee pie. In addition to feeling positively about your body image, you must maintain a healthy body. Does this mean you need to be 5′4” with a size 4 waist and B-cup boobs? No! Does this mean you need to eat nutritiously (and this includes a moderate amount of sweets) and exercise at least 30 minutes, 3 times a week? Absolutely. Don’t just feel good mentally, feel good physically.
How do I plan to maintain my healthy body and body image?
First, eat moderately – the ‘good’ and ‘bad.’ Continue to exercise. Whether it’s playing some volleyball (fun exercise), running (hard but it relieves so much mental stress), or just enjoying a stroll on the beach (do you know how hard it is to walk in sand?!), get that heart pumping.
Secondly, surround yourself with supportive people. My coworkers are fabulous people to be around on a day to day basis. Between the vegan, the diabetic and the gluten-free eater, I’m constantly trying new, healthy foods! My family members are incredibly supportive. When my sister suffered from depression and bulima, my family stepped it up and she is now a healthy adult.
Finally, just remember what it feels like when you finish that run, or spike a ball, or dive into the surf. It’s fun, healthy and you walk away feeling great (and feeling a lot less guilty about that banana/peanut/hotfudge vanilla sundae).
Body Image Challenge
MyFavoriteAuthor is hosting a body image challenge this week. Head over to check out the cool prizes!
Part 1: Feel better about yourself. Look in the mirror and find something you like about yourself.
I’ve always appreciated the curvature of my legs. Whenever I gain weight and lament the increase to my rotund abdomen, I am at grateful that at least the fat rarely settles in my legs. They remain shapely and I feel comfortable in skirts and shorts.
Wintergirls by Laurie Halse Anderson
This is a review of the ARC copy of Wintergirls by Laurie Halse Anderson.
*** This review contains SPOILERS! ***
[IPDATED: 3/23/2009]
I shouldn’t. I can’t. I don’t deserve it. I’m a fat load and I disgust myself. I take up too much space already. I am an ugly, nasty hypocrite. I am trouble. I am a waste.
I want to go to sleep, but I don’t want to die. I want to eat like a normal person eats, but I need to see my bones or I will hate myself even more and I might cut out my heart or take every pill that was ever made (p 202-03).
Wintergirls rambles on like this most of the time. Readers are stuck in the first-person narrative mush that is Lia’s consciousness. The style itself is choppy; trying too hard (where the PR people got “lyrical and evocative prose” is a mystery to me). It dragged.
Lia is a senior and the skinniest girl in her high school. If you ask her, she would say she is thin-framed. She is actually anorexic. If you asked her about it, she would ask you why your eyes don’t work. She’d say she is clothed in fat.
The book begins with Lia’s childhood best friend, Cassie, found dead in a motel room. Lia’s hallucinations have her thinking Cassie is haunting her. We begin to understand why Lia is anorexic but by the time it is explained, I no longer care, because whatever the reason was… it’s no longer relevant.
That was the summer I finally grew, after years of being smaller than everyone. Puberty stretched me on the rack until me arms and legs popped out their sockets and my neck almost snapped. This new body smelled damp. The butt jiggled, the thighs looked a mile wide in tights, and a soft double chin bubbled up. My ballet teacher pinched the extra inches, took away my solo, and told me to stop eating maple-walnut ice cream. I went from being the elegant swan to the ugly duckling that couldn’t walk without tripping over her own feet (p 165).
Lia isn’t interested in boys (though I guessed she might be interested in girls and that played out) or ballet or sports. Just knitting and reading but those felt artificial to me.
This book has none of the subtleties of Speak. Lia name-drops so many different authors (Gaiman, Tolkien, Pierce, Yolen) that I’m not sure it’s Lia talking but rather the author.
I found the book tedious; too many adjectives (“If you catch an adjective, kill it.” Mark Twain). And it didn’t add up. After speaking with a girl who had been anorexic for years, I was able to put my finger on it:
What rang true:
- Lia’s obsession with the scale. It’s always about the number.
- Lia’s enjoyment in cooking and watching others eat.
- Cassie’s experience (though limited stage time) as a bulimic
What didn’t work:
- Lia’s empty personality. She is her anorexia. And nothing more (Anorexia is usually a symptom of something else. In this case, Lia is a Peter Pan figure who can’t accept the changes adolescence brings.). She did nothing. And yet Cassie was extremely active. Lia was a poor choice for…
- The Narrator. Her mind was mush. Her thoughts needlessly repetitive. She may read to escape but she obviously doesn’t glean any wisdom from her readings (yet Gaiman is brilliant? To me, yes. But to a schizo-like Lia?).
- Lia wonders why everyone’s eyes are broken (she’s obviously fat!) and yet she talks about exposing her skeleton… so does she is think she fat unless her insides are out?
Ms. Yingling Reads also commented on the language: “The poetic language seemed out of sorts with the topic, somehow.” Though her review overall was favorable.
Updated (9-07-09): Nominated for the Printz, I can’t help but hope it doesn’t win. It would just aggravate me. I know Anderson has something much better coming… the sequel to Chains!
Sweethearts by Sara Zarr
There are moments when I really miss Teen Librarianship. Reading Sweethearts was one of those moments. It’s a book I would have loved to booktalk. And I know it would go out. The cover alone sells the book. I still can’t look at it without the desire to eat it… my boyfriend even tried to grab the cookie off the book as it rested on the night stand one hazy morning!
Zarr, like Dessen in Just Listen, captures the female obsession/depression/anxiety related to all things food and social acceptance: the need for sweets and more sweets and the pressure to be attractive, thin. It is very well written but ultimately, I found Deanna’s story (Story of a Girl) more compelling. But this is a book whose themes of memory and resilience will stick with you long after you’ve finished reading.
