Wednesday, March 18, 2009

Big FAT Manifesto by Susan Vaught - ESSENTIAL

Vaught, Susan Big FAT Manifesto pgs. 336 Bloomsbury USA Children's Books

Language~PG-13, Sexual Content~PG; Violence~PG

MS, HS –ESSENTIAL 

Jaime D. Carcaterra is a new strong and vibrant voice in fiction written for Teens. Jaime is a talented senior at Garwood High School. She is Feature Editor for the school’s newspaper, The Wire. She has a boyfriend on the football team, is cast as the villain witch in the school musical, and loves to spend time with her girlfriends. Sounds like a pretty typical teenager right? There is just one more thing . . .she is fat. . . like 300+lbs. Jamie desperately wants to go to college but may not be able to afford the tuition, so she intends to “write the best Fat Girl feature series ever, expose the politics and social injustices of being a fat female in today’s world” The series will be entered in the National Feature Award contest. If she wins first place her funding for college will be in the bag. What Jaime didn’t count on was her ‘big’ boyfriend getting gastric bypass surgery. Jaime’s world begins to turn upside down as she tries to support him in this decision.

Susan Vaught has given a voice to an ever increasing group of teens and the trouble/ridicule they face. The tally of swears in this novel is low. There are a few deity curse words but there are no f’s. The violence rating is for the discussion of the Gastric Bypass surgical procedure.

Allison Madsen~Teen Librarian-SJO Public Library

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