Plot Summary
Virginia is from a wealthy New York City family in which everyone is sleek and successful--except for her. She has to shop in the plus-size section of Saks Fifth Avenue and has learned to follow the "Fat Girl Code of Conduct" which assumes that no boy would ever want to date her. Virginia's best friend has moved to Walla Walla, Washington, her mother, a child psychologist, just wants her to stick to a diet, and her father ogles skinny women on the television. Froggy Welsh the Fourth wants to make out with her, but what if he sees underneath her shirt? Virginia figures that her plus size figure is the main source of any family problems--but realizes that there's more to it when her "perfect" brother moves back home.
Critical Evaluation
The characterization of Virginia is pitch perfect in places--she’s a classic model of a teenage girl who is smart and sassy yet crippled by self-doubt which invariably leads to self-destructive behaviors. Her parents are fairly unsuccessful in supporting their only child who is not lean like they are, and they are actively destructive of Virginia’s sense of self throughout the novel. With her left friend off in Seattle for the year and her supportive older sister in the Peace Corps, Virginia has limited support (a kind English teacher and Froggy whose sincerity she doubts) when she has a crisis of faith in her family. Virginia’s revelations about her family’s foibles and her resulting transformation into a self-confident, size-positive young woman happen so quickly that a reader could feel skeptical, but really, anything is possible during adolescence!
Reader’s Annotation
Virginia feels that she must have been switched at birth. How else is it possible that she could be the one blond, chubby daughter in a family of sleek brunettes?
Information about the Author
According to the author’s website, “Carolyn Mackler is the author of the popular teen novels, The Earth, My Butt, and Other Big Round Things (A Michael L. Printz Honor Book), Tangled, Guyaholic, Vegan Virgin Valentine, and Love and Other Four-Letter Words. Carolyn's novels have been published in several countries, including the United Kingdom, Australia, Germany, France, Italy, Korea, the Netherlands, Denmark, Israel, and Indonesia.
Carolyn has contributed to magazines including Seventeen, Glamour, CosmoGIRL!, Girls' Life, Storyworks, and American Girl. She has a short story in Thirteen, edited by James Howe, and in Sixteen, edited by Megan McCafferty. In 2008, Carolyn was a judge for the National Book Award for Young People's Literature.
Carolyn lives in New York City with her husband and two young sons. She is currently at work on her sixth novel.”
Genre
Realistic Fiction/ Chick Lit
Curriculum Ties
N/A
Booktalking Ideas
Describe Virginia and from her own perspective and from her mother’s perspective. (Look at this from the beginning of the novel.)
Challenge Issues
The book references a rape and could be challenged on those grounds. If the book were challenged, I would turn to ALA's Strategies and Tips for Dealing with Challenges to Library Materials.
Why Included?
When I saw this novel, I noticed that it was a Printz award winner, and it sounded funny. I wanted to include a coming-of-age novel that is size-positive.
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