Skinny by Donna Cooner

Ever Davies knows how people feel about her: Skinny tells her. Fat. Ugly. Disgusting. Freak. Pitiful. Skinny is the voice in her head, the only voice of truth in a world of lies. A world that stopped making sense when her mother left her alone when she lost the battle to cancer. Her dad tries, but it's not the same. His new wife is a blonde, perfect, perky, skinny cookie cutter of what she will never be...just like her two step sisters.

Food is the only thing that seems to offer comfort. Food and Rat, her best friend. Everyone else just looks at her like she's a beached whale, and silently judges her, or not so silently. Little do they know there is another voice inside her. Ever can sing. I mean really sing. Not that it means anything. 15 year-old girls who weigh over 300 pounds don't get the lead in the musical. It's just a pipe dream, until the day she'll never forget. The day that changes everything, forever.

She doesn't even know why she agreed to this stupid award in the first place. Her whole M.O. is to be invisible, and sitting on a stage in front of the whole student body is not. Inhale, exhale...just get through this. That's when it happens. The chair she's sitting on. It...it just...I mean...I...suddenly Ever is on the floor filled with the most profound shame of her entire life.

That's when she decides. She's got to make a change, things can't go on this way. With the support of her family and her friend, she's going through with a life changing surgery. If she can follow the rules, this fall she will be a completely different person. Jackson will see her. She will be trying out for the musical. Things will be different. They have to be, right?

This hit home with me in more ways than one. I have a close friend that is going through this process, and it really helped me understand more of what she will experience. I also loved that the author points out that we all have a Skinny inside of us telling us that we aren't good enough, that encourages us to push people away. Working with teens, I see this so often. Change is possible, but real change happens inside too. You have to change your preconceived notions about who you are, and how other perceive you before you can move forward. Ever has to see that people aren't against her before she can grow into the new person she wants to be. (Steps off her soap box.) Highly recommended for fans of issues books, and anyone with low self-esteem. I listened to it on audio, and enjoyed it.

"It's s simple solution, really. Girl loves boy. Boy loves girl. Girl gets fat. Boy leaves. Girl cuts her stomach up into a little bitty pouch to get boy back," (Cooner, 2012).

*Library Link*

If you liked this, check out:

Fat Cat by Robin Brande
Perfect by Natasha Friend
The Earth, My Butt, and Other Big Round Things by Carolyn Mackler

Cooner, Donna D. (2012). Skinny. New York: Point.

Cooner, Donna D., & Morton, Elizabeth. (2012). Skinny. New York: Scholastic Audiobooks.