Obesity is debilitating at any age. But when it happens to young, innocent boys and girls (as in childhood obesity) it often undermines the self-perception and confidence necessary for them to keep on keeping on. And whenever a child gives up and stops trying, everyone loses.
In that light, I’d like to introduce our audience to The Fat Boy Chronicles, a new book that captures the pain, frustration, and alienation of a teenage boy named Jimmy Winterpock by taking its readers on a walk inside his shoes. The novel, written as a journal assigned by Jimmy’s English teacher, leaves very little to the imagination.
Authors Diane Lang and Michael Buchannan (both former teachers) based this diary/adventure on personal observations and in our view it should rank high on the reading lists of every educator and parent in the USA. It will serve as a kick in the pants, a motivation to take action now instead of later.
Now here’s a short excerpt from Lang/Buchanan’s The Fat Boy Chronicles.
Thursday 11-9 - People act like it’s my fault that I’m fat, and maybe it is, but I don’t eat any more than most teenagers. I just have a slower metabolism than a lot of kids my age, which means I have to work at it more. But no one told me this when I started putting on the weight. I mean, I didn’t get like this on purpose. I was only a kid when this weight thing all started – I didn’t know my eating habits made me this way until it was too late.
I don’t get Mr. Gardner. Like, why didn’t he show up in the lunchroom and hang around lie he said he would? It’s like he really didn’t think it was that big of a deal. Like jocks picking on fat kids is normal. I’ll bet he’d really freak if I started calling kids “dummies” because they don’t get good grades like I do. I’d get ISS if I did that.
I mean, I have an uncle who died because he smoked when he was in the army and got cancer. What if when my parents and I went to visit him in the hospital, we didn’t tell him we loved him? What if we yelled at him for smoking? It was his fault after all. Or, what if I laughed at the kids who crashed in that wreck last month? They had been drinking, so, it was their fault that they almost died. No one would dare say anything mean to them, because they almost experienced a tragedy. But no one understands how much of a tragedy it is for a kid to be overweight, especially a kid everyone makes fun of.
Aren’t my feelings important? Sometimes I sit in class and wonder if anyone would notice if I were gone. I guess Allen would, and Spencer. Maybe Nate, in a bad way. That probably is not what a kid my age should be thinking about, but I can’t help it. Thinking that way makes me depressed and then I eat more, which causes me to gain more weight, which causes more depression, and on and on. It really sucks. (Pages 73/74)
Coming to a theater near you, and…
Interestingly enough, The Fat Boy Chronicles has recently been made into a full length movie and is scheduled for release in the summer of 2010. For more information, and to see the movie’s trailer, check out the website at www.thefatboychronicles.com.
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