Fat Girl

By Marilyn Sachs

Book Overview

Jeff Lyons can't stand Ellen de Luca, the fat girl in his ceramics class. She's huge, clumsy, can't throw a pot to save her life, and stares at Jeff all the time. But he's a nice guy and feels terrible when Ellen overhears his hurtful remarks about her. The crumbs of kindness he tosses her way soon turn into advice on weight loss, college, clothes, hair . . . and, to everyone's surprise, good-looking Jeff actually dumps his pretty girlfriend to be with the fat girl! Re-creating Ellen is a labor of love, Jeff thinks. But as her pounds melt away, Jeff resents the happy, independent young woman he has unleashed. Where is the gratitude for all he's done for her? With this darkly ironic take on the classic Pygmalion tale, Marilyn Sachs offers young readers a candid portrayal of what happens when the intoxicating thrill of control is confused with love.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0738710008
• ISBN13: 9780738710006
• Release Date: April 2007
• Publisher: Flux
• Length: 240 Pages
• Weight: 0.50 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 5.0" x 7.0"
• Age Range: 12 to 18 years
• Grade Range: Grade 7 to Postsecondary

Customer Reviews

I loved this book

This fall I've read a book called `The Fat Girl'. It was a very good book, one of the best I've read. It was very realistic and inspiring as well. The book can teach you as very valuable lesson on judging people. Basically it tells you that you should judge people on how they look, but what's on the inside. Everyone has different looks on the outside of course. However, when you judge people on how they look it hurts them and eventually it hurts you. In the book this boy judged this girl because she had a weight problem. But one day when he was making fun of her she was standing right there. Afterwards he eventually apologized and they became friends. That shows first off you shouldn't talk about people behind their back. Secondly, you should get to know them before you judge them.

This book was a complete surprise

I couldn't believe how good this book is. The story is a compleate surprise. Based in the 80's were people were all different one girl didn't understand why this fun was denied to her simply because of her weight. When she threatens to kill herself she get help from a surprising person. The one who had despised her most, a normal popular kid ends up liking her. But there ends up being catch he doesn't just like her he owns her. The fat girl takes a crash course in what is to far and when do you draw the line between love and obbsession.

The Fat Girl

This book was good, but to be honest I didn't think it was going to be because it talked a lot about ceramics. Later I found out it was just setting up a place where a lot of the stuff happens. It's about a guy named Jeff and he chooses ceramics so he won't have to take a history class. He hates Ellen, but to him she is known as the fat girl. She stares and admires him. Soon his hatred for Ellen turns into fascination. He soon wants to be friends with Ellen and help her make other friends. It's full of surprises so it keeps you interested most of the time. There were some slow and kind of going nowhere parts to it, but there weren't to many. I choose to read this book because of the title mostly, it sounded very interesting and it was. So if you like stories about different kinds of people and how they react to society this is the book for you.

A book about co-dependents!?!

I read this book in junior high. I was a fat girl myself, well maybe not that fat, I guess I was considered "pleasingly plump". When I read it I thought it was good of Jeff to be kind to Ellen the fat girl. He decides he wants to be her friend and help her feel better about herself. It really shows you, however, how sometimes a helping hand can become a stronghold!! In my experience, growing up, there were people I wanted to help and sometimes did too much for them, like young Jeff ends up doing. Jeff starts doing things for Ellen which she is perfectly capable of doing herself. It's a very interesting book with a non-saccarine ending. If you read books on co-dependency or have been thru AA/AlAnon, etc., this book should be required reading. It's fictional yet a perfect example of co-dependency. It should accompany Melody Beatty's book, "Codependent No More". Not only is Jeff showing signs of codependency, but his mom and dad are, too. This usually runs in families and is a learned behavior. Check out this book!!

The Fat Girl, a BIG Fat 5 stars!

This book is descriptive and entertaining! I highly recommend this!