Thursday, May 6, 2010

Fat Cat by Robin Brande

Here’s a brief snippet about the book Fat Cat that I shamelessly pulled from a Amazon page: Cat smart, sassy, and funny—but thin, she’s not. Until her class science project. That’s when she winds up doing an experiment—on herself. Before she knows it, Cat is living—and eating—like the hominids, our earliest human ancestors. True, no chips or TV is a bummer and no car is a pain, but healthful eating and walking everywhere do have their benefits.


As the pounds drop off, the guys pile on. All this newfound male attention is enough to drive a girl crazy! If only she weren’t too busy hating Matt McKinney to notice. . . .

This funny and thoughtful novel explores how girls feel about their bodies, and the ways they can best take care of their most precious resource: themselves.

I liked this book a lot. Cat is smart and realizes by the end that the changes she has made were for herself. I think that’s a valuable lesson for teen girls. All too often this is where the framework is laid for women to become pleasers, side-lining our own desires and needs. She re-discovers some of her interests that she had given up long ago. Her parents were involved, present and had a healthy outlook. (It seems as soon I started to remark on the lack of presence of parents in YA books, I bombarded with books of parents very involved. Lol) She approaches her diet changes in a healthy manner also. She consults a dietician and monitors all aspects of her experiment. The only thing that frustrated me at times were Cat’s ability to hold a grudge. I’m not the grudge bearing type of person, so I was shocked by her tenacity in that manner. Her devotion to her family and friends was exemplary. The cover was unique and beautiful (you had to know I’d love that purple). I would say this is a read for 15 and up. I gave this a 3 out of 4 flower rating.


5 comments:

  1. That sounds like a very interesting book! Great review! I just found your blog and it's really cool:]

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  2. Interesting book--I hadn't heard of this one before.

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  3. Lisa, her ability to hold a grudge so tenaciously is explained by her exeplary loyalty to her family and friends. She's very passionate--on both ends of the sprectrum!

    This sounds fabulous and unless there's something that is totally off and inappropriate for a 14 yr old, I may share it with my daughter who has difficulty with understanding healthy body issues.

    Her aunties have eating disorders and have never with held their comments: oh I'm so fat. I shouldn't eat...

    To compound this, she has a girlfriend who constantly tells her she is going to get fat and stuff like that.

    Plus, she has the right personality to end up with eating issues. Sad times ten, when you consider she's in the 10th percentile for weight. And scary.

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  4. Odd, no matter how long you nurse a grudge, it never seems to get better.

    Your review is fascinating. Have a great weekend, Roland

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  5. LOVE that cover. I've never heard of this one before. I'll definitely have to check it out. Thanks for the review!

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