Donna Cooner

After undergoing gastric-bypass surgery, a self-loathing, obese teenaged girl loses weight and makes the brave decision to start participating in high school life, including pursuing her dream of becoming a singer and finding love.

Skinny

Melissa Palmer

Book #8 Read in 2015
Skinny by Donna Cooner (YA)

This is a realistic fiction book in the young adult field. Ever is an overweight teenager. She decides to have gastric bypass surgery. The author had it as well so this story is so realistic and informational that it made it even more powerful. While the surgery helps Ever lose weight, it does not immediately change how Ever views herself. She thinks of herself as the fat girl that no one likes. As the book unfolds, she realizes that sometime it wasn't others but her choice to not be friends with people; she exuded an anger that she didn't even realized showed to others. 

This was a good, quick read. I think high school girls would enjoy it. I borrowed this book from the town library.

http://melissasbookpicks.blogspot.com

In such an image-conscious generation, a lot of us teenagers can relate well to this. It tackles the issues of obesity and self confidence etc. that I'm sure we're all too familiar with.

I mean, I get it. I totally get that Ever has this voice inside her head criticizing her every move and lowering her confidence more than ever, and I've been through that as well, as we all have. What really irritated me was the over-all impression that all it takes is a gastric bypass surgery to get our happily ever after. We don't even see Ever trying hard enough to lose weight. 

Instead, we see her stuffing herself with unhealthy junk, pushing people away and acting hostile to everyone. And then she has the surgery, loses a ton of weight in no time, and suddenly everything falls into place: popularity, the perfect love interest, et cetera. I guess she does learn her lesson in the end, that fame isnt everything, that people have loved her sincerely whether skinny or not, and that she had so much talent and potential. But what I would have loved to see was Ever getting educated on nutrition and setting a good example to a million readers out there with weight issues. Or maybe I would have loved to see Ever finding love and happiness just the way she was.

Fiona

Fantastic. When at the local library with some friends we were browsing and one of my friends picked this gem up, she later told me to read it and handed it over to me. I read this in one night, admittedly skimming the non-dialogue bits. I'm not sure if it was meant to but this book has really motivated me to lose weight over Summer. Most parts of the book were quite relatable and it was very realistically written.

Emily C Peterson

Not really great but not terrible either. This book was just kinda "eh" and it wrapped up much too quickly with everything in a nice little bow. Not my type of book

Jessica 

Full review: http://bookgirl.co.vu/post/8626497244...

Skinny follows the story of a teenage girl who is overweight and struggling with a lot of things that include but are not limited to the typical hormonal worries of a young persons mind. She is only 15 years old and she weighs 300lbs; most of this weight coming from stress, sadness and boredom related eating habits. In part this definitely has to do with the unfortunate loss of her mother — the weight is doing quite a bit of harm to her physical health but her mental health as well.

It’s never fun to be the fat kid in a class full of cruel teens. And to make matters worse, she has a nagging voice in the back of her mind — she calls the voice, Skinny — that keeps telling her she’s never going to be worth it or beautiful. And all of this is stopping her from letting her true self, her voice, shine through at the end of the day.

Skinny

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