Parts Of It Made Me Uncomfortable

Models Don't Eat Chocolate Cookies by Erin Dionne

Adolescent Realistic Fiction

Celeste is an overweight teen-ager whose life just got much more difficult.  Her best friend dumps her for more popular friends and her aunt enters her in a chubby girl modeling contest.  Through these dramas, though, Celeste finds out what's really important in a friend and in herself.

When I first started reading this book, I had some really uncomfortable feelings about the accuracy and realism of certain elements in the book.  First, of all, the main character is, by her own accounts, overweight, yet she grabs unhealthy foods by the handful and doesn't seem to see the connection.  As a former teacher, this type of thinking isn't realistic as students are now taught from a very early age which foods are bad for them.  The fact she only seems to realize it later in the book seemed off to me.  Also, I find it impossible to believe that a company specializing in overweight models would call their company and contest "HuskyPeach".  That name just rubbed me wrong the whole time.  It's so politically incorrect and such a company would be lambasted for their bad judgment.  Lastly, the instances of bullying in the book are hard to read but seem so unrealistic when some of that verbal bullying took place right in front of teachers who said nothing.  Again, as a former teacher, maybe I was being too critical, but there's no way such abuse would be tolerated.

Overall, it was an okay book.  Once I got over my initial misgivings (and ignored the others), I found the book to be cute with some good messages.  It was a bit over the top of drama for me, but I know many of my ex-students who would gobble it right up for just that reason.