What’s worse than being fat your freshman year?
Being fat your sophomore year.
Life used to be so simple for Andrew Zans... read full description
Being fat your sophomore year.
Life used to be so simple for Andrew Zans... read full description
reviews
Feb 27, 2011
Three words; touching, heartfelt, humorous!
This novel was so refreshing! I can't remember the last time I actually enjoyed a novel about an obese person trying to fit in, in High School. Usually with this type of story, I'm frustrated and cringing. But with FG&OTIVH (yeah I'm not going to type that out again!) I couldn't stop turning the pages about this likable, realistic and charming character.
Andrew is classic. He is a very believable high school guy. He's not the fatt More...
This novel was so refreshing! I can't remember the last time I actually enjoyed a novel about an obese person trying to fit in, in High School. Usually with this type of story, I'm frustrated and cringing. But with FG&OTIVH (yeah I'm not going to type that out again!) I couldn't stop turning the pages about this likable, realistic and charming character.
Andrew is classic. He is a very believable high school guy. He's not the fatt More...
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Sep 03, 2011
Brooke
rated it: 
3.5 stars.
I very much enjoyed Allen Zadoff's first young adult Novel. Having been overweight himself, the author has created a protagonist who felt very real, you believed what he said and you wanted to learn things about him.
I think the thing that really frustrated me about Andy was that he didn't like the way he looks, but he doesn't really have the want to change his lifestyle. He knows that he eats far too much, but like many overweight people, he eats to cope with th More...
I very much enjoyed Allen Zadoff's first young adult Novel. Having been overweight himself, the author has created a protagonist who felt very real, you believed what he said and you wanted to learn things about him.
I think the thing that really frustrated me about Andy was that he didn't like the way he looks, but he doesn't really have the want to change his lifestyle. He knows that he eats far too much, but like many overweight people, he eats to cope with th More...
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Dec 24, 2010
Sherrie
rated it: 
I almost stopped after the first two lines in this story. I'm not a fan of books that open with, "My name is Andrew Zansky. I'm 15 years old and blah, blah, blah." I mean, isn't that the ultimate sin of telling?!
But I'm glad I kept reading because aside from the opening misstep, this book is really good. Written from the perspective of a 300 pound boy in high school, the story is full of laughs, pathos and unusually sympathetic characters. There are so many great one-liners t More...
But I'm glad I kept reading because aside from the opening misstep, this book is really good. Written from the perspective of a 300 pound boy in high school, the story is full of laughs, pathos and unusually sympathetic characters. There are so many great one-liners t More...
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Jan 09, 2012
Mr.
rated it: 
I dug this.
There were a few things that didn't ring true. At the start of the book, Eytan--the main character's best friend--comes off as the stereotypical horndog character. He sounds like a character and adult thinks teenagers sound like without sounding like a real teenager. Also, I'm pretty sure there would be larger consequences for some of Andy's actions, especially with the way football coaches are like drill sergeants.
But here's the thing--Allen Zadoff's writing is strong enough t More...
There were a few things that didn't ring true. At the start of the book, Eytan--the main character's best friend--comes off as the stereotypical horndog character. He sounds like a character and adult thinks teenagers sound like without sounding like a real teenager. Also, I'm pretty sure there would be larger consequences for some of Andy's actions, especially with the way football coaches are like drill sergeants.
But here's the thing--Allen Zadoff's writing is strong enough t More...
Oct 06, 2011
Gaby
rated it:
Food , Girls,and Other Things I Cant Have journeys through Andrew being an obese boy ,who weighs 300 pounds, has an annoying,young,skinny sister. Andrew deals with being bullied moreover being really self- conscience about himself. Watching who is seeing him eat ,moreover his mom is a carterer whos specialty is baking mini food. Although there is alot of mischief occurring Andre does meet someone who really catches his eye. April is a Asian girl who Andrew meets during his mom's work. Andrew w
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Jun 08, 2011
Mrs. Foley
rated it:
This is a 2011-2012 Gateway Award nominee. Very humorous book about an overweight, honors student who gets teased often by the school bully, and through a series of events, ends up making the Varsity football team. A good book to encourage students to follow their passion and do things for the right reasons.
Review from Publishers Weekly:
Readers who wade through a series of painful scenes early on in Zadoff's debut YA novel are in for a treat. Andy Zansky is the (second) fatte More...
Review from Publishers Weekly:
Readers who wade through a series of painful scenes early on in Zadoff's debut YA novel are in for a treat. Andy Zansky is the (second) fatte More...
Jun 04, 2011
Suzanne
rated it:
Finally got around to reading the last of the 20 Peach Books for 2011-2012 school year. I would give it a strong 3.5 because the main character is likable, flawed, and evolving--qualities we can all aspire to, right? So Andy's 48"-waist jeans show his number to all the world, and he can't imagine any future for himself at the start of sophomore year that would have his weight broadcast to the whole school in any positive way. But somehow, he find himself trying out for football, and making
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Oct 27, 2010
Hooped
rated it:
What Will Meeting the Perfect Girl Do for You?
By just the cover of this book, you will be sucked into the life of the main character, Andy. When I opened this book, and read the inside cover of it, I knew that I would be interested. The school that Andy attends, is sport crazy, and besides his love for eating, Andy’s other favorite thing to do is to avoid gym class.
Andy meets this girl, April, who he decides is his soul mate, and that they are made for each other. More...
By just the cover of this book, you will be sucked into the life of the main character, Andy. When I opened this book, and read the inside cover of it, I knew that I would be interested. The school that Andy attends, is sport crazy, and besides his love for eating, Andy’s other favorite thing to do is to avoid gym class.
Andy meets this girl, April, who he decides is his soul mate, and that they are made for each other. More...
Aug 18, 2010
Heather
rated it:
Sometimes when I read "fat kid" stories, they kind of bug me. They tend to follow a pattern - fat kid hates him/herself, decides to make a change, then either ends up changing and feels great or accepts him/herself for who he/she is. And although there is definitely some of the "acceptance" theme here, it's done in a very cool way. Andy, the main character, doesn't really hate himself. Maybe he hates himself a little, but no more than the average teenager. He doesn't like the
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Jan 11, 2010
Aaron
rated it:
Andy Zansky is a sophomore in high school. He definitely is not one of the cool kids. He is in the Model UN, and he is pretty smart. He would like to stay out of sight when the bullies come along. Unfortunately, that is kind of hard to do because he weighs 306.4 pounds.
Andy's mom is a caterer, and Andy likes to help out when she needs it. At the end of the summer, he was doing just that when he met April, a girl he becomes quite enamored with. He figures he is never going to see her More...
Andy's mom is a caterer, and Andy likes to help out when she needs it. At the end of the summer, he was doing just that when he met April, a girl he becomes quite enamored with. He figures he is never going to see her More...
Aug 16, 2009
Heather
rated it:
Andy is not the fattest kid in his high school - he's the second fattest. In a weird way, that's worse. It's like he isn't the best at anything - not even his weight. Andy gets picked on and doesn't really fit in any where until he is tapped to try out for the football team and ends up on the varsity squad. Now his sophmore year is about to take a major turn, but he can't figure out which direction to go.
I really enjoyed reading this book. Andy is such a great character. He doesn't More...
I really enjoyed reading this book. Andy is such a great character. He doesn't More...
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Sep 21, 2010
Deanna
rated it:
Realistic fiction, adolescence, family and friend relationships, fatness, football
Great book that was humorous and fun to read. Andrew Zansky weights 306 pounds and has a difficult time sitting in the chairs at school. He considers himself a geek, hanging out with the science and literature nerds. His parents are divorced with a dad who doesn't have much time for him and a mother who tells him he is big boned.
One day Andrew is being beat up by the school bully when all of More...
Great book that was humorous and fun to read. Andrew Zansky weights 306 pounds and has a difficult time sitting in the chairs at school. He considers himself a geek, hanging out with the science and literature nerds. His parents are divorced with a dad who doesn't have much time for him and a mother who tells him he is big boned.
One day Andrew is being beat up by the school bully when all of More...
Sep 26, 2011
Colby
rated it:
This book came with multiple promises--first, a good book about a fat main character, which is pretty hard to find, I guess. Not that I've been looking for it or anything. Second, it promised a humerous book. Food, Girls, and Other Things I Can't Have is about a fat kid who decides he's tired of conforming and not doing what he should be able to just because he's fat. I won't say it fell flat in every way. It kept me entertained. Was it funny? Meh. It made me grin once or twice. Did it provide a
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Oct 02, 2010
Stevecrandell
rated it:
For the first 100 pages, this seemed like just another smart, funny fast read about a boy who struggles to fit in. High school sophomore Andy Zansky weighs 306.4 pounds. He’s an asthmatic MUN geek, so fat and awkward he’s demoted to slow gym. Even after he returns to the regular class, he knows his limits. “I just stand there on the field with an empty ten-foot-zone around me. It’s like the time I had gas in temple.”
So I laughed, and kept reading, as Andy started making a new name f More...
So I laughed, and kept reading, as Andy started making a new name f More...
Jan 23, 2012
Lydia
rated it:
Andrew Zansky has grown accustomed to being the person left out. Here he is, in his sophomore year, deeply in love with a beautiful Asian girl he met at one of the parties his mother caters -- and then shows up at his school. He had told her he was an athlete -- but of course that was a lie. His best friend is Etyan (I love the name) who is also an outsider but hangs close to Andrew. When Andrew goes out for Varsity Football and makes the team, he thinks he has all he wants. Maybe this will work
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Sep 24, 2010
Tim
rated it:
Genre: Fiction
Andrew Zansky is your typical sophomore in high school; he gets awkward around girls, he's trying to find his own identity, and he and his best friend have the occasional run-in with the school bully. Only Andrew does possess one particular quality that causes him to stand out amongst not only his peers, but the entire school; 307 pounds and his size 48 waistline.
"Food, Girls, and Other Things I Can't Have" is author Allen Zadoff's first young adul More...
Andrew Zansky is your typical sophomore in high school; he gets awkward around girls, he's trying to find his own identity, and he and his best friend have the occasional run-in with the school bully. Only Andrew does possess one particular quality that causes him to stand out amongst not only his peers, but the entire school; 307 pounds and his size 48 waistline.
"Food, Girls, and Other Things I Can't Have" is author Allen Zadoff's first young adul More...
Aug 12, 2010
Sunny
rated it:
Andrew disgusts me a lot at first. I can't stand a guy who thinks he loves a girl only because she's hot... For me, Andrew is superficial enough to like April---a bitch who steals her friend's boyfriend while manipulating Andrew to get what she wants. Ok, other than bad taste for girls, Andrew also has some moral issues going on such as despising classmates who are being real friendly to him for their unpopularity.
However, all of these start to change toward the end, when Andrew gradully More...
However, all of these start to change toward the end, when Andrew gradully More...
Jan 28, 2010
Ricki
rated it:
I usually don't get into books that have humor, but this book was different. I found myself laughing out loud, and I really enjoyed the narrator's story. Andrew Zansky is 307 lbs (306.4 technically), and he doesn't feel he fits in his school, literally. From a teacher's point of view, this book was incredibly enlightening. I have many students who are overweight, and I feel like I understand them, but this book made me emotionally and physically walk in the shoes of an overweight teenager. When
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Oct 12, 2011
Brad
rated it:
I dug this.
There were a few things that didn't ring true. At the start of the book, Eytan--the main character's best friend--comes off as the stereotypical horndog character. He sounds like a character and adult thinks teenagers sound like without sounding like a real teenager. Also, I'm pretty sure there would be larger consequences for some of Andy's actions, especially with the way football coaches are like drill sergeants.
But here's the thing--Allen Zadoff's writin More...
There were a few things that didn't ring true. At the start of the book, Eytan--the main character's best friend--comes off as the stereotypical horndog character. He sounds like a character and adult thinks teenagers sound like without sounding like a real teenager. Also, I'm pretty sure there would be larger consequences for some of Andy's actions, especially with the way football coaches are like drill sergeants.
But here's the thing--Allen Zadoff's writin More...
Sep 22, 2011
Jessica
rated it:
The main characters in this book would have to be Andy, April, O, and Eytan. This book mostly took place at Andy's high school. Andy is a sophmore at his high school. He falls in love with this girl he meets at a wedding. The girl transfers to Andy's school. Her name is April. Andy wants to impress her beacuse he doesn't think she will like a guy like him. Andy is taken back back by his physical appearence. He decides to play football, so he can loose some weight. A senior named O helps him wi
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Jul 28, 2010
Diane
rated it:
Andrew Zansky is fat, geeky, and definitely NOT one of the in crowd. As he begins his sophomore year, he meets a girl and when the football coach asks him to play football, he agrees hoping to change his life. At first things seem to be going well -- the very popular quarterback befriends him, April is paying attention, and even the school bully is avoiding him. But he finds that his former friends want nothing to do with him and things are not really going as well as they seem.
Th More...
Th More...
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Dec 30, 2009
April
rated it:
Food, Girls, And Other Things I Can't Have
Allen Zadoff
Egmont USA
2009
Andrew is 307 lbs and he knows it. He dreads going to school and being judged, beaten up, and ignored by girls. But this year, Sophomore Year, will be different. He will make popular friends, join the football team, and get a girlfriend. It won't be easy. He risks alienating his friends, lying to his parents, and injuring himself. In the end, is it worth it?
This young adult novel is a re More...
Allen Zadoff
Egmont USA
2009
Andrew is 307 lbs and he knows it. He dreads going to school and being judged, beaten up, and ignored by girls. But this year, Sophomore Year, will be different. He will make popular friends, join the football team, and get a girlfriend. It won't be easy. He risks alienating his friends, lying to his parents, and injuring himself. In the end, is it worth it?
This young adult novel is a re More...
Dec 27, 2009
Cheryl
rated it:
I liked it. I mean, what's not to like. Andy is going into high school as the second fattest kid in the school and ends up having a great year in many ways. I won't go into details and, of course, there are some ups and downs but I would classify it as more ups. But the only thing that I didn't like is that this doesn't happen to most kids. It's nice but it is fiction.
I saw Alen Zadoff speak and he said that he was writing from the heart because he was the fat kid in school and the More...
I saw Alen Zadoff speak and he said that he was writing from the heart because he was the fat kid in school and the More...
Dec 22, 2009
Patrick
rated it:
Not a bad little book. I actually had much the same experience as the character in this book. The difference being that I was press ganged into football in Junior High, and I stayed with it. I even ran a trick play where I carried the ball from the offensive guard spot. That, and I loved the game going in. And I stayed with it through the end of High School. I did, like the main character, decide to leave the game behind eventually, though.
Good: pretty accurate depiction of b More...
Good: pretty accurate depiction of b More...
Jul 28, 2010
T
rated it:
I don't read much new young adult fiction, but the title was a grabber. The protagonist, Andy is a 300 lb. 15 year old and experiences all of the problems that go with that both at home and in school. He rides the roller coaster lows of utter humiliation to the highs of overnight popularity until he manages to even out by realizing truths about his relationships with his family, friends and the so-called girl of his dreams. This book is both funny, sometimes brutally honest, and touching: a g
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Jan 12, 2010
Brandi Rae
rated it:
I'm not really sure this comparison will make sense, but this book felt like the teen guy equivalent of chick lit. In a good way. It had the incredibly likable main character (Andy) who you can't help but root for as he navigates through his personal obstacles, girls and sports. That being said, I'm not entirely sure who will pick this book up...it isn't enough about sports to attract the readers who only like sports books and for readers who like just realistic guys in school kinds of books it
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Jan 13, 2010
Vito
rated it:
I loved this book it may have made more since to because I know exactly how Andy feels in this book I'm a 17 year old and weigh in at 320 but don't look like it according to my friends. Andy really go's through allot on his journey to finding who he really is and it is very comical to young men and men a like knowing and have realized what happed in high school and how it has effected you now.
This book gives a lot of insight on how teens feel both male and female about themselv More...
Dec 27, 2009
Terry
rated it:
I picked this up laying in bed, thinking that I'd read a couple of chapters and drift of to sleep. I snickered and smiled and kept turning pages and found myself staying up late to finish it. Andy's story of being fifteen, fat, and socially sophomoric is a good one, and Zadoff's prose goes down smooth, like a vanilla shake as it looks squarely at the unease that is high school. Everyone has acne, everyone is dressed awkwardly. Even the chosen golden ones aren't always glowing.
The More...
The More...
Dec 19, 2009
Kate
rated it:
This book surprised me a lot. With it's creative title, I was not exactly sure what to expect. But I can tell you now that there was never a dull moment in this novel with its abundance of humor, interesting characters, and the engaging plot! The first chapter immediately captures the reader’s attention with Andy's funny insights. I shall put some funny quotes at the end of the review so that you can laugh so hard that you will run and get your copy ASAP. Zadoff has a real talent in making jokes
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Aug 25, 2009
Jennifer
rated it:
Andrew Zansky (perhaps modeled on author Allen Zadoff...hmm) is an overweight teen struggling socially in high school. When a hilarious accident in gym class (seriously, I was howling on the subway when I read it) inadvertently leads him to land on the football team, Zansky's social status changes from geek to cool.
At first, I was really annoyed with all of the fat jokes that the character was making about himself. I felt it was over-the-top and that the author was trying to hard to More...
At first, I was really annoyed with all of the fat jokes that the character was making about himself. I felt it was over-the-top and that the author was trying to hard to More...
