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Big Fat Manifesto

by Susan Vaught (Goodreads Author)

3.40 · rating details · 469 ratings · 115 reviews

Jamie is a senior in high school and, like so many of her peers, doing too much. Unlike so many of her friends, she is enormously, irreversibly, sometimes angrily (and occasionally delightedly) overweight. Her most immediate need is a scholarship to college, so she writes an explosive and controversial column every week in the school paper about being fat. Soon, Jamie...more

Paperback, 336 pages

Published June 23rd 2009 by Bloomsbury USA Children's Books (first published December 26th 2007)

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Jan 05, 2012

Meg ♥ rated it

· review of another edition

Jamie is your typical super busy senior in high school, except for the fact that she is morbidly obese. She feels that every fat girl book ends with the fat girl being skinny or well on her way to becoming skinny. Will her story have that ending?

Jamie has a boyfriend, Burke, who is also obese, and he tells her he is going to be getting gastric bypass surgery. Now Jamie has to wonder if she will keep her boyfriend once he gets thin on top of also worrying about studying for finals and...more

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Mar 08, 2009

Brandi Rae rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: young-adult-fiction

Being fat isn’t easy. Clothes don’t fit you. People stare at you or pretend that you are not there; they feel uncomfortable around you. They whisper, wondering if you know how big you are and, if so, why don’t you just do something about it?

Jamie Carcaterra knows how it feels first hand how it feels to be fat, and frankly she is sick of how people act around her. She knows she is overweight. She is fat. In fact, she is Fat Girl, author of the Fat Girl features in her school newspape...more

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Dec 21, 2008

Barky rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: chick-lit, young-adult-fiction, realistic, weight-issues, body-image, fat-girl-books, borrowed-from-the-library

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. Jamie Carcaterra is fat – not just overweight, but obese. And she’s sick of people thinking that it’s ok to cut her (and other fat people) down for it. While she’s mostly well-adjusted and self-confident, Jamie feels that other people should know what it’s like to be the fat girl, so she starts writing a column for her school newspaper as a means to air her feelings on the subject and educate others (it also wouldn’t hurt if she can use her column to win some scholarship money either). Jamie’...moreJamie Carcaterra is fat – not just overweight, but obese. And she’s sick of people thinking that it’s ok to cut her (and other fat people) down for it. While she’s mostly well-adjusted and self-confident, Jamie feels that other people should know what it’s like to be the fat girl, so she starts writing a column for her school newspaper as a means to air her feelings on the subject and educate others (it also wouldn’t hurt if she can use her column to win some scholarship money either). Jamie’s column becomes surprisingly popular and starts to attract a lot of attention – even outside of school. After the local news station learns about Jamie’s column on Hot Chix (a popular clothing store for thin teenage girls), they interview her and then edit the footage to make her look as bad as possible. Jamie’s incensed. It doesn’t stop there, however. In the midst of all of this, Jamie’s boyfriend Burke (also fat), gets bariatric surgery to lose weight. Jamie is scared that the surgery will kill him, and if it doesn’t, she worries that once he’s thin, he won’t want her anymore.

Jamie’s fears aren’t unwarranted. The surgery totally changes Burke (at least for the time being) and all he can think about is how much weight he’s losing and how others perceive the new him. And this translates into pep talks for Jamie – you know, you could lose weight, too. And that really hurts her. She worries about his health, too – there can be lots of complications from the surgery and long term effects aren’t known – but it’s too much to think about all the time. Surprisingly (and refreshingly) it’s Jamie who finds someone else first. Her co-editor, Heath, finds her attractive and doesn’t think she needs fixing. Burke goes ballistic when Jamie tells him, but it feels like it’s for the best.

This was a really good (and somewhat different) look at the politics of fat. Jamie’s columns do more than educate her schoolmates – they educate her readers, too, and humanize the fat condition. Jamie is still working through a lot of these issues, too, so her turmoil should bring up a lot of discussion. It’s easy to miss or dismiss these issues if you’re not fat, and Jamie (and Susan Vaught) does a great job showing how the skinny mentality affects everyone – and not just fat people. For once, I was relieved to find that “fat” wasn’t a size 12, and that the fat girl didn’t suddenly lose lots of weight and become skinny and then find that her life was so much better. She stays fat, and acknowledges that she wishes she weren’t, but that changing her body isn’t something she can do (right now, or maybe ever), so she’s trying to stay positive. It’s really hard to do that when everyone seems to be against you.

I’m not sure how many teenage girls will pick this one up. It’s really good, but the stigma of being fat is really bad. And how many kids are going to care about Jamie’s problems? How many will be sympathetic to her cause? It almost seems like this would appeal more to college-aged women – or at least girls who are more open to body image issues, feminism, etc. It’s not easy to be different or be an activist in high school. At least, not about fat.(less)

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Nov 09, 2011

Drena C rated it

· review of another edition

The book I'm reading is called Big Fat Manifesto. The book is about a girl that is very fat and she always gets called names. There are a lot of girls that are bullying her so much she just wants to go home and cry her tires out. The girl wants to loss weight be cause she wants to have more friends cause she never had any friends. There are some people at her school that feel really bad for her because every day after school she walks home by her self alone.

The book I'm reading, I re...more

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Apr 03, 2011

Scott rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: 2011, first-half-of-2011, mlis-uwm, older-teens, realistic, young-adult-books

Vaught, S. (2007). Big fat manifesto. New York, NY: Bloomsbury USA Children.

Jamie is fat, or Fat Girl to be exact. She's the loud and proud senior who is hoping to breakdown societal and cultural stereotypes about beauty through her school's newspaper. She has her senior year laid out to be perfect. She's a lead in the school musical. She's going to win the National Feature Award and get a scholarship to a good school. That is until her boyfriend decides to have bariatric sur...more
Vaught, S. (2007). Big fat manifesto. New York, NY: Bloomsbury USA Children.

Jamie is fat, or Fat Girl to be exact. She's the loud and proud senior who is hoping to breakdown societal and cultural stereotypes about beauty through her school's newspaper. She has her senior year laid out to be perfect. She's a lead in the school musical. She's going to win the National Feature Award and get a scholarship to a good school. That is until her boyfriend decides to have bariatric surgery, forcing her to challenge her whole Fat Girl persona. Vaught takes aim at how our culture views beauty, and especially bigger girls. Jamie is smart and witty, and willing to challenge any and all "norms." However, it is when Jamie is Jamie and not Fat Girl that the novel works best. Recommended for 9th grade and up.

Additional Thoughts:

This book, especially the first 3/4, has a very take-no-prisoners approach. Fat Girl, a role that Jamie seems to be playing rather than actually living, is very confrontational and doesn't hold back on how she feels. This is especially useful in challenging society on how they view beauty. While I have not gone through and fact-checked the book, many of the stats seem reasonably true. There are valid points against vanity sizing and how big girls can't find cute clothing. She is also a healthy girl, who has acting, singing and writing chops, but can't ever seem to land the lead in anything, including becoming editor of her school newspaper. She is extremely sharp with her nails when taking on the Gastric Bypass surgery that her boyfriend has. I did a quick WebMD search and many of her numbers are inflated, but many of the facts about the surgery are true. This includes one of the most gruesome side-effects I can think of: dumping. Basically, the surgery shrinks the stomach so those who have had it can't overeat. They can, however, overfill this tiny stomach, which causes them to dump out all the excess (through any available orifice).

What is somehwhat troubling about this book is Jamie as a character. As I said above, she seems to be playing Fat Girl rather than actually living as Fat Girl. So while she boldly takes up these causes, the real character often seems ashamed of her weight and not willing to believe she is/can be beautiful, an activist, the star. For one thing, she doesn't eat in front of people, which could be because of bullying. If she was really comfortable with who she was, would she really have this hang up? Vaught does deal with this two-sideness of Jamie vs. Fat Girl but it comes late in the book. I would have liked to see more of the vulnerable Jamie, as opposed to the rabble-rousing character she plays for her peers.

Similar Titles (Read-A-Likes): Paper Towns by John Green, Burned by Ellen Hopkins, The Earth, My Butt, and Other Big Round Things by Carolyn Mackler, Wintergirls by Laurie Halse Anderson, Artichoke's Heart by Suzanne Supplee, The DUFF by Kody Kepplinger

Full Disclosure: I purchased this book used from Amazon for a class. I will now be donating it to my library.(less)

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Jan 21, 2011

Liz rated it

I really wanted to like this. I was totally psyched to read a book with a smart, non-tragic, and unapologetically fat heroine. But it did that weird annoying thing socially concerned YA books often do where they're like "I'm political, but not TOO crazy! I just write stuff, I don't do any of that extreme activism like going to a rally!". It reminds me of the worst of the feminist blogosphere. Actually, you can definitely trace the influence of the less interesting parts of the onli...moreI really wanted to like this. I was totally psyched to read a book with a smart, non-tragic, and unapologetically fat heroine. But it did that weird annoying thing socially concerned YA books often do where they're like "I'm political, but not TOO crazy! I just write stuff, I don't do any of that extreme activism like going to a rally!". It reminds me of the worst of the feminist blogosphere. Actually, you can definitely trace the influence of the less interesting parts of the online fat acceptance sphere in Jamie's political rhetoric.

Anyway, when protestors turn up in support of Jamie, she laughs it off, doesn't go talk to them, thinks they're crazy. She also has a neurotic skinny animal liberationist vegan friend who she seems to hate; why are they friends? I don't get it. The way Vegan Friend's neuroses are played for laughs is appallingly cruel; she spends hours trembling and glassy-eyed because she touched a woolen jumper (animal products), and we're supposed to find that funny? maybe in a book where everything is that over the top, but this novel takes a generally realistic tone, and it just comes off as lacking in compassion for someone with a probable mental illness. Plus the "skinny neurotic left-wing chick" thing is part of the same body-shaming culture that oppresses fat people, you know? Disclaimer: I am a neurotic left-wing vegan.

This distaste for radicalism is pretty insulting to the reader; your readers are probably going to be somewhat socially concerned young people, right? They're at least going to be curious about activism. Why ridicule it in an attempt to make yourself seem more moderate, or whatever?

I also really disliked how she has NONE of her own friends. Her two best friends are her boyfriend's friends who she hangs out with. They are pretty flat and tokenistic: the aforementioned vegan and a sassy lesbian whose sexuality never actually gets to impact the plot. Similarly, her boyfriend is black but this doesn't affect the plot or characterisation except that his sisters think he shouldn't be dating a white chick. It's kind of supposed to be a "reverse racism" thing, I think. It's not very cool that that's the only time racial tension is touched on.

Ok, good points! The way Vaught handled gastric band surgery was pretty cool. Jamie is angry at her boyfriend for choosing the dangerous procedure, he's a shithead to her, but there are no pat answers. I also liked that Jamie has an experience with being misquoted by a reporter; that whole plot point was pretty realistic and a warning to us all. At first Jamie came off as unrealistically self-confident, but in fact she was shown to struggle sometimes with living as a fat girl in an anti-fat world. I loved the detail that she never ate at school because she was embarassed to eat in front of other people; it was one of the few moments in the book that I found truly affecting, heartbreaking even.

mostly, though, this book just made me want to read "no fat chicks" by margaret clark instead. check it out.

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Jul 30, 2010

Laurie rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: library-books, young-adult-recomended

I initially picked up this book because it stole the exact idea I had for a non fictional novel when I was heavier. The goal would have been to dispel the myths about fat girls and fat shame/pride. This ended up not being what this book was really about. Because of this, I thought I would be disappointed. I was sort of wrong.

I liked this book. I liked that it ended up being more about the trials of Gastric Bypass surgery. I liked that there were many lessons that this girl had to lear...more

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Apr 23, 2009

Doug Beatty rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: teen

Plot: This is the story of Jamie Carcaterra, AKA Fat Girl, who is the features editor for her school newspaper, the Wire, and writes a column called the Fat Manifesto. Jamie has two friends, Frederica and NoNo, and they help Jamie by entering a thin girls store with a hidden camera and film the reactions of the store clerks to Jamie. Jamie also plays Evilene in the school production of the Wiz. Jamie’s boyfriend, Burke is a football player and informs Jamie that he is going to get bariatri...morePlot: This is the story of Jamie Carcaterra, AKA Fat Girl, who is the features editor for her school newspaper, the Wire, and writes a column called the Fat Manifesto. Jamie has two friends, Frederica and NoNo, and they help Jamie by entering a thin girls store with a hidden camera and film the reactions of the store clerks to Jamie. Jamie also plays Evilene in the school production of the Wiz. Jamie’s boyfriend, Burke is a football player and informs Jamie that he is going to get bariatric surgery. Jamie is concerned because the complications can kill him, and even when he does get the surgery he gets a blood clot that they have to remove. Jamie writes about these incidents in the Wire, and begins to cause a media storm, not at all positive. Jamie begins to discover feelings that she has for Heath, the editor of the paper and him for her and she feels that she must break it off with Burke. She feels like she no longer knows Burke because all he talks about is the surgery and how much weight he is losing. Jamie seems to be hiding behind the image of Fat Girl and needs to discover who she really is. Finally a competition for a scholarship disqualifies her because her articles do not promote the well being of people and she decides to fight. The story ends as she heads to the plane.

Strengths: Jamie is a strong character, although she can be a little bit bitchy. The issue of fat acceptance and the fact that fat people are discriminated against is a good one, and the author makes some very good points on the issue. The author also exposes some of the dangers of bariatric surgery, especially for teens, when she talks about frothing and what happens when Burke tries to eat a candy bar. But she keeps the story open minded and doesn’t push an opinion either way, it is up to the reader to decide whether surgery is right or wrong. Jamie struggles and changes throughout the novel but also is the heroine of the piece and shows that even a fat girl has feelings, forms relationships, has good friends and can even get a boyfriend. The inclusion of her columns is a nice touch because the reader can follow along with what she is writing to the paper. Even the minor characters like NoNo and Jamie’s mom and Burke’s family are written with realism and offer nice touches to the novel.

Weaknesses: I found Jamie to be a little strong and a little unlikable at times. I suppose that is the defense mechanism she used and it did further the plot along. Also, it could be said that this is a “message” book as the message was a little strong and heavy handed but as it was what the story was about that could be fine too. I think the author did a good job of highlighting an issue that is rarely covered in teen books and makes an overweight character be the star.
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Sep 07, 2010

Taylor rated it

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. I read this book for my Pre-AP English class. It was actually pretty good, I enjoyed it. Though it did get boring sometimes, so that's why I gave it four stars instead of five.

The conflict of this book, involving the main character Jamie Carcaterra, dealt with her trying to finish up senior year and getting into a good college. In which she would need and wanted to win the NFA (National Feature Award) for "outstanding journalism promoting the public well-being," a scholarsh...more

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Jun 06, 2009

Christine rated it

· review of another edition

This book was fabulous. It completely captured the truth of most teens, who pretend to be fine with who they are, even defensive of it, but deep down hate everything about it and want nothing more than change.
Jamie sets out to break myths about fat girls, and denounces several myths through out the book in her Fat Girl's Manifesto articles, but also reveals several of her insecurities about whether or not 'normal' people really want the fat girl to be their friend or girlfriend.
The o...more

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Jul 31, 2010

Julia Driscoll rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: appropriate-for-high-school, realistic-fiction

Due to my own history, this was a very emotional book to read.

Jamie is an aspiring journalist, and also a self proclaimed "Fat Girl." She is using her column in the school paper to explore what life is like for her as a fat girl, and later, the intense experience her boyfriend goes through when he chooses bariatric surgery. But the self confidence Jamie projects in her column isn't always there in real life. We see her hang ups, her self protective meanness, and her ange...more

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Apr 16, 2010

Jackie rated it

· review of another edition

Jamie Carcaterra is a fat girl and very talented girl. She's an actress, a great student, a gifted writer, and she is fat. She has a two great best-friends and wonderful boyfriend Burke. Jamie has decided to take her fight for fat people to a column in the newspaper called My Big Fat Manifesto. In the column she exposes salespeople who are rude, doctors who have lousy ways of dealing with fat teens, and she tells about her boyfriend's Burke's fat surgery. She hopes to win an award with the c...more

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Nov 04, 2009

Ann added it · review of another edition

Shelves: 2008, contemporary

Ages 12+ (no language, tangential mentions of sex)

Near-militant about her right to be fat, self-proclaimed "Fat Girl" Jamie is a senior in high school, has a happy relationship with a Fat Boy, and a leading (but not lead) role in the fall musical, "The Wiz." As features editor of the school newspaper, she writes a column on being fat and proud, as well as the discrimination Fat Girls like her take. When larger media outlets pick up on her stories, it gets blown out...more

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Nov 16, 2009

Lee rated it

· review of another edition

A readable YA novel about a senior girl who's got a lot on her plate- and she deals with it very publicly in an opinion column in the school newspaper taking on the persona of 'Fat Girl'. I know the author has tried to 'represent' minority groups- but I found she fell a little short when it came to the sidekick characters such as her best friends, a lesbian and vegan. These could definitely have been explored a little more and pretty much perpetuated the lettuce-munching, annoying activist stere...more

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Jul 28, 2011

Sarah Stumpf added it · review of another edition

This is one of my favorite YA books, hands down. It is rare to see anyone in fiction deal with the reality of being fat and the medical and moral questions that surround our treatment of fat people in our culture. And even more rare is someone who can write a smart sassy multi-faceted protagonist who is not a perfect example of anything, but a realistic look at what life is like. Jamie is hilarious but never has all the answers. She is more then just a fat girl, but a poor girl, a girl in lov...more

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Jun 10, 2008

K Nolfi rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: partly-read, teen

Too preachy. I wanted to like it and couldn't get too far. UP next is The Earth, My BUtt, and Other Round Things.

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Apr 30, 2009

Anne rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: realistic-fiction, ya-lit, 2009

3.5 stars
A close hard look at what it is like to be FAT while in high school. Not just fat, but morbidly obese. Jamie Carcaterra is a Fat Girl. And she starts a column in the school newspaper called "The Fat Girl Manifesto". She uses this space to let others know about difficulties that thin people rarely think about - like clothes shopping and fitting into the seats of desks and who is given the lead roles in school plays... Then Jamie's boyfriend decides to have gastric by...more

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Dec 20, 2009

Eloise rated it

· review of another edition

Despite bad language (21st Century high school stuff)and some other objectionable material, this book made me think a lot about the issues it deals with. The voice of the book is intelligent and witty but also fragile and insecure--like a real live teenager. I grew to care about her and the other people in her life quite a bit.
Jaimie writes a column for the school newspaper and talks about what it's like to be overweight in a society where being thin matters so much. Her boyfriend has ...more

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Apr 25, 2011

Maggie Hargrave rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: drama, girl-books, romance, ya

A nice contemporary novel featuring a "minority" YA character (minority only in the YA lit world, not the "real" world). It was nice to see such a diverse cast in this novel; the main character is fat, one of her bff's is a lesbian, and the MC's boyfriend is fat and black. However, I felt that the characters were not as well rounded as they could have been. No, they weren't flat, but they weren't "real" people either; just somewhere in the middle. But the book m...more

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Sep 15, 2009

Elyse83 added it · review of another edition

Recommends it for: high school students

Recommended to Elyse83 by: young adult lit class

High school senior Jamie Carcaterra is the high school "fat girl." She writes for the school newspaper and has an African American boyfriend named Burke. Jamie uses her column to write about the plight of fat people in modern American society. A major change is when Burke decides to have gastric bypass surgery, suffers all the medical problems associated with it, and changes his persona when the pounds fly off. Jamie also deals with her crush on the school paper editor Heath. A goo...more

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Jun 21, 2010

Katie Ahearn rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: young-adult, reviewed, realistic-fiction

The strength of this book is in the very real and wonderful voice of a girl struggling with her weight, but in a very outspoken and often humorous way. Narrator Jamie Carcaterra tells us the story of being a fat girl in a thin person's world, through her own experiences interspersed with the Fat Girl column she writes for the school newspaper. Her life is peopled with great secondary characters - her boyfriend, Burke, who chooses to undergo risky gastric bypass surgery, her best friends Freddie ...more

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Jul 13, 2009

Allison rated it

Shelves: teen-reads

Vaught, Susan Big FAT Manifesto pgs. 336 Bloomsbury USA Children's Books Language~PG-13, Sexual Content~PG; Violence~PG

Jaime D. Carcaterra is a new strong and vibrant voice in fiction written for Teens. Jaime is a talented senior at Garwood High School. She is Feature Editor for the school’s newspaper, The Wire. She has a boyfriend on the football team, is cast as the villain witch in the school musical, and loves to spend time with her girlfriends. Sounds like a pretty typical t...more

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Sep 07, 2008

Aaron rated it

· review of another edition

With all the talk about America's fight with obesity, particularly in relation to our youth, this book is definitely timely. The tale centers around Jamie Carcaterra, a senior in high school who is the features editor for the school newspaper as well as playing Evileen (the witch) in the school's production of The Wiz. She is working hard to succeed because she knows that winning a scholarship is really the only way she is going to get to go to college.

Her main tool for t...more

With all the talk about America's fight with obesity, particularly in relation to our youth, this book is definitely timely. The tale centers around Jamie Carcaterra, a senior in high school who is the features editor for the school newspaper as well as playing Evileen (the witch) in the school's production of The Wiz. She is working hard to succeed because she knows that winning a scholarship is really the only way she is going to get to go to college.

Her main tool for trying to get a scholarship is a weekly column in the school's paper, which is called the "Fat Girl Manifesto." Jamie is a great character who is a strong female lead. Her columns work hard to expose the treatment of girls who don't fit the mold of the thing American girl by highlighting how fashion houses are "shrinking" the sizes of clothes and how people stereotype her because of her size. She even explores the dangers of gastrci bypass surgery to confront obesity when her boyfriend decides that is an option he wants to choose. There is even an interesting romance blooming between Jamie and the Ken-lie (as in Barbie and Ken) editor-in-chief of the paper.

The problem is that even though Jamie insists that she doesn't mind her weight and is confident in the person that she is, she comes across as whiny and ranting as she writes her manifesto and looks to those around her to fit the mold of those stereotyping "fat" people.

There are also some very strong and realistic scenes as she confronts poor treatment, but reality lets go in a number of areas. For example, the school newspaper seemst o run completely on its own with no input from a sponsoring teacher, and the school play seems to be a sidebar for Jamie even though she has one of the starring roles.

The story also seems to become distracted by a number of subplots relating to Jamie's best friends, one of who is a quite humorous agent for the protection of the planet and animals. This makes the story drag on in some areas.

As a result, this is an OK book on a great topic. It is a shame it was not better because it is a message that really needs to get out there.(less)

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Jan 11, 2009

Christian rated it

· review of another edition

For starters, I'd say this book is far from hilarious. As a point of fact, I really didn't like this book. At all. Oprah's Kids Reading List be damned. I'm not even sure now how this book ended up on my To Read list, seeing as how I can't find any reviews of it in the blogs I generally haunt. Even more, any blogger who does mention it (at least the bloggers I'm finding on Technorati) couples it with The Earth, My Butt and Other Big Round Things and Fat Kid Rules the World—two books that I truly ...more

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Aug 05, 2008

Carrie rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: z-2008, y-fiction, body-image

It was okay. Hairspray does the general concept better.

Jamie's "Fat Girl" column in her high school newspaper is going chronicle the challenges and triumphs (but mostly challenges) of being an 300-pound-plus high school senior. She's hoping it will also win her a full college scholarship.

Jamie starts off as a strong, authentic character, who is slightly less strong and a whole lot more annoying by the end. Unfortunately, everyone else in the book is a weak, ...more

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Feb 23, 2010

Andi added it · review of another edition

Susan Vaught’s, Big Fat Manifesto, is a heavy-hitting, acerbic, and eye opening book that directly confronts size-ism in today’s society. As the main character points out on the first page, “nobody wants to publish books about fat girls, by fat girls, or for fat girls, except maybe diet books.” This author seeks to remedy that. But more than that, what really pushes this book above and beyond the rest is the minor characters. Guys are shown caring about their appearance and weight; there is a...more

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Jul 05, 2008

Becky rated it

· review of another edition

Vaught, Susan. 2008. Big Fat Manifesto.

This is the third 2008 novel I've read this year (within the past two weeks actually) that deal with "weight" in one way or another. Each of these books (Looks, Artichoke's Heart, and Big Fat Manifesto) is unique from the others. Each is in some ways flawed. Some more than others, but still none is perfectly perfect.

Jamie D. Carcaterra is a writer on her high school's newspaper. At the beginning of her senior year, Jamie st...moreVaught, Susan. 2008. Big Fat Manifesto.

This is the third 2008 novel I've read this year (within the past two weeks actually) that deal with "weight" in one way or another. Each of these books (Looks, Artichoke's Heart, and Big Fat Manifesto) is unique from the others. Each is in some ways flawed. Some more than others, but still none is perfectly perfect.

Jamie D. Carcaterra is a writer on her high school's newspaper. At the beginning of her senior year, Jamie starts a new column. A column she hopes will win her the National Feature Award for outstanding journalism. Her column is a manifesto of what it's like to be a "fat girl."

"I am so sick of reading books and articles about fat girls written by skinny women. Or worse yet, skinny guys. Tell me, what in the name of all that's cream and chocolate do skinny guys know about being a fat girl?
The fat girl never gets to be the main character. She never gets to talk, really talk, about her life and her feelings and her dreams. Nobody wants to publish books about fat girls, by fat girls, or for fat girls, except maybe diet books. No way." (1)
Thus begins the book and her first "fat girl" column. Jamie is a great character. She may be a fat girl but she's not your stereotypical fat girl: lonely, friendless, dateless and a person who is lacking in ALL self-esteem and confidence.
Let me shoot down a few myths right now, before you even set up a stereotype:

Myth number one: Speak gently to poor Fat Girl. She can't help her terrible disability.
Myth number two: Poor Fat Girl needs to be educated about her problem.
Myth number three: Poor Fat Girl laughs to hide her tears.
Myth number four: Poor lonely Fat Girl can't get a date.
Myth number five: All poor Fat Girl wants to do is lose weight. (2-4, largely abbreviated)
Chapter one: "I have two must-achieve-or-die goals this year. The first do-or-die is probably the easiest: Write the best Fat Girl feature series ever, expose the politics and social injustices of being a fat female in today's world, and win the National Feature Award to ensure my collegiate funding. The second do-or-die, related to the first, is earning admission to Northwestern University." (6)

Jamie's voice is wonderful. I loved it. I especially especially loved her Fat Girl columns. They were true. They were authentic. They were needed. The novel focuses on Jamie's life. Her mostly crazy, often chaotic life where she is juggling writing, acting, and studying on top of having a boyfriend (Burke) and several girl friends (NoNo and Freddie). Her parents hardly enter into the picture at all. The central plot of this one is her relationship with two guys: Burke and Heath, her editor-in-chief. Burke, her boyfriend, is a Fat Boy himself. However, he decides to have weight-loss surgery. A decision that Jamie can't quite support with her head and her heart. Surgery is risky and dangerous and so drastic a step, isn't it? And if he has the surgery, how much of him--his personality, his life-style--will he lose along with all those pounds? Will she still be his fat-girl goddess once he's a muscular hunk? Heath, her editor, becomes a close friend. He's there for her and with her when all the chaos of her life begins to unfold--Burke's surgery, the columns continuing media circus, etc. (The local media has picked up on her "fat girl" columns and decided that Jamie is dangerous and promoting a "fat" lifestyle just because she's not a lonely, depressed, pitiable girl with NO self esteem or self-worth. Because she's fat and okay with being fat...she must be a menace to society, right????)

I loved almost everything about Big Fat Manifesto. However, if Big Fat Manifesto has a weakness then it is in the character development of minor characters. NoNo and Freddie are nothing more than one-sided stereotypical characters. (Freddie the side-kick lesbian; NoNo the sidekick vegetarian, animal-rights protester.) They lack the "flesh" they need to stand on their own. Burke, Jamie's boyfriend, is more developed than Freddie and NoNo, however, he doesn't have that sparkle and depth that a proper boyfriend should. Heath, on the other hand, seems to have a charm and substance and vitality that I noticed from his first introduction. But Jamie? Jamie's development is complete.(less)

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May 27, 2008

Abby Johnson rated it

· review of another edition

Jamie is a goal-oriented high school senior. She writes for the school paper. She's in the school play. She has a couple of caring, passionate best friends. She has a loving boyfriend. She wants to go to Northwestern. Oh, yeah. And Jamie's fat. Determined to win a journalism scholarship, Jamie starts writing a new column for the school paper: Fat Girl. She wants to educate the community about what it's like living in a world that doesn't fit you, in a country that is so sensitive about racial di...more

· see review

Apr 29, 2008

Jennifer Wardrip rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: trt-posted-reviews, trt-gold-star-award-winner

Reviewed by Sally Kruger, aka "Readingjunky" for TeensReadToo.com

Does the world discriminate against fat people? Jamie Carcaterra thinks they do, and she is out to change things.

Proudly calling herself "Fat Girl," Jamie has started a feature column by the same name in The Wire, her school newspaper. Making people aware of the unfairness suffered by overweight people is her goal. She is also hoping her top-notch journalistic efforts will help her win t...more

· see review

Apr 09, 2008

BCL Teen Librarians rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: realistic-fiction, being-different

Let's just get it out in the open: Jamie is fat. Very, very fat. But she's not going to let people's stereotypes or idiocy get in the way -- she's going to write the Fat Girl column for her school paper that will win her a major scholarship. But when her boyfriend has gastric bypass surgery because he's sick of being fat, Jamie's world is rocked... and it gets even worse when her column sets off a major media frenzy. Now there are reporters in her face all of the time when she needs a secon...more

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