Review: Skinny

Author: Donna Cooner
Publish date: October 2012
Source: Classroom library
"Hopeless. Freak. Elephant. Pitiful. These are the words of Skinny, the vicious voice that lives inside fifteen-year-old Ever Davies’s head. Skinny tells Ever all the dark thoughts her classmates have about her. Ever knows she weighs over three hundred pounds, knows she’ll probably never be loved, and Skinny makes sure she never forgets it.

But there is another voice: Ever’s singing voice, which is beautiful but has been silenced by Skinny. Partly in the hopes of trying out for the school musical—and partly to try and save her own life—Ever decides to undergo a risky surgery that may help her lose weight and start over.

With the support of her best friend, Ever begins the uphill battle toward change. But demons, she finds, are not so easy to shake, not even as she sheds pounds. Because Skinny is still around. And Ever will have to confront that voice before she can truly find her own." (Goodreads)

I heard about Skinny awhile ago, but never read any early reviews for it, which made me even more curious about how it was. We bought it for our classroom libraries at school and after a student read it, I borrowed it for last weekend...which ended up being my sick weekend, so lots of time to read! I liked it, but did have some issues with it by the end.

I think it's necessary that we have books with an overweight main character, but I'm not sure that Ever from Skinny is the right kind of character to be reading about. I actually found Ever to be pretty funny and I liked her relationship with her friend Rat a lot. It was painful to read about how Ever's classmates treated her aka not like a human being. I found Ever to be in an interesting person, but I had a problem with her choices.

My problem was that she went straight to gastric bypass surgery. At the initial appointment, all she did was tell the doctor that she tried diet and exercise, but it didn't work and then it was over. No more talk of making lifestyle changes or keeping a food diary or anything. To me, that was unrealistic. Not that I've had this surgery, so maybe I am not one to talk, but I know you don't just immediately go to surgery without more discussion of other methods. I don't want young people reading this to think that surgery is the only answer. I also wish there was more counseling follow up after Ever's surgery. There were clearly issues that needed to be worked out with professional help.

My issues with the book aside, I think this will be popular with female students. I already book talked it and expect it to be checked out pretty frequently. I did like Skinny and its overall message and would tentatively recommend it if you are interested in this subject matter.

One more thing: I really want to know why her parents named her Ever!