Weighed+Down+(Books+on+Body+Image+and+Self-Esteem)

January 2010 Theme Weighed Down -- Body Image and Self Esteem

 * [[image:exercising.jpg]] || **__Eating Disorders__**

//**Kim: Empty Inside:**// by Beatrice Sparks Gr. 7-10 Seventeen-year-old Kim, feeling the pressure of maintaining an A average to stay on her college gymnastics team, becomes obsessive about her weight and develops anorexia.  //**Little Girls in Pretty Boxes: the Making and Breaking of Elite Gymnasts and Figure Skaters**// by Joan Ryan Gr. 9-Adult Investigates the destructive side of women's elite competition in gymnastics and figure-skating, exposing such problems as eating disorders, stunted growth, and debilitating injuries. Concludes that abusive coaches and intense pressure from parents are often to blame.

//**Looks**// by Madeleine George Gr. 7-10 Two high school girls, one an anorexic poet and the other an obese longer, form an unlikely friendship.  //**Skinny Boy: a Young Man’s Battle and Triumph over Anorexia**// by Gary Grahl The author, now a counselor, describes the beginning of his compulsive exercise and starvation in his teens and chronicles his battle with anorexia, discussing his hospitalizations and therapy.

//**Second Star to the Right**// by Deborah Hautzig Gr. 8-12 As fourteen-year-old Leslie begins to shed the weight she feels makes her imperfect, she finds it increasingly difficult to reach out for the psychological help she knows she needs.

//**Skin**// by Adrienne Maria Vrettos Gr. 8-12 When his parents decide to separate, eighth-grader Donnie watches with horror as the physical condition of his sixteen-year old sister, Karen, deteriorates due to an eating disorder.  //**Stick Figure: a Diary of my Former Self**// by Lori Gottlieb Gr. 9-Adult The author shares her childhood diaries, chronicling her experiences as an eleven-year-old anorexic.

//**Wasted: a Memoir of Anorexia and Bulimia**// by Marya Hornbacher Gr. 10- Adult The story of Marya and her terrifying travel through both anorexia and bulimia. After five hospitalizations, endless therapy, the loss family and friends she finds her way back-on her own terms.

Eighteen-year-old Lia comes to terms with her best friend's death from anorexia as she struggles with the same disorder. ||
 * //Wintergirls//** by Laurie Halse Anderson Gr. 8-12
 * __Eating Habits__** [[image:dieting_scale.jpg width="138" height="116" align="right"]]

**//Accidental Love//** by Gary Soto Gr. 6-10 After unexpectedly falling in love with a "nerdy" boy, fourteen-year-old Marisa works to change her life by transferring to another school, altering some of her behavior, and losing weight.

When she is almost sixteen years old, Rosemary decides she is sick of being overweight, mocked at school and at Heavenly Hair--her mother's beauty salon--and feeling out of control, and as she slowly loses weight, she realizes that she is able to cope with her mother's cancer, having a boyfriend for the first time, and discovering that other people's lives are not as perfect as they seem from the outside.
 * //Artichoke’s Heart//** by Suzanne Supplee Gr. 7-10

From eating too much chocolate, Henry breaks out in brown bumps that help him foil some hijackers and teach him a valuable lesson about self-indulgence.
 * //Chocolate Fever//** by Robert Kimmel Smith Gr. 2-5

A collection of short stories, poems, and essays about body image, self-esteem, diets, eating disorders, relationships, fashion magazines, and more, with book, movie, and music recommendations.
 * // Does this Book Make Me Look Fat //** by Marissa Walsh Gr. 7-12

Because her eating habits cause some problems, Arthur the aardvark's younger sister has to stay home when her family eats out.
 * //D.W., The Picky Eater//** by Marc T. Brown PreK-3

//**Fat Camp Commandos** // by Daniel Pinkwater Gr. 2-6 Ralph and Sylvia Nebula and their friend Mavis Goldfarb are bitter at being sent to a bogus //weight ////-//loss camp, so they decide to escape and find a way to take revenge on those responsible for promoting the idea that thin is better.

//**Fat Kid Rules the World** //by K.L. Going Gr. 8-12 Seventeen-year-old Troy, depressed, suicidal, and weighing nearly three hundred pounds, gets a new perspective on life when Curt, a semi-homeless teen who is a genius on guitar, asks Troy to be the drummer in a rock band. <span style="font-family: 'Verdana','sans-serif'; font-size: 9pt; line-height: 115%;"> The story of Billy who, <span style="font-family: 'Verdana','sans-serif'; font-size: 9pt; line-height: 115%;">because of a bet, is in the uncomfortable position of having to eat 15 worms in 15 days.
 * //How To Eat Fried Worms//** by Thomas Rockwell Gr. 4-7

<span style="font-family: 'Verdana','sans-serif'; font-size: 9pt; line-height: 115%;">The fattest kid in the fifth grade wants to lose weight, but not badly enough to starve.
 * // Jelly Belly //** by Robert Kimmel Smith Gr. 2-5

Sixteen-year-old Lara, winner of beauty pageants and Homecoming Queen, is distressed and bewildered when she starts gaining weight and becomes overweight.
 * //Life in the Fat Lane//** by Cherie Bennett Gr. 6-12

<span style="font-family: 'Verdana','sans-serif'; font-size: 9pt; line-height: 115%;">Nuzzle eats too many snacks, and when he ends up with a stomachache, he vows never to eat another snack again. //<span style="font-family: 'Verdana','sans-serif'; font-size: 9pt; line-height: 115%;">**Pinkalicious** //<span style="font-family: 'Verdana','sans-serif'; font-size: 9pt; line-height: 115%;"> by Victoria Kann PreK-2 After eating too many pink cupcakes, Pinkalicious turns pink and enjoys everything about being her favorite color.
 * //Oh, That Nuzzle!//** by David Johnson Gr. PreK-2

//<span style="font-family: 'Verdana','sans-serif'; font-size: 9pt; line-height: 115%;">**Poopsie Pomerantz, Pick Up Your Feet** //<span style="font-family: 'Verdana','sans-serif'; font-size: 9pt; line-height: 115%;">by Patricia Giff Gr. 2-5 Poopsie's plans for self-improvement include losing enough weight to fit into a medium-sized bathing suit and becoming a prima ballerina.

<span style="font-family: 'Verdana','sans-serif'; font-size: 9pt;">Overweight thirteen-year-old Celeste begins a campaign to lose weight in order to make sure she does not win the Miss Huskey Peach modeling challenge, in which her mother and aunt have entered her--against her wishes.
 * // Models Don't Eat Chocolate Cookies //** by Erin Dionne Gr. 7-9

//<span style="font-family: 'Verdana','sans-serif'; font-size: 9pt; line-height: 115%;">**Santa Claus is on a Diet** //<span style="font-family: 'Verdana','sans-serif'; font-size: 9pt; line-height: 115%;"> by Nancy Scott-Cameron Gr. 1-4 <span style="font-family: 'Verdana','sans-serif'; font-size: 9pt; line-height: 115%;">When Santa discovers that he can no longer fit down chimneys, he goes on a diet and starts //<span style="font-family: 'Verdana','sans-serif'; font-style: normal;">exercising //, but still has trouble getting his sleigh off the ground on Christmas Eve.

<span style="font-family: 'Verdana','sans-serif'; font-size: 9pt; line-height: 115%;">//**The Seven Silly Eaters**// by Mary Ann Hoberman PreK-3 The seven Peters children, each one a fussy eater, work together to make their weary mother a birthday surprise

<span style="font-family: 'Verdana','sans-serif'; font-size: 9pt; line-height: 115%;">As a sixteen-year-old pursues her two goals--growing the biggest pumpkin in Iowa and losing twenty pounds herself--she strengthens her relationship with her father and meets a young man with interests similar to her own.
 * // Squashed //** by Joan Bauer Gr. 6-12

//<span style="font-family: 'Verdana','sans-serif'; font-size: 9pt; line-height: 115%;">**Slot Machine** //<span style="font-family: 'Verdana','sans-serif'; font-size: 9pt; line-height: 115%;"> by Chris Lynch Gr. 6-12 When overweight thirteen-year-old Elvin Bishop is sent to camp at St. Paul’s seminary Retreat Center, he and his two best friends are forced to try out various sports in order to find out where they belong.

<span style="font-family: 'Verdana','sans-serif'; font-size: 9pt; line-height: 115%;">**//Things You Either Hate or Love//** by Brigid Lowry Gr. 8-12 A cynical, overweight, and lonely Australian teenager spends her summer vacation making lists, eating comfort foods, and trying to earn enough money to attend a big rock concert.

In the wake of her cousin's suicide, overweight and introverted seventeen-year-old Miles experiences significant changes in her relationships with her mother and father, her best friend Jamal and his family, and her cousin's father, while gaining insights about herself, both positive and negative.
 * //You Know Where to Find Me//****by** by Rachel Cohn Gr. 8-12