The Fattening Hut [Hardcover]

Pat Lowery Collins (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 22, 2003

Helen doesn’t want to stay in the fattening hut. She’s told her mother that she’s too young, not ready for it. Why must she marry so soon? She doesn’t want to gorge on rich meals for months—until she is round and heavy, like a good bride should be. Just like her mother and sister before her, just like all the women of her tribe. When she finds out the terrible secret the fattening hut harbors, she becomes even more confused and defiant. Lonely, scared, and feeling hemmed in by family, by culture, and by tradition, Helen fights for the chance to be educated, young, and free.

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

Grade 9 Up-As in Signs and Wonders (1999) and Just Imagine (2001, both Houghton), Collins once again deals with teens who are out of sync with their culture or surroundings. In this book, she deals with the weighty issue of female circumcision. At 14, Helen has been promised to Esenu, an "old man" in her opinion, 30 years of age. She needs to gain weight, for what man wants a skinny bride? All of the girls on this fictional island are expected to go into confinement and eat as much as they can. However, the isolation and loss of youthful freedom have taken away Helen's appetite. In addition, she is becoming aware that the fattening hut holds another terrible secret. Helen is known to be willful; she takes after her unmarried Aunt Margaret, who has long been an outcast of the tribe. She has taught her niece to read and has given her ideas about the world beyond their island. Despite dire consequences if caught, she helps Helen to escape. Written as a long, first-person prose poem, the story is well told and compelling. Throughout this short novel, Collins subtly reveals who these people are, their customs, and what awaits Helen if she stays. This is a tough book that expects a lot from its readers. The terrible secret hidden in the hut may be lost on younger teens or less-sophisticated readers. Nevertheless, this is a powerful and unique book.
Roxanne Burg, Orange County Public Library, CA
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

Gr. 8-12. Helen hates the fattening hut, where her mother, according to tribal custom, has sent her to gain weight (to become more beautiful) in preparation for an arranged marriage and motherhood. She dreads the upcoming prenuptial initiation rites, which will include a mysterious "cutting" ceremony, or female circumcision. Aunt Margaret, who is shunned because she was educated by visiting Westerners and refused the cutting ritual, is Helen's only reminder that she may have other choices. Terrified, Helen flees the fattening hut and embarks on a terrifying journey through her island's wild forests. In an appended note, Collins writes that she based her story on an invented amalgam of existing tribal cultures throughout the world, but her blending of the authentic and the imagined yields a generic primitive island culture of "savage" customs and Western saviors. The closing note also talks more about female circumcision, but readers confronting the concept for the first time will most likely still be confused. What works here is the gripping survival story. Written as a long poem in Helen's precocious voice, the telling brims with lyrical descriptions as it raises provocative questions about cross-cultural boundaries and human rights. Nancy Farmer's A Girl Named Disaster (1996), about a Mozambique girl who flees an arranged marriage, and Christina Kessler's No Condition Is Permanent (2000), in which a character also faces female circumcision, present similar points for discussion. Gillian Engberg
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 12 and up
  
• Hardcover: 192 pages
• Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Books for Children; F edition (September 22, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0618309551
• ISBN-13: 978-0618309559
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.8 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,194,878 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

From my earliest years I thought of myself as a poet and painter. As a child in Hollywood, I also acted on the radio.

At twenty, I graduated from the University of Southern California, married,and soon moved to New England. It wasn't until the youngest of our five children entered school that I began writing picture books, and in the past ten years I've gravitated to writing young adult novels as well. My books include the Reading Rainbow selection, "I Am An Artist", and the recent sequel, "I Am a Dancer". My newest historical novel is "Hidden Voices, The Orphan Musicians of Venice", published by Candlewick Press and a finalist for the Boston Author's Club 2010 Children's Book Award. It was also nominated for a Cybil Award, and was chosen for ALA's 2010 Rainbow List. My young adult novel in free verse, "The Fattening Hut", won the Boston Author's Club 2004 Julia Ward Howe Award and was a Book Sense Pick and ALA Amelia Bloomer choice. "Daughter of Winter", set in Essex, MA in 1849, is scheduled for publication in 2010, and a picture book, "The Deer Watch", is also forthcoming from Candlewick. A chapbook of my poems, "The Quiet Woman Wakes Up Shouting", is one in a series of chapbook originals published by Folly Cove Books. I teach in Lesley University's MFA program in creative writing and live and work in Gloucester, MA. My web site is www.patlowerycollins.com

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great, Great, Great!, November 11, 2009

By 

L. Williams "all round smartass" (Oakland, California USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Fattening Hut (Paperback)

This book is gripping from the first line to the last. It is the coming of age story of a young girl growing up on a mythical island. This book is evocative of what all young women grapple with when coming to terms with womanhood, and what society requests of young women in order for them to be acceptable in society. Great read. This book is feminist in the sense that this young girl fights for her right to be more than what men want. What with all the willing participants in girls gone wild this should be required reading for all young girls.

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Original and intense, November 17, 2003

By 

Debbi Florence (upstate New York, United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Fattening Hut (Hardcover)

Written in verse, the story follows a girl on the verge of maturity. She belongs to a tribe of people living on an island. When girls are of marriageable age, they are isolated in a fattening hut where the other women feed the girls until they are fat and attractive for their husband. Helen does not want to eat and she doesn't gain weight much to her family's disgrace. What's more, her aunt who has been disowned by the tribe for her English-influenced ways, is hinting that Helen must run. Something worse than being fattened for marriage is to come!

Wow! Intense and beautifully written story about a difficult subject and wonderfully handled! I loved Helen and her bravery and strength in fighting what is expected of her. This is now my favorite novel by this author.