Life In The Fat Lane (Turtleback School & Library Binding Edition) [School & Library Binding]

Cherie Bennett (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 1, 1999

FOR USE IN SCHOOLS AND LIBRARIES ONLY. Sixteen-year-old Lara, winner of beauty pageants and Homecoming Queen, is distressed and bewildered when she starts gaining weight and becomes a fat girl.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

A beauty queen develops a rare (and fictional) weight-gaining disorder. "Reading this often artificial novel for insight into [issues of weight, self-image and beauty] is a little like eating peanut M&Ms for the protein, but it's a similarly addictive experience," said PW. Ages 12-up. (Aug..-- is a little like eating peanut M&Ms for the protein, but it's a similarly addictive experience," said PW. Ages 12-up. (Aug.)
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From School Library Journal

Grade 8 Up?Lara, 16, is just what most girls want to be: thin, beautiful, and smart. She's dating one of the cutest boys in school, and she's popular. Then she notices that she's gained a few pounds. Unconcerned, she starts to work out harder and watches what she eats. However, her weight keeps going up, and soon Lara weighs over 200 pounds. She spends a week in a hospital on a controlled liquid diet, and the doctors and nutritionists can't understand why she becomes even heavier. Suddenly, she is no longer popular and is faced with ridicule from everyone around her. The story of Lara's weight gain is set against a backdrop of her outwardly perfect, but deeply troubled family life: her father is having a long-term affair, her mother is insecure and obsessed with her (and Lara's) appearance, and her younger brother is angry and rebellious. All of these characters and situations are skillfully drawn, resulting in a compelling story. Bennett captures the voices of teenagers well and offers insight into what it's like to be overweight in a society that is so caught up in appearances. Lara is further challenged when she finds out that the cause of her sudden weight gain is Axell-Crowne Syndrome (readers learn in an author's note that the disease is fictional). This plot device allows for more insight into Lara's character, as she struggles with being overweight through no "fault" of her own. While the fabrication of the disease may surprise or even disappoint some readers, most will find this an enjoyable and thought-provoking read.?Dina Sherman, Brooklyn Children's Museum, NY
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 12 and up
  
• School & Library Binding: 260 pages
• Publisher: Turtleback (August 1, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0613161432
• ISBN-13: 978-0613161435
• Product Dimensions: 7.1 x 4.5 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.9 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (169 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #6,094,759 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Hard Lessons for a Prom Queen, February 6, 2001

By 

Almut (London, England) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Life in the Fat Lane (Books for Young Readers) (Mass Market Paperback)

OK, I confess: I'm a 30 - year old mother with a career, and I'm still reading teenage fiction. How sad is that? Not at all, actually, when it's written as well as this book. Imagine: you are lovely Lara, Little Miss Popular, Homecoming Queen. Life is sweet. Mammy's rich and Daddy is good looking. Your boyfriend is deep and sensitive(even if not quite as popular as the one you dumped last year). You are friends with the cool crowd and wonder on occasions if your best friend Molly, who has a tendency to speak her mind and carries a few pounds too many, matches up. But you are a good girl, who offers Molly and other plump unfortunates condescending advice on how to improve themselves. And then you get fat. Not just a little overweight, but really, massively fat.Even without eating anything .Your positive attitude and discipline don't seem to help. Suddenly you are at the receiving end of pitying glances and "helpful" advice.You are no longer cool or cute. Your boyfriend still loves you but"just isn't in love anymore..." This excellent and inventive book deals with the inner turmoil of a Prom Queen's descent into fat hell. What I liked best was that the author resolutely refuses all easy cop outs. Lara now knows how fat people feel, but it makes her no wiser.The fat girl that she has patronised doesn't suddenly become her best friend. No, she visits Lara in hospital and gloats at her misfortune. Lara doesn't fall in love with the fat boy at her new school, they don't go on a diet and live happily ever after. But Lara does learn to live with her condition and learns a few hard lessons in the process. The quality of the writing is superb. All in all, a worthwhile book not only for adolescents.

20 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Interesting idea, terrible execution, March 22, 2005

By 

Anonymous (new york, ny United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Life in the Fat Lane (Books for Young Readers) (Mass Market Paperback)

I was looking forward to reading this book because it dealt with a topic that's very personal to me: being thin for most of your life and then suddenly gaining a lot of weight due to having a metabolic disorder. This happened to me a few years ago, and I was recently put on medication for my problem. I've never let my change in appearance get me down, though, and I was anticipating reading a story which featured a plus-sized heroine who isn't defined by her looks.

Boy, was I disappointed. Though the book is well-written, I found the narrator, Lara, to be incredibly shallow and conceited. And it pained me that all she did was whine about being "huge" and no longer popular. Yes, it's understandable that she'd be concerned about gaining so much weight in such a short amount of time - who wouldn't be worried about their body going through a drastic change? - but I wish some of her and her parents' concerns had been about her health (potential heart problems, etc.) I also didn't think the story sent out a positive message to the age group that it's intended for. We only see Lara kinda-sorta come to terms with being plus-sized in the very last chapter. Until then, she's resigned to being an "unattractive" outcast .. and when she "accepts" herself, it's mainly because it's suggested that she's on her way to becoming "normal" again. So, did Lara even really learn anything? It's hard to say. As far as I could tell, she was still judgmental and shallow even at the end of the story.

I wish that we'd seen more of an evolution of her going from hating herself to finding ways to love the new her. Instead of shipping her off to a new town to start over, it would've been much more interesting if Lara had decided to stick it to her snobby friends by adapting to her changes rather than wallowing in how unlucky she was. What if she'd done something like run for class president? Or became a plus-size model? Or had done something throughout the course of the book to demonstrate how she was growing accustomed to her new self. One thing I've learned is that you really are treated in the way that your attitude reflects. Yes, it's a cliche, but it's a good one. And this book was just immersed in negativity.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Well...., August 15, 2002

By 

Qit el-Remel (California, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Life in the Fat Lane (Books for Young Readers) (Mass Market Paperback)

I'm not entirely sure what to think of this book.

On the one hand, I like the premise of the story. "Life in the Fat Lane" deals with a girl who is suddenly faced with circumstances beyond her control. Because of these circumstances, her friends desert her; and she goes from being part of the "in crowd" to being a walking target for their abuse. (As a former target myself, I've experienced such abuse firsthand.)

On the other hand, I have a difficult time sympathizing with Lara. I can *pity* her--when her friends turn against her, when she's being taunted at her new school, or for her awful family situation--but what I *can't* do is particularly like or even respect her. She acts as if it's her deity-given right to be admired and envied. When she starts gaining weight, she moans about how fat she is (even at 5'7" and 128#)--a trend that continues throughout the book. When she's scorned by her false friends and held in contempt by her appearance-conscious parents, she blames her own weight rather than their blatant superficiality.

Even when you finally think that she should have done some growing up, she turns around and acts petty again: For example, even at her heaviest, she never loses her mild contempt for anyone *else* who's fat. All in all, she's barely less of a vain, self-absorbed prima donna than the spoiled girls who mock her.

In short, "Life in the Fat Lane" would have been vastly improved by a less annoying and static heroine. Most of the other characters, with a few notable exceptions such as Jett and Molly, are cardboard cutouts. (Patty's smugly spiteful response to Lara's weight gain was especially unnecessary.) Making Lara a stronger character--or at least, more than an incessant whine attached to a metabolic disorder--would have been a coup on Ms. Bennett's part.