Maggie Goes On A Diet

The blurb for this books reads, "This book is about a 14 year old girl who goes on a diet and is transformed from being extremely overweight and insecure to a normal sized girl who becomes the school soccer star. Through time, exercise and hard work, Maggie becomes more and more confident and develops a positive self image."

BUT! The reading level is from 4-8, so you know the targeted audience is that age group.

This is STUPIDITY to the max. There are already many children six and under who have eating disorders, and books like this will just make it worse.

Even if this book only sells one copy that is one too many!

This book is an abomination.
I'm sorry. It is not appropriate to be reading to children about going on diets. It takes so little to trigger eating disorders in children and teenagers and this could be such a huge trigger. If you read this to your kid it is tantamount to abuse. I buy pretty much everything from Amazon, My xmas presents, Study books, films etc and spend at least £1000 a year if not more. If this book is made available I will be taking my custom elsewhere, as I don't want to be complicit in what I see as a form of child abuse and I know many who will do the same! Regards, Lisa

I agree with both comments. This is irresponsible and ludicrous. For a book like this to be published is bad enough, for any parent to buy it would be unforgivable. The thought of anyone reading this to a 4-8 year old is disgusting. Little girls are already being bombarded with hourly messages that thin is wonderful and fat is horrible. What do you think this does to little girls? This is just so incredibly irresponsible. I hope this book falls flat on its face. I have written to the publisher (who also happens to be the author) and have asked him to withdraw this book. I would imagine I will have no return email from Mr Kramer. Boycott Amazon until this book is withdrawn and boycott all of Mr Kramer's books until he withdraws this book.

I also agree with the three comments above. 4-8 year-olds should not be taught that dieting is a healthy choice - virtually all experts agree it is not healthy for their age group, and there is no clear evidence that it brings health benefits for older children or adults. In addition, it is irresponsible to equate thinness with self-confidence. Children of every size need self-confidence in order to adjust to the demands of school. The idea that weight is something an individual can or should control is misleading, given that only 5% of dieters succeed in maintaining weight loss for even one year. This dangerous belief could encourage bullying and foster eating disorders, which are frequently fatal in the teenage years.

Agreed. Dieting is the number two trigger for eating disorders (genetics being number one). And since 95% of diets fail over the long term, dieting is not just risky behavior for kids and teens, it's self-destructive, leading to yo-yo dieting, weight cycling, and a slew of other behaviors that will cause poor health and misery.

This is an irresponsible book, written and published out of ignorance.

I agree with the other comments. The blurb about the book seems to equate weight loss with happiness and success. This is such an untruth. We should be fighting to promote health at every size and stopping bullying at schools not promoting false promises and fallacies.

This is one of the most appalling ideas for a book I can think of. What in the hades was the publisher thinking? I won't say again what everyone else said - tho it's all true and deserves to be underlined - but I will say that it is halfbrained ideas like this that propagate body image issues - body hatred - and the subsequent unhealthy behaviors (dieting, bullying, suicide) that inevitably follow. Booooooooooo.

The idea of this book makes me want to either cry or scream - actually both. It's bad enough that the messages and images in the cullture have co-opted most women into loathing their bodies, but targeting the insecurities of young girls, vulnerable to the risk of developing an eating disorder, borders on promoting high risk behaviors and attitudes that are destructive both physically and psychologically. Please take this book off the market.

It is extremely irresponsible of Amazon to consider publishing such a harmful book targeted to such a young age. My daughters are in the targeted age range and this book goes against absolutely everything I am teaching them about having confidence in themselves. I am raising them to know that they can be healthy, active, and confident regardless of their size. It is infuriating that Amazon will be targeting my children with a book that would steer them to low self-esteem, poor body image, and eating disorders when they are barely midway through grade school.

OMG, I agree with all the other negative comments. We have so many studies that say that putting a child in a diet is dangerous! Dieting is a risk factor for disordered eating, eating disorders, poor self-estem and poor body image.

The idea of this book is revolting.

This book is outrageous. How dare you assume that any child's shape is intrinsically requiring of change? And to further suggest that popularity will ensue and dreams will be fulfilled as a result of losing weight? Tell me, is that author a friend of Jenny Craig, by any chance?

100 years from now people will be looking back in horror at our thinness obsession and the crazy-@ss things we have done in pursuit of thinness. 'Dieting' then will be the medical equivalent of leeches now. I hope that not enough people read this book for it to add to the harm we've already done.

What's next...
"Maggie Discovers Ex-Lax"?
"Maggie Learns How to Gag Herself With A Spoon"?
"Maggie Won't Eat and Can't Stop Running"?
"Where Did We Go Wrong?" by Maggie's parents, after her suicide or death from anorexia?

This book will be harmful and can be fatal to young girls, and anyone who reads, shows, or gives it to a child ought to be convicted of child abuse.

Modeling healthy lifestyles for children through books where children do fun and active things or love vegetables is one thing...writing a book called "Maggie goes on a diet" that perpetuates all of the horrible stigmas about weight that persist in our society is....a horrible idea. Loving and accepting our bodies the way that they are and making weight more about health than about being successful or about appearances is the first step toward creating a healthy, balanced lifestyle---and as everyone else has mentioned, statistics and common sense have shown that dieting in the teen years has a horrible effect on self esteem, relationships with food, and a person's longterm well-being. I'm disappointed in the author and in Amazon for carrying the book.

This book is not only harmful to young children in that it can trigger eating disorders, start a lifetime of body-hatred, create a fixation on appearance as a basis for health and acceptability, but it also lies to the child. It tells the child dieting will make everything all right or "normal" (how anyone would presume to define normal is beyond me). It also tells a child that you must put off attaining your goals until you are a certain size.

I didn't even have to read the blurb -- one look at the cover of this book and I knew it was going nowhere good. The years I spent trying to make someone who looked liked the little girl be someone like the reflection began at age 11 when I did go on my first diet. Years that I cannot get back and would not want to take from any other child. This book, however, sadly does not surprise me. Isn't this the essence of the new emphasis on the so-called "war on obesity"? Aren't we gearing up to make little "dieters" out of elementary school kids? This is the unintended (and maybe greedy) consequences of this new emphasis on fat kids. It will lead to no where good. In addition to triggering eating disorders at earlier and earlier ages, it will start weight cycling during growth, damaging our children's bones and brains and become fodder for bullies. This is wrong. There's no other way to say it.

Dieting is one of the number one environmental factors triggering a genetic predisposition to eating disorders (ED). Now with eating disorders starting at a younger and younger age (and did I mentioned it's the # 1 cause of death among all mental illness), and knowing that dieting is one of the triggers, what an absolutely, incredibly inappropriate book to sell young girls. Amazon.com... tsk tsk to you... if this continues it will absolutely be the last time I shop here!

I hope the author of this book reconsiders his responsibility not to harm children physically and psychologically. I hope, as a result, that he decides *NOT* to publish this book and further, I hope he issues a public apology. Good nutrition and exercise habits benefit the health and confidence of children of all sizes. This sort of shaming and blaming is exactly the sort of thing that makes fat children turn away from social interaction, lose the ability to enjoy food moderately and happily, and avoid exercise settings out of the accurate anticipation that they will be treated very badly there. It's the sort of thing that turns thin children into pompous bullies and bigots. How thoroughly tragic, if any child ever reads this book!

If you wish to contact Mr Kramer to ask him to withdraw this book, as I have, you may go to the website: http://www.alohapublishers.com/.

Not only is this book offensive, It is DANGEROUS.

What an appalling choice of subject for a young children's book - isn't there enough information out there about eating disorders in children? The publishers should be ashamed.

This book is an abomination and makes me scared for the next generations of children who are always battling with their self image thanks to publications such as this. Amazon: Stop selling this book on your website.

Agree completely. I hope the author will see this public outcry and do some solid research so he can see that he would be doing so much more harm than good. Please please Mr. Kramer, do some research and learn about Health At Every Size and learn how very dangerous diets can be.

We have millions of people in this world with life-threatening eating disorders and this book could contribute to millions more.

Does the book also tell "Maggie" about the failure rate of all diets? The long-term affects on her body from the damage they cause? The weight you gain and gain after every single attempt? I am sick of the lies perpetuated by mainstream media and the $64 billion diet industry fed to adults, but to target children so young? They don't even know about body image at age 4 yet! Leave 'em alone and just let them be kids!!! To try to profit from such a belief is disgusting, in my opinion. There is enough to worry about in the world and it's inhabitants than this drivel...they are still growing!