Skinny by Donna Cooner

Based on the author's own life experiences, Skinny takes on a heavy subject matter in a YA format. Fifteen-year-old Ever has been overweight for most of her short life. We encounter her as she makes the decision to have gastric bypass surgery to (hopefully) transform her into a more confident young woman ready to take on what life brings her. In Ever's experiences leading up to and following her surgery, she is constantly haunted by "Skinny", the voice in her head telling her she'll never be good enough. Ever soon discovers getting rid of "Skinny" will take a lot more than a surgery, as she tries to conquer the mental and emotional battle that follows gastric bypass.

I picked this book up because it was on the Beehive Award Nominees table at my local library. It looked like a quick, easy read and sounded interesting. I really didn't know much about gastric bypass surgery before reading this book. It was fascinating to learn about the months of preparation and weight loss that have to occur before the surgery and the strict diet and lifestyle in the months following.

My biggest hang-up with this book is the intended audience as a young adult novel. I have a 13 year old girl living in my house, and I've been a teenage girl myself. Self-esteem is not at the top of the list for characteristics of teenage girls. Many teens struggle with perceived weight issues, even when they're not actually overweight. Skinny is full of a lot of negative self-talk and weight related put-downs. Although I understand the issues addressed are real for some teens, I think teen girls have enough negative self-talk going on in their own heads without having to read more in a book. I would guess that most teenagers don't even really understand what gastric bypass is or when it's necessary, so I could see a teenage girl with low self-esteem and slight weight issues thinking this could be a solution to her problems. Part of my hesitation probably stems from what I know about a friend who developed an eating disorder in middle school and eventually died from it. Suffering from low self-esteem and a warped body image, my already skinny friend watched a video about eating disorders in our 7th grade health class. The video gave her ideas of how to hide the eating disorder from her parents, which helped foster the disease that eventually killed her. I do think it's important for teens to be given honest, open information about real life. I just don't know that a book like this offers the right message for teens who are already struggling with similar issues.

Overall Rating: 2 stars

Content Warning: heavy subject matter and a lot of name calling, including some foul names

Target Audience: Definitely not teenage girls. I just don't know that I'd recommend this one to anyone.