Crutcher, C. (1993). Staying fat for Sarah Byrnes. New York, N.Y.:  Greenwillow Books.

This is a story about Moby, Sarah and Virgil.  Moby is an overweight high school senior whose best friend is a girl named Sarah.  Suffering burns when she was 3 years old, she has significant scaring and refuses to speak which lands her in the hospital.  Moby visits her everyday reminding her of their experiences of being bullied in Jr. High. At one point Moby joins the swim team and begins losing weight, but he quits out of fear of losing Sarah.  We find out that Sarah is faking her illness to “have time to think.”  This is when we learn that the burns were caused by her father (Virgil) and that she is extremely afraid of him and what else he will do.  Eventually, Virgil attacks and tries to kill Moby, which gives the police a reason to arrest him.  Sarah is adopted and given a second chance at a happy life.

Staying fat is a great book about coping, choices and coming of age.  Its target audience is 9^th through 12th grade with a reading lexile of 920.  It addresses the common high school experience from the perspective of the bullied.  It has moments of poignancy and anticipation.  Some good follow up texts are Life is Funny – Frank, Fat Kid Rules the World – Going and Mexican White Boy – de la Pena.  This text could easily be used to discuss the social issues of abuse and bullying.  Some essay topics could include compare and contrast of several characters of your choosing.  Analysis of character development and discussions regarding friendship and bullying could also be developed for instruction.