32. Fat Cat - Robin Brande

Alfred A. Knopf, 2009
$16.99
329 pages
for: Young Adults
Rating: 4+

I loved this story, didn't want it to end. Disregard the fact that Cat, the protagonist, was a super-woman who could cram 25 hours of working into a 24 hour day, and you'd have a perfect story.

From the time Cat was eight, her best friend had been Matt McKinney. They did everything together - both were bright and very science-oriented. But after Cat win's first place in the science fair in 7th grade, she overhears Matt saying something horribly unkind about her and it crushes her to the core. For years.

We begin this story on the first day of school four years later. Both Cat and Matt are in the same small science class, a tough class, where the students spend the entire year working on a secret science fair project that will be unveiled after just over 200 days. They have to randomly choose a picture from many that Mr. Fizer has collected and build their project around it. When Cat pulls the picture of four naked early humans gathered around prey, she is totally stumped. But there's an ah-ha moment. She figures out what to do.

As Cat hit puberty she'd gained more and more weight. She loved to eat, and much of her intake was junk food, candy, and Diet Soda. Her skin was a mess and her self-esteem was low low low. Her best friend Amanda was gorgeous, smart, and everything a best friend should be -- and more, actually. She stood behind Cat with humor and love no matter what happened. Cat was frequently the third wheel to Amanda and her boyfriend, Jordan's "dates."

For Cat's project, she uses herself as a guinea pig to replicate as much as she can the eating and technologies that the early humans in her picture might have had. She begins cooking organically, it eventually becomes a vegetarian diet. She juggles AP classes, a parttime job, cooking for her family four nights a week, walking an hour each way to school each day, then dating, daily swimming, and helping run a cafe, all while working on her project. Even if this all seems very unlikely, it's a fun story to watch unfold. Yes, predictable. But very cute. And interesting. Her skin clears up. Her weight plummets. She becomes quite good looking. All of this helps keep the story going.

I particularly liked the growing relationship between Cat and her 11 year old brother, Peter. And Cat's reactions to the three young love interests that enter her life this year are really interesting as well.

Arizona is mentioned briefly. Therefore, I made the setting Tucson in my head and really had a visual of all the walking, the malls, and even the zoo. I can't find any information about where Robin Brande resides, so I'm thinking somewhere in southern Arizona.