If you are ever looking for a good book to read, be sure to
check out one of the young adult award books.
Below are two of my picks from the Iowa High School Book Award 2015-2016
and the Iowa Teen Award 2015-2016.
Skinny by Donna Cooner
This is one of the selections for
the Iowa Teen Award 2015-2016. It is
about Ever, an overweight 15 year old who weighs 300 pounds. Ever has a voice in her head that is always
telling her negative things about herself; such as: she is ugly, fat, and worthless. One day, Ever decides to do something about
her weight and she has gastric bypass surgery.
Ever changes how she eats, begins to exercise and starts feeling better
about herself. Ever loves to sing and as
she gains confidence from feeling better, she is able to work towards her goal
of singing in the school play.
I liked reading about the
transformation that she went through as she started to take better care of
herself. At the beginning she was
isolated and just ate, and then as she began eating healthier and exercising,
her confidence began building and she noticed people around her. She was not alone and she was starting to
work towards her dream of singing.
Butter by Erin Jade Lange
This is one of the selections for
the Iowa High School Book Award 2015-2016.
This is about an obese teenager who puts up a webpage saying that on the
last day of the year he is going to eat himself to death. The website is found out by his classmates who
rally around him and Butter finds himself becoming popular for the first
time. However, Butter’s threats on the
webpage snowball into something he starts to seriously consider.
I picked this book out because the
idea seemed outrageous, that somebody would plan to kill themselves by eating
themselves to death. Once you start
reading it, you start to care about Butter and you do not want him to go
through with his plan. You keep reading to find out if he goes through with the
plan or if he finds a way out.
