cover image Fat Glenda's Summer Romance

Fat Glenda's Summer Romance

Lila Perl. Clarion Books, $12.95 (166pp) ISBN 978-0-89919-447-9

This continuing adventure of 13-year-old fat Glenda finds her newly thin but waiting for the threatening ghost of her former self to return. The fast-paced action revolves around this and other changes: how to get along in an adult world, away from home, as a waitress at an inn; how to respond to a boy's attention; how to get her mother to stop coddling her; and most important, how to adjust when a close friend suddenly rejects her. Glenda's hopes for a glorious summer with her old friend Sara quickly crumble in lively, funny and readily identifiable incidents. She resolves most of the issues on her own, but can banish the self-punishing fat image only with the help of a boy. This shortcoming aside, it's a fast and thoroughly enjoyable read. (9-13)