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Fat Angie

Fat Angie - e.E. Charlton-Trujillo So many issues to deal with in this book, it’s like a can of vegetable soup. Angie is the only one who believes that her sister is alive and not a captured war victim so this starts to lead her into a self-destructing lifestyle. Struggling to fit into her sister’s basketball top Angie has acquired the name Fat Angie as she has hid her life behind Swiss Cake Rolls, Big Macs and numerous other indulgences. Her mother cannot be bothered and her father hit the road when issues at home got bumpy and school, well she is counting down the days till graduation (and that is years away). Her unsuccessful attempt at suicide at her school has earned her more taunts and snide remarks from her peers so as each painful day at school slowly fades away, Angie’s life is daunting. A ray of sunshine finally falls upon Angie when KC Sunshine arrives at the high school and stands up for Angie when the other kids start to pick on her. A great friendship develops and Angie is hesitating at first to open up to her but eventually the two of them share a few things and realize they have a lot in common. KC reveals that she is gay-girl gay and Angie has some soul-searching to determine her own feeling about KC and whether she herself might also be gay. For once, Angie feels strength from within and I feel that she is finally able to see above the clouds. Whether it is that someone actually cares about her, she has someone who is actually listening to her or that she actually feels that she matters- but now she has a voice. The conflicts do not end, oh no….that would be too easy, but the power within Angie comes alive and she stands. She confronts others and she still fails sometimes but she stands back up. It’s a long road but each step she takes is a step forward as long as she stays on the right path. What I enjoyed the most was all the distractions that Angie was dealing with: friends, family, isolation, her way to cope (eating), the gay issue, bullying, suicide, the cutting issue, so much on her plate that it only took one person to make a difference. One person to notice her and it was not like that one person smothered her either. She mattered to her. Her parents were another issue and the teachers at school – how blind and sad they were. This other person did not have to be KC Sunshine, it could have been a teacher or another student that actually went to the school- it just took one person. Just thinking about Angie makes me sad. There are lots of kids like her out there that only need one person to make them feel “special”. Do you have someone like a KC Sunshine in your life? Someone who makes you feel special?