Fat Boy vs. the Cheerleaders by Geoff Herbach Format: eARC
Published by Sourcebooks, Inc. on 2014-05-06
Pages: 320
Goodreads
Genres: Adolescence, Boys & Men, Humorous Stories, Social Issues, Young Adult
From Geoff Herbach, the award-winning author of the hit young adult novels Stupid Fast and Nothing Special, comes a tale that will resonate with fat kids, nerds, dorks, gamers, geeks and teen outcasts of all kinds-an authentically funny story for anyone who has suffered from teasing and bullying at the hands of the high school social hierarchy. And decided to do something about it.
Join a cast of quirky misfits as fat boy Gabe, aka Chunk, goes up against the high school cheerleading team in a battle over control of the school's soda machine. A marching band geek who drowns his dysfunctional family woes in a voracious soda habit, Gabe relishes his role as class clown, fending off harassment from students and teachers with his own brand of irreverent, self-deprecating humor. But when the cheerleading team takes over the funds previously collected by the band, Gabe will not stand for it. Something must be done.
It's geeks versus jocks in an epic battle of the beverages!
Hilarious and poignant, Fat Boy vs. The Cheerleaders will have teen boys and girls alike cheering on this underdog turned unlikely hero. Reluctant readers and fans of Chris Crutcher, K.L. Going, and Andrew Smith's Winger will love Herbach's straightforward writing style and realism.
I received this book for free from publisher/pr firm in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
This is the first book I have read by Geoff Herbach and I have to say that I really enough reading this. I have been told that I really need to read the Felton Reinstein trilogy that he has out. Perhaps I will try and squeeze that in this summer.
The main character is Gabe. He is a junior in high school and is over weight. He has always been over weight. With being over weight Gabe has always been made fun, picked on and called all sorts of names. Its not just the kids at school calling him names, the gym teacher always on his case and his father & grandfather as well. This I have to say really bothered me. I think I probably could take the kids at school making fun of me but when a teacher and your parents do as well that is just brutal. How can adults do that to their own child or any child for that matter?
Fat Boy vs The Cheerleaders begins with Gabe being arrested for breaking into the soda machine. So the book is basically told in his point of view of that happened and what lead up to his arrest. He is telling his story in deposition form to a lawyer sitting at the police station. Gabe tells them everything and he holds nothing back.
There are a few things that makes Gabe happy and that is marching band, food and soda (pop). He can easily down a few cans in a day at school. Gabe thinks that all is money he is putting in the soda machine is going back into the marching band. When he discovers that its actually going into the cheerleading he isn’t happy and declares war.
Will Gabe be able to make the difference and get funding back for the school band? Will be stay on track and loose the weight?
One of the things I really enjoyed about the book was Gabe and perhaps others realized that its not cool to call other people names and that by doing so it takes away that person’s dignity. As a parent you wonder what goes on in school that your child might not be telling you. I was thankful when I was going to school that bullying wasn’t a big thing like it is today. I am sure kids got made fun of and I think if you surround yourself with really good friends they will outweigh the bad.