Slob

* A sensitive, touching, and sometimes heartbreakingly funny picture of middle school life. –School Library Journal, starred review

Outrageously funny and smart, this story of an obese boy who takes on his bullies is as heartwarming as it is clever.

Twelve-year-old Owen Birnbaum is the fattest kid in school. But he also invents cool contraptions–like a TV that can show the past–because there is something that happened two years ago which he needs to see if he ever hopes to unravel a dreadful mystery.

But inventor or not, there is a lot Owen can’t figure out. Like how his Oreos keep disappearing from his lunch. Or why his sister suddenly wants to be called by a boy’s name. Or why a diabolical, scar-faced bully at school seems to be on a mission to destroy him. He’s sure that if only he can get the TV to work, things will start to make sense. But it will take a revelation, not a cool invention, for Owen to see that the answer is not in the past, but the present. That no matter how large he is on the outside, he doesn’t have to feel small on the inside.

With her trademark humor, Ellen Potter has created a larger-than-life character and story whose weight is immense when measured in heart.

Praise for Slob:

A Junior Library Guild Selection!

Potter delicately and confidently delivers a pitch-perfect story of self-worth … . This is a book for everyone: smart, devious, overweight, underweight, shy, courageous and everyone in between. –The Children’s Book Review