08-25-2011, 09:34 PM
It's hard to comment without having read the book as the tone could be anything from "one day Maggie looked in the mirror and realised she really did look like a fucking hippopotamus who deserved to be spat upon by normal children" to something like "Maggie had set challenges for herself for as long as she could remember, since the time she watched her brother rock-climbing when she was 3 and set to practising on the trees at home and nearly gave her father a heart attack two weeks later when he arrived home to find her waving to him from 30 feet up in the air. So when she decided she wanted to captain the school football team she set out with her usual determination--dropping junk food and taking to running around the block each morning to get herself in shape, and practicing in the back yard with a tennis ball to hone her skills." [OK, OK, I'm not a writer, but I hope you take my point.]
Certainly, a book about children adopting healthy eating habits could be done poorly or offensively (but then so could any book about anything. Think "What we learned from the foreign exchange student" vs. "Invasion of the Darkies" or "Love is Cool no matter who you are" vs. "Fags Are All Around so Keep Your Butt Duct Taped") but I don't think the entire concept should be fundamentally verbotten. Obesity in young people exists, and it is a problem, which the author certainly appears to be trying to help with. Telling people who are trying to help that they should never have even dared to open their mouths isn't something I approve of.
As for it being down to parents, I agree, and such a book could potentially be a useful tool for them to use to open a discussion with their kids and a positive way for them to show some direction.
Certainly, a book about children adopting healthy eating habits could be done poorly or offensively (but then so could any book about anything. Think "What we learned from the foreign exchange student" vs. "Invasion of the Darkies" or "Love is Cool no matter who you are" vs. "Fags Are All Around so Keep Your Butt Duct Taped") but I don't think the entire concept should be fundamentally verbotten. Obesity in young people exists, and it is a problem, which the author certainly appears to be trying to help with. Telling people who are trying to help that they should never have even dared to open their mouths isn't something I approve of.
As for it being down to parents, I agree, and such a book could potentially be a useful tool for them to use to open a discussion with their kids and a positive way for them to show some direction.
"The fool doth think he is wise, but the wise man knows himself to be a fool."