Resource List: (Mostly YA) Books with Positively-Portrayed Fat People In Them
Compiled with help from Neil Gaiman and his bazillions of followers.
Please note I haven’t read all of these. I’m literally going off what a bunch of people on Twitter told me. I asked specifically for YA titles, so there are mostly those in this list. All age brackets open to interpretation, of course! Apparently, in some of these the characters lose weight, but I’ve weeded out the ones that were suggested and obviously weren’t (based on description) what I was looking for with this resource list.
Hope this helps, readers and parents out there. :)
CHILDREN’S (AGE 0-10)
Real Mermaids Don’t Wear Toe Rings by Hélène Boudreau
Mercy Watson to the Rescue by Kate DiCamillo
My Great Big Mamma by Olivier Ka
YOUNG ADULT (AGE 11-18)
The Lewis Barnavelt Series by John Bellairs and Brad Strickland
The Mystery Of… Series by Enid Blighton
Staying Fat For Sara Byrnes by Chris Crutcher
Jennifer Murdley’s Toad by Bruce Coville
The Neverending Story by Michael Ende
Half World by Hiromi Goto
Will Grayson, Will Grayson by John Green and David Levithan
An Abundance of Katherines by John Green
Fat Kid Rules the World by KL Goings
Wildside by Steven Gould
Guardian of the Dead by Karen Healey
The Three Investigators Series by Alfred Hitchcock
The Earth, My Butt, and Other Big Round Things by Carolyn Mackler
Winding Circle Series by Tamora Pierce *NOTE: Apparently a lot of Pierce’s stuff has positively-portrayed overweight characters! This is just the first one that was suggested.
Alan Mendehlson, the Boy From Mars by Daniel Pinkwater
Enclave by Kit Reed
Demon Lexicon Series by Sarah Rees Brennan
Holes by Louis Sachar
The Fat Girl by Marilyn Sachs
Skim by Mariko Tamaki
ADULT ADULT? I DON’T KNOW, BOOKS YOU WON’T FIND IN THE YA SECTION.
Size 12 Series by Meg Cabot
The Soldier Son Trilogy by Robin Hobb
Edit: Please know that this list is not intended to be a shortlist of books that will inspire teens to lose weight. At all. This is a list of books that will, hopefully, show them that they’re not less human just because they’re fat. We get little enough positive media exposure - books are a good place to start.
