Big Girl by Mecca Jamilah SullivanMy rating: 3 of 5 stars
This is a sad book. We have a young girl Malaya who is overweight, so is her mother. The focus of the book is on food and the weight, but also the family. It is told from the girl’s point of view, so there is not complete understanding of things. She seems to try to disappear, hardly talks about herself or feelings, things that happen to her.
The grandmother is a mean person, hardly says a kind word to her granddaughter only platitudes and focus on how large Malaya is, how she needs to lose weight and eat only a small amount of healthy foods. Unfortunately, she stays with her grandmother during the summer, so she is subjected to this meanness.
Malaya worries about her parent’s relationship; she makes herself feel better with food. Her other outlet is drawing and art.
Later we see Malaya as a teenager, nearing the end of her high school. She is smart, been in a gifted school all through the years, but it doesn’t translate into anything we see in the book.
I kept wishing Malaya would speak for herself, would do more for herself. The few moments that she does is a shining light.
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