Looks - Hardcover

George, Madeleine

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0670061670 ISBN 13: 9780670061679

Publisher: Viking Books for Young Readers, 2008

Synopsis

An unforgettable debut novel about the way we look at others, and the way we see ourselves.

Meghan Ball is both the most visible and the most invisible person in school. Her massive size is impossible to ignore, yet people freely spill their secrets in front of her, perhaps because they think she isn?t listening. But she is. Now her attention has turned to a new girl: Aimee Zorn, with her stick-figure body and defiant attitude. Meghan is determined to befriend Aimee, and when she ultimately succeeds, the two join forces to take down their shared enemy.

This provocative story explores the ways in which girls use food and their bodies to say what they cannot: I?m lonely.

About this title

About the Author

Madeleine George is an award-winning playwright and a founding member of the playwriting collective 13P. She is also the director of the Bard College satellite campus at Bayview Women’s Correctional Facility in Manhattan. Ms. George lives in New York City.

Reviews

Grade 8 Up—This gripping tale of revenge goes beyond the stereotypical "outsiders get even" story. Meghan and Aimee are on opposite ends of the outcast spectrum. Meghan is extremely overweight, and it is more than hinted at that she has a binge-eating disorder. Aimee, on the other hand, is classic anorexic. Both girls have been hurt by one of the popular girls at school. They join forces to bring Cara down in a stunning bit of public humiliation. Themes of invisibility, familial dysfunction, and fitting in are all explored to some extent. Although the plot moves along at a fairly quick pace and keeps readers engaged, the ultimate conclusion is unsettling, to say the least. Aimee and Meghan become friends, but remain invisible to the other students at school. Cara rewrites what happened in her own head to remove any guilt from herself, and there is no resolution at all to a confrontation between the English teacher and the basketball coach, which looked to be a promising plot thread concerning sports versus academics. Neither girl receives any help with her eating disorder, even though Meghan's mother appears to be loving and Aimee's reaches out to her. Despite the loose ends, the story will make readers think about the various issues touched upon, and it is difficult to put down.—Robin Henry, Griffin Middle School, Frisco, TX
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*Starred Review* Meghan Ball is fat. “Hands like a ham” fat. Aimee Zorn is blade thin. Anorexic. Despite her size, Meghan can will herself to invisibility—unless a certain pack of boys latches on to her like they do sometimes, mocking and whispering dirty things in her ear. Aimee can barely control her fury, which she channels into her poetry and quells by starving herself. Both girls have, in their time, been befriended by self-satisfied Cara, who dumped Meghan as she grew bigger and more recently stole Aimee’s poetry and passed it off as her own. Now, an unlikely, uneasy alliance is formed, and it’s time for Meghan and Aimee to get even. George, a first-time novelist, covers familiar territory here—weight issues, peer torment, the mercurial nature of relationships. Yet it is not so much what she writes about but how she does it that makes this a standout. At times using an omniscient narration and cutting away superficiality, allowing her characters to be shown in stark relief, George knows how to write anguish. It is this ability that also informs her depiction of adult characters, whose tarnished lives elicit sympathy from readers, even as the characters mostly feel contempt. There is a strong, almost dangerous quality here; even though you know what’s going to happen next, there’s a jolt of fearful anticipation before it plays out. Grades 7-10. --Ilene Cooper

Edition details

• Publisher: Viking Books for Young Readers
• Publication date: 2008
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0670061670
• ISBN 13: 9780670061679
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 256