Search - Go Figure

Reviewed by coollibrarianchick for TeensReadToo.com

Sometimes we need to read chick lit. Chick lit books are so much fun to read. Especially the ones where the girl goes from ugly duckling to swan metaphorically or meets Prince Charming after round after round of bad luck with other men. Pair a read like that with a lounge chair and a pool and your day is made. If you are looking for good chick lit, you should try Jo Edwards. She writes chick lit for both teens and adults.

I just finished her newest book for teens, GO FIGURE. It was easy to read - I finished it in just a couple of hours. It was an entertaining romp about a fat girl named Ryan Burke who, despite the extra baggage she carries, is a great girl who deserves to have everything that “skinny� girls get. Jo Edwards shows us through Ryan's voice what it means it to be overweight in the world today.

In 6th grade she weighed 128 pounds - not the ideal weight for being a cheerleader. She was constantly teased, which really made her self-esteem plummet. Instead of doing something positive about her weight, nipping it in the bud, she let it spiral upward and out of control. It is so easy to hide behind the fat, which Ryan does throughout high school. Insecurities can do you in. Yet she still sits at the popular table at lunch. This just goes to show that fat girls can be popular; fat girls can have lots of friends.

It is the boyfriend area that Ryan doesn't excel in. Most of the relationships that she has been in, not that there were that many, the fat issue hindered things from progressing. Unfortunately, fat girls don't get the hot guys. Maybe in a fairy tale it does but not in real life. The longest relationship she had was with a guy who is now a big shot celebrity. He went from geek to sheik. He's been on the cover of Rolling Stone and you can read about him in the celebrity gossip columns.

Whether fat or thin, Ryan is going to make the most of her senior year. She has a lot going for her; besides being funny, smart, and popular, Ryan just got accepted into a prestigious photography class with a famous photographer. Interestingly, the “boy next door� turned “hunk when he got to high school� is in the same class. Eons ago, they used to be best friends but now move in different circles.

Can this class turn two old friends into something more? Can she make peace with her size and live her life to the fullest? You will have to read the book to find out.

This is a good book. The author also writes adult books under a different name. Ryan thinks of herself as the fat girl. Then, her ex-boyfriend is all of a sudden a rock star. She is just trying to find her way, before she goes to college.