I bought Tricia Rayburn’s The Melting of Maggie Bean at the Friends Of The Library book sale. It was a damaged copy so I’ve been using it as my beach/lunch/anything messy book.
I enjoyed it but at the same time I found it hard to read. This is not due to a problem with a book but due to my own diet issues that it made me feel guilty about. Maggie is an overweight preteen with self esteem issues. She has been using candy to cope her problems and it has caught up with her.
The difference between me and Maggie is that she hides her eating habbits, with a stash of chocolate under bed, whereas I have always been pretty open about my overeating. She desperately hides it, I joke about it.
I really liked that Rayburn dealt with both sides of eating disorders, by putting a negative light on both the overeating and the under-eating of extreme dieters. She showed the benefits of working out, and touched on the risk of straining yourself too far.
I don’t think the book would speak to someone who’s always been at a healthy weight, or has never been the last person picked in gym. There is a bit of romantic angst, family problems relating to unemployment (another reason why this was a hard one for me, with Matt looking for work) but the main plot is Maggie’s struggle with herself.It’s a decent read for tweens with weight issues.
Libraries & YA 