A review by readwithpassion
Food, Girls, and Other Things I Can't Have by Allen Zadoff

4.0

I usually don't get into books that have humor, but this book was different. I found myself laughing out loud, and I really enjoyed the narrator's story. Andrew Zansky is 307 lbs (306.4 technically), and he doesn't feel he fits in his school, literally. From a teacher's point of view, this book was incredibly enlightening. I have many students who are overweight, and I feel like I understand them, but this book made me emotionally and physically walk in the shoes of an overweight teenager. When Zadoff spoke at the conference I was at, he said this book was fairly autobiographical in a sense, as he was overweight as a teenager, but the actual events of the story didn't happen. I can't wait to share this story with my students as I truly think it teaches them to walk in the shoes of a type of student they may not have considered. While many books are about the "geeky" group, this one truly is a success.