The Supervillain's Guide to Being a Fat Kid

November 15, 2021
Eleven-year-old baking enthusiast Max Tercero, who is fat and reads as white, hopes that his first year at Captain Clobbertime Memorial Middle School will offer a respite from being bullied for his size. But when he becomes the favorite target of school water polo captain Johnny “Johnny Pro” Properzi, he knows that nothing has changed. Desperate, Max seeks advice from Maximo “Master Plan” Marconius III, an incarcerated supervillain and fellow “gentleman of size and intellect,” who once took on environmentally conscious escapades. Receiving Master Plan’s covert email guidance, Max begins gaining confidence and readying to take down Johnny Pro by using Johnny Pro’s increasingly aggressive behavior against him, all while navigating the anxieties of middle school, including the locker room and new and changing friendships. An epistolary conceit is well deployed here, creating a safe space for Max to voice his concerns and gain needed empathy and wisdom from an understanding (if not necessarily trustworthy) adult. Confronting the assumption that physical appearance correlates to morality or worth and reinforcing the idea that individual choices and actions show a person’s true self, Wallace (Bump) writes a triumphant arc of self-acceptance that extends to developing personal ethics and boundaries. Ages 8–12. Agent: DongWon Song, Howard Morhaim Literary.

November 15, 2021
A fat boy battles bullies in a tale full of villains, heroes, bullies, and good guys. Maxwell Tercero is 11 and in his first year of middle school--where he finds that, just like elementary school, things are no fun for a fat kid. He is mercilessly and cruelly bullied by older students, led by popular eighth grade athlete Johnny "Johnny Pro" Properzi, and while Max doesn't necessarily want to hurt Johnny, he does want to give him a sense of the pain he's causing. Max eventually reaches out to incarcerated supervillain Maximo "Master Plan" Marconius III, who is also fat and who agrees to help Max change his life, inside and out. Master Plan helps Max along his own journey to body positivity, as well as toward victory over the bullies, with some very good advice. However, this help does not come without strings attached, and things rapidly spin out of control for Max, his friends, and others. Body positivity is usually the province of books about girls, so it is refreshing to see the focus here on a boy. Master Plan understands what it's like to be dismissed as the fat kid, and his advice is so good it is a shame that he is writing from prison. Main characters read as White. An exciting romp full of good advice and featuring a fun protagonist. (Fiction. 8-12)

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