I'm Ashamed for You

The hottest book of 2011 is shaping up to be “Maggie Goes on a Diet”. It’s a children’s book about a young girl named Maggie who has no friends and gets teased about her weight. She decides to go on a diet and join the soccer team to ultimately become a popular chick. The author, Pail Kramer claims the books is meant to help the children but everyone on the planet knows better.

My main issue with the book is that it’s about a girl. Why didn’t the author choose “Joseph Goes on a Diet” or asexual “Pat Goes on a Diet”? How can he claim it’s not aimed at young girls when he clearly picked a girl as his subject? How can a grown man think he has any idea how to relate to young girls going through this? He claims it will help girls and boys realize they can take matters into their own hands. Earth to Paul : no boy is ever going to be caught dead reading a book about a fat chick named Maggie. If he weren’t getting made fun of for his weight he’d definitely get made fun of for reading girly books. 

I’ve done some research on the author. (And by research I googled him and watched some clips from GMA … this is a blog not a masters thesis) in my studies I found Paul Kramer has made a career by self-publishing children’s books in Hawaii. So no, he isn’t a doctor or a psychologist or even a nutritionist so clearly he is the authority on children’s obesity.

I’m not one to hate on something before I have a chance to truly read it but you don’t have to be a genius to figure out telling a young girl “if you were thinner you’d have friends” isn’t a good idea. The book comes out in October and I won’t be buying it. I will definitely peruse the pages at my local Barnes and noble. Maybe it can give me a few weight loss tips.