Dough Boy by Peter Marino (Novel)

This piece of literature is a fictional story about a boy named Tristan who is overweight. His parents just got divorced and his mom has a new boyfriend. They are living happily until his mom’s boyfriend’s daughter moves into the house. The problem with his daughter is that she is a health freak. All she talks about is nutrition, physical activity and losing weight. She begins talking to Tristan every day about different types of food and how it will be easy for him to work off the weight. But bad things keep happening to Tristan. He gets called names like dough boy, fatty and other mean names, get’s tripped in the lunch room, he falls through the attic floor, he gets picked on in the locker room, and his so called friend Marco is the worst one of all. I chose this book because it is a more difficult book to read alone so I would read this out loud to the class. This book brings up many different questions about family life and personal wellness. How do particular families, where they live, and family priorities play a role in personal wellness? Can it be both positive and negative? It also brings up the feelings, emotions and troubles that go along with being overweight but even “thin” and “skinny” can feel the same way. Throughout the book the reader feels like Tristan should stand up for himself and we can also discuss why he doesn’t do this? Why does he allow this to happen to him? How will he be able to stand up and like himself for who he is?