Fat Chance, Charlie Vega

Product Description

Coming of age as a Fat brown girl in a white Connecticut suburb is hard. Harder when your whole life is on fire, though.

Charlie Vega is a lot of things. Smart. Funny. Artistic. Ambitious. Fat.

People sometimes have a problem with that last one. Especially her mom. Charlie wants a good relationship with her body, but it’s hard, and her mom leaving a billion weight loss shakes on her dresser doesn’t help. The world and everyone in it have ideas about what she should look like: thinner, lighter, slimmer-faced, straighter-haired.
Be smaller. Be whiter. Be quieter.

But there’s one person who’s always in Charlie’s corner: her best friend Amelia. Slim. Popular. Athletic. Totally dope. So when Charlie starts a tentative relationship with cute classmate Brian, the first worthwhile guy to notice her, everything is perfect until she learns one thing–he asked Amelia out first. So is she his second choice or what? Does he even really see her?

Because it’s time people did.

A sensitive, funny, and painfully honest coming-of-age story with a wry voice and tons of chisme,
Fat Chance, Charlie Vega tackles our relationships to our parents, our bodies, our cultures, and ourselves.
 

A New England Book Award Finalist

From School Library Journal

Gr 9 Up-Charlie Vega is struggling, and who can blame her? She’s continuously bullied by her mother about her weight, resigned to being overshadowed by her thin and popular best friend Amelia, withdrawn from her Puerto Rican extended family after the death of her father, and tossed aside by her admittedly unworthy crush. When she meets a new coworker, Brian, it’s not easy to let go of her insecurities in pursuit of her own happiness. Charlie’s romantic journey is adorable, perfectly encompassing all the giddy hopes and insecurities of first love. Maldonado dumps all the old tropes that have so often portrayed teenage boys as being manipulative and mean until finally realizing that maybe a female character is worthwhile. Here, love interest Brian is constant, compassionate, and kind from the beginning. The teenage characters act out with some high school melodrama, especially Charlie and Amelia as they adjust to their changing friendship. However, they own and apologize for their actions, demonstrating an emotional maturity and self-awareness not always credited to teenagers. Charlie’s mother’s tentative acceptance of her isn’t convincing enough to overcome the fat-shaming and emotional abuse she demonstrates throughout the story, however, it’s Charlie’s personal growth that matters the most. She starts out knowing that she should love and accept herself, but believing it is hard. Getting there is worth the bumps along the way. The characters are diverse and authentic-Charlie’s dad was Puerto Rican and her mother is white, Amelia is pansexual and Black, and Brian is Korean American with two moms. VERDICT Sweet and sincere, Charlie Vega’s journey is a delight.-Alyssa Annico, Youngstown State Univ., OHα(c) Copyright 2011. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Review

A
Cosmopolitan Best New Book of Winter 2020

★ “Charlie’s struggles are authentic and raw while Maldonado’s bright prose makes for a page-turner. . . . An overdue and welcome ingénue.”
—Kirkus Reviews, Starred Review

“Charlie’s emotional arc hits all the right notes, resulting in a warm and insightful coming-of-age tale.”—
Publishers Weekly

“Sweet and sincere, Charlie Vega’s journey is a delight.”
—School Library Journal

”
Fat Chance, Charlie Vega is an accomplished debut, and its nuanced depictions of first love, a complex mother-daughter relationship and fat acceptance make it stand out.”
—BookPage 

“With a memorable cast that brings fresh faces and voices to a typically homogenous genre, this title focuses on the positives of the often difficult and confusing high-school experience: genuine friendships and allies, powerful first crushes,