Fat Girl On a Plane

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Fat Girl on a Plane is an important book for teen readers tackling issues of self-esteem, body shaming, body image, self acceptance, overcoming obstacles, and rising to challenges. Cookie Von is an aspiring fashion designer with a keen eye and a knack for pattern, proportion, and color. She makes much of her own wardrobe and writes a fashion blog. Fat Cookie is forced to buy two seats on a plane and she vows that she's done being "the fat girl on a plane."

The story jumps back and forth from fat Cookie (in high school) to skinny Cookie in a fashion design program at ASU. Some readers may become disconnected with the way the story is told, but it's a strong story nonetheless.

Cookie has self-doubt and a good bit of self-loathing brought on by stares and comments from complete strangers and most biting of all: rude comments from her super-model mother. One lesson Cookie learns is that fat or skinny, things don't change that much. Sure, men give her approving looks. People take her designs more seriously, but designing for plus-size women isn't considered a real design business.

Through it all, Cookie sticks to her guns and creates plus-size fashionable pieces because she believes that fat people deserve fashion. A woman should not have to wear tents or caftans because she is bigger than runway models. Fashionable pieces can be created and worn by all sizes of women. Fat Girl on a Plane forces readers to view fashion from the eyes of women who have been under served and unrepresented by designers, publishers, fashion editors, models, and media. The plus-size market is a gold mine if someone like Cookie makes it their own.

Once skinny, Cookie attracts a much older, more worldly boyfriend. This is where this YA novel veers off path. With profanity and sexual references, this book cannot be placed in a middle school library. Cookie is in her first year of college and if there were still a recognized genre as New Adult, that's where this title would be placed.

376 pages             9780373212538            Ages 14 and up

Recommended grades 9 and up. Profanity, sex.

Recommended by:  Pamela Thompson, Librarian, Texas USA

*******

From debut author Kelly DeVos comes an unforgettable story about fierce fashion, pursuing your dreams, and loving yourself at any size.

FAT

Cookie Vonn’s dreams include getting out of Phoenix and becoming the next great fashion designer. But in the world of fashion, being fat is a cardinal sin. It doesn’t help that she’s constantly compared to her supermodel mother—and named after a dessert.

Cookie scores a trip to New York to pitch her design portfolio, but her plans are put on standby when she’s declared too fat to fly. When she finally arrives, she finds she’s been replaced by her ultrathin rival. Cookie vows to lose weight, get out of the friend zone with her crush, and put her dreams back on track.

SKINNY

Cookie expected sunshine and rainbows, but nothing about her new life is turning out like she planned. When the fashion designer of the moment offers her what she’s always wanted—an opportunity to live and study in New York—she finds herself in a world full of people more interested in putting women down than dressing them up. Her designs make waves, but her real dream of creating great clothes for people of all sizes seems to grow more distant by the day.

Will she realize that she’s always had the power to make her own dreams come true?

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