Larger-Than-Life Lara Book

When Lara Phelps walks into Laney Grafton's fourth-grade class, Laney feels the air change. Lara is fat. Really fat. Finally, there will be someone else for the boys to pick on, Laney thinks. But as the class prepares for the school play, Lara doesn't act the way a fat kid should. She's confident. She's happy. And nothing, it seems, can change her positive attitude. Until one day, when Laney's classmates do the unthinkable.

Bestselling author Dandi Daley Mackall tells this original and poignant story through the use of sparkling language, a winsome narrator, and a clever structure that illustrates just what makes a story a story.

About the Author: Dandi Daley Mackall lives with her husband and children in West Salem, Ohio.

Children's Literature

Ten-year-old Laney Grafton recounts recent events surrounding Lara, a new girl in her class, who is morbidly obese. Through her narrative, Laney documents the miserable and numerous offenses that are perpetrated on Lara, and reveals her own experiences as the class scapegoat and outcast. Finally, the students' publicly mortify Lara, with an act so mean-spirited that the adults finally get involved (their absence and lack of leadership and guidance is a huge gap throughout this novel). The outcome is that Lara, rather than the perpetrators, has to leave the school. And, to the students' astonishment, Lara and her parents leave without saying goodbye. Realizing the serious effect their actions have had on Lara, and what it has revealed about their own lack of understanding and empathy, the children line the school driveway, holding signs of apology and well wishes as the car passes. This final scene fails to redeem the students' relentless intolerance of Lara up to that point, however. Readers don't gain new understandings of childhood obesity or the fact that it is a disease deserving compassion, and that it's not indicative of an absence of mental or emotional intelligence.