Did any of you go to a summer camp when you were little?  I only went to a day camp for Camp Fire USA.  Since my mom was my group leader, she was always there with us.  It was a lot of fun!  But the reason I ask is because I read a book last night about a teenage girl that goes to “Fat Camp.”  The book is appropriately called “Fat Camp” and is by Deborah Blumenthal and you can read about it here on Amazon.  I thought the book was extremely good – so much so that I read the entire book in one night.

I discovered the book when I was perusing the Young Adult section of my local Borders this weekend (yes, I sometimes read young adult – but I was actually looking for a specific book (“Don’t Judge a Girl By Her Cover” by Ally Carter)) when the words “Fat Camp” caught my eye.  For obvious reasons.  I read the back of the book and thought it sounded interesting.  Since Borders had a fantastic coupon weekend, I decided to go ahead and get it.  I’m so glad I did.

I’m telling you, there is no topic off limits for this book.  It discusses everything from being overweight and the reasons why, to losing weight, to keeping it off, to drunk driving, to family issues such as work-aholic parents, to hit-and-runs, to eating disorders, to teen love, to friendship, to all kinds of things.  I honestly began to wonder if there was going to be a topic that the author wasn’t going to touch on, but realized that it really made sense.  There are a bunch of different characters in the story – as there are in life – and also as in life, every one of them has their own story to tell.  They all come from different backgrounds and have different experiences.  Quite a few of them may want to lose some weight, but their journeys are all different.

I highly recommend this book!  It doesn’t end happily ever after (or tragically ever after for that matter, either), but I guarantee almost everyone can find something to identify with.