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This engaging memoir is an honest, moving account of one feisty girl’s journey into womanhood while struggling with a weight problem. Sharon Wheatley yearns to be a singer on Broadway, but she pretends to favor opera, simply because she thinks she’d fit in better.
Aside from the inevitable taunting by classmates, young Sharon can’t even take her first ballet class without having the teacher tell her, “No more cake for you.” In fact, she encounters disdain and pressure to be thin from nearly every source of support any kid deserves. After pouring her heart out in a term paper entitled “Prejudice Against Obesity” and turning it in to her favorite teacher for a Christian morality class, her trusted mentor’s comments included “being overweight could be immoral.”
Eventually, after enduring too many digs, Sharon loses weight. She does it with courage and determination. She does it so well, in fact, that she becomes a svelte cat on Broadway. She learns that losing weight doesn’t erase your troubles, and eventually she learns the importance of unconditional self-love.
This provocative and powerful statement to the importance that society places on body image captures beautifully the pervasiveness of the social repercussions of being overweight. If you’ve never been, but always ached to know what it feels like, ’Til the Fat Girl Sings nails it. And if you’ve ever experienced being overweight yourself, you will find a compassionate sister in Sharon Wheatley.
