“Fat Kid Rules the World” by K.L. Going

Annotation:

Super-self conscious “Fat Kid,” meets apathetic skinny street-rat. Skinny Kid saves Fat Kid and hi-jinks, near beatings, illness(s), and punk music ensue.

Justification for Nomination:

Troy Billings, New York “Fat Kid” extraordinaire is tired of people laughing at him for being fat, so he decides to do something about it. He contemplates suicide by jumping into the path of a subway, but is rescued by quasi-homeless Punk Rock genius, and fellow student, Curt McCrae. The two discuss things over dinner, and before long, a friendship has grown. Troy’s father at first doesn’t approve, but decides to give Curt a second chance. Soon, Curt decides he wants Troy as a drummer.

Curt smooth-talks Troy into skipping school on Mondays to go practice, their first session takes them to the home of Curt’s mother. They listen to old albums until it begins to get dark. Curt bolts out of the house leaving Troy alone in a strangers house. Troy barely escapes without being caught. Throughout the next few weeks, Curt is somewhat unreliable nearly getting Troy into trouble. Eventually real practice starts, and Troy must balance doing the right thing by going to school, and meeting Curt’s random schedule for practice. They eventually play a gig, with not-so-good results.

Troy sinks into depression and refuses to have anything to do with music, until he finds out that Curt has been sleeping on the streets near him. He finds Curt, and agrees to get back together for the band, but Curt soon falls seriously ill. Troy helps Curt to get well, and overcome his drug addiction, leaving only time to tell if Curt truly recovers, and they go on to become punk rock legends.

Nearly everything in this book is Troy’s narration, or observation, and he is incredibly honest. Troy has a self deprecating wit, and seems to have come to terms with who he is as “Fat Kid.” He even has come to a point where he can laugh at himself, and is not afraid to describe himself when he huffs, and sweats. He is very real, and as such it is easy to relate to him, and empathize with him.

Troy’s father deserves some credit, being an ex-marine, and into athletics, especially with his active son Dayle. He decides to support Troy’s decision to get into music, despite not approving at first. He eventually caves in and even buys Troy a drum set.

This book is nomination worthy because it hits many of the developmental YA areas. Troy is aware of who he is, but at the same time is discovering things about himself that never dreamed of, such as his ability to play drums. Troy also has an idea of who he is in relation to everyone else; to other kids, he is a joke; to his dad, a disappointment; to girls, a repulsive sight; to his younger brother, an embarrassment. Despite this, he also discover something new about himself like his ability to play drums, to “live” the unpretentious punk life, to actually be popular to others because of his talents.

“Fat Kid” also hits the point of a quest, in that Troy has a quest to become a sufficient drummer. Troy doesn’t seem idealistic, at least in the sense that he can “do anything,” quite the opposite in fact, he is convinced that he has no redeeming points. He does however stick to what he believes in. He stops skipping school for practice, and desires to at least respect his father. To me, that is pretty idealistic in our day.

Troy also has incredibly high awareness of his sexual development, noticing just about every hot girl, which shows that he is developing. Troy is also extremely self conscious, and introspective. Troy also tries to solve Curt’s problem of homelessness and illness, is uncertain about his musical ability, and eventually overcomes the odds to become a decent drum player. In short, Troy is a very realistic teen character that I found easy to empathize with.

Suggestions for improvement:

This book is pretty good, but the amount of swearing was pretty high, in addition Curt’s possible drug use was kind of alarming. In a sense though, this is art imitating life, and Going definitely uses these two points to make believable characters. Descriptions of things could have also been better, but since it’s the observations of a teen, who is preoccupied with a lot of other stuff I think it’s excusable. In this case, I name Troy an unreliable narrator, and cannot place the fault on the author.