Rate this book

Big Girl Small (2011)

by Rachel DeWoskin(Favorite Author)

3.35 of 5 Votes: 2

ISBN

0374112576 (ISBN13: 9780374112578)

languge

English

genre

Fiction

publisher

Farrar, Straus and Giroux

review 1: As a mother of a 17 year old daughter, I thoroughly enjoyed the protagonist voice of 16 year old Judy Lohden. Rachel DeWoskin captures the crazy way the teen brain functions. Judy is a 16 year girl who just transferred to a performing arts private school. She wants to fit in desperately. She’s a good kid, well-meaning, and very talented….and happens to be a person of little stature aka a dwarf. DeWoskin uses the dwarf angel to make the story a bit edgey, and she doesn’t use it to make her main character a victim. In fact, the main character is self assured, talented and as well adjusted as any 16 year old could possibly be, given they are 16. It’s a story of a 16 year old girl, navigating her way through high school. The reader is treated to the complexitie... mores of fitting in and trying to do well. The novel begins with the reader discovering that Judy is on the lam. She’s hiding in some seedy motel room, confessing her story to Bill, a middle-aged man who is also staying at the hotel. The reader knows that somehow this story doesn’t end well since Judy is holed-up in a hideous motel. What makes this novel a delight is Judy’s thoughts and justifications for all her decisions. Judy’s story is sweet, ill-conceived, tragic, and funny. It’s a story that could happen to any 16 year-old girl, in any school. It’s a great read for an adult with teenage children, for we forget how those teen brains meander to what they think is fine judgment. It’s a great story.
review 2: This is an interesting book, and I think listening on audio improved my experience tremendously. I've never read (or even heard of) books from the point of view of a dwarf, except for this one. Judy's voice absolutely makes this book -- and the narrator did a stellar job rendering her -- though the book itself is quite slow at times. There is a LOT of description and not a whole ton of action. I did laugh out loud several times, and toward the end I cried. As the reader, you can predict the scandal the book is leading up to, but the horror of it still shocked me. This is great book, though, for its portrayals of caring parents and friends, drive and ambition, and most of all, Judy, a "little person" (her preferred moniker) whose height is a integral part of her yet does not define her. less

Download links for: Big Girl Small

Advertising