The Big Skinny

March 15, 2009
Counting calories and exercising: "sooo" boringuntil transformed into comics. At age 50, cartoonist Lay ("Way Lay"; "Good Night, Irene") decided she'd had it with her yo-yo weight and decided to downsize her foodstyle. There's nothing radical here: the fat-and-introverted adolescent, the ineffective quick fixes like diet pills and hypnosis, the junk-food bingesand salvation via healthy foods, counting calories, and exercising regularly. But Lay's lively, amusing drawings keep the message fresh and compelling. First comes her life history as "fattie," plus her daily routine for eating and exercising. Then follows a fat-prevention smorgasbord, including tips for outwitting emotional triggers to eat, reasons why you don't see fat people in cave paintings, ways to handle workplace food pushers, and sample workouts for both gym goers and the gymless. She ends with calorie charts, menu plans, and recipes. By rendering her diet dilemmas in memorable, colorful visualsshe talks turkey to a wind-up toy of herself and pictures fatty food as a greaser boyfriendshe encourages readers to use visualization themselves to solve their own weight issues. While Lay does mention a few resources, a short bibliography of print and web resources would have been useful. Recommended for teen and adult collections. (See also Jude Milner's "Fat Free: The Amazing All-True Adventures of Supersize Woman!", "LJ" 1/07.)M.C.

Copyright 2009 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

December 1, 2008
A middle-aged cartoonist who has dealt with her own overeating and weight fluctuations since adolescence coaches readers in the simple but sturdy method she adopted to lose extra pounds, keep them off, and feel better emotionally and physically. Using herself as the model for learning calorie counting, accessible exercising, low-fat cooking, and the important social skills needed to turn down ruinously rich foods graciously in the office and at parties, Lay provides clear-eyed guidance free of touting memberships in commercial weight-loss programs, self-pity, and problems with sustainability. She draws her world with realism, showing how her body looked first as it burgeoned and then during times of severe fluctuation, depicting expressions on acquaintances faces as she discussesand wisely chooses not to discussher reasons for saying no thank you to calorie-loaded offerings, and guiding readers through simple exercise regimens. She supplements the story with calorie charts and some ingredient-simple recipes. As weight-loss self-help and well-formed sequential-art narrative, The Big Skinny demonstrates that direct and simple can be satisfying approaches that yield admirable results.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2008, American Library Association.)