about the book
Ever Davies is fifteen, five foot eight inches tall and 302 pounds. She started gaining weight after her mother died when she was ten years old. She is trapped in layers of blubber, uncomfortable every waking moment. Fat camps, hypnosis, Weight Watchers, miracle diets—she has tried them all. She can’t escape. She can’t hide. She can’t stop hating herself. That makes her mean, always on the offensive.
Her father remarried and now she has a stepmother and two teenage stepsisters, one the head cheerleader at Huntsville High School. To them, she is an embarrassment.
She feels like an ugly Cinderella. Jackson, her prince charming, a childhood friend who once kissed her, now can’t see past her weight. She even has a fairy persona that lurks in her mind. Named Skinny, this goth Tinker Bell taunts her viciously, far worse than the rude jeers by classmates and strangers. Skinny constantly reminds Ever just how fat, how ugly, how disgusting she is.
Ever is not the person everyone else sees. She is so much more. She is an excellent student and a good writer. She is a good friend to Rat, a geeky boy who has always been loyal to her. She is a talented and passionate singer. Skinny has always silenced that voice but with the Spring Musical coming up in April, Evers decides it is time to do something—something radical, even life threatening. She decides to get gastric bypass surgery.
The surgery is nasty. The extreme diet, exercise regimes, and nausea are life changing. But the pounds start to drop off. Surprisingly, Whitney, one of the worst haters, takes Ever on as a pet makeover project. Just as the boys start to notice her, her relationship with Rat stumbles.
Is this life better…or worse? Can she find happiness, the courage to share her singing talents, and possibly even love? But more importantly, can she silence Skinny and learn to accept herself?
about the author
Donna Cooner’s debut novel is a tribute to her own personal journey. Ten years ago, she weighed 302 pounds. Like her character in Skinny, she also had gastric bypass surgery, losing over a hundred pounds. Donna will never be thin, but she says she is now comfortable in the body she is in.
Growing up in Texas, she was a shy child. She loved books, and when the extended family met for an annual week at the lake, she was more often found reading through the uncensored books left at the cabin than splashing with the others. She always had to struggle with the real world verses the much more exciting ones that inhabited her mind. She never thought about being an author, though she did win an essay contest at the age of eight. Instead she dreamed of being a marine biologist. That was quickly dashed by severe sea sickness.
Her mother was the school secretary and her dad was a school teacher and a coach. Turns out she inherited her father’s passion for competition. A fast-pitch soft-ball enthusiast, she played catcher—even with taped broken fingers. That competitive drive found its way into her career as a teacher and as a writer.
She started with a kindergarten class of 33 rambunctious five year olds. She quickly learned that the only thing that would calm them down was a good picture book. She went on to write over twenty herself. As her teaching career advanced, she turned to teaching teachers and her writing had to focus on text books and on academic papers. She also wrote children’s television shows for PBS. When she finally had the time to refocus on fiction, her mother was diagnosed with stage-four cancer. Writing about that, her work found a new audience in young adults.
Her books are all based on personal experiences. and she often starts by asking herself questions to help her remember. Somewhere along the line, she asks herself “What if,” and then the story will twist into a completely different path. Her advice for rookie writers: “The real story isn’t always the BEST story.”
Sources:
Author biography: Goodreads
Book trailer: Skinny
Also by Donna Cooner:
Can’t Look Away. Point Signature. 2014.
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