Michael Boyd grew up in 1960s New Jersey-an overweight, shy kid who couldn't seem to find his place. He wasn't interested in the same things as the other kids in the neighborhood. He had a hard time making friends, and he was considered unpopular at best. He felt different because he was different. It just took a long time to figure it out. Forever the Fat Kid is not a harrowing journey from fat to fantastic. It is the difficult story of a black youth wrestling with his sexual identity, while struggling to develop in the turbulent American 1960s. Boyd's story takes him from Jersey to the Broadway stage, to major European cities, and even into the depths of depression ... but in the end, he finds hope. He finds who he was meant to be. It took years for Michael Boyd to find his way from fat to thin, shy to outgoing, and unpopular to admired. But he did eventually find his way, with the help of his art. It would be hard to picture the fat kid of the 1960s ruling the stage at the Apollo Theater years later, but it did happen. Through these experiences, Boyd discovered that coming of age, coming out, and coming to terms with one's life is a never-ending process.

When Bill Baroni was just twenty years old, he was convinced he was dying. He thought he was having a heart attack because it felt like he had an elephant sitting on his chest. It turned out to be only indigestion, but more than that, it was the wake up call he needed to save his life. Bill weighed 320 pounds and was hooked on junk food. He set about to change his life forever, and now, in Fat Kid Gets Fit, he tells you everything you need to know to lose weight and more importantly, keep it off for the rest of your life. No, he’s not a doctor. Not a trainer. Not a salesman hawking gym equipment, vitamin supplements, or workout videos. He did not have gastric bypass surgery and he didn’t subscribe to the slimming grapefruit enema regimes used by Hollywood stars. He lost his weight using common sense. It took dedication, and even some gumption. But it worked! He lost 120 pounds and, more importantly, he has kept it off! He has maintained a healthy 185 pounds for fifteen years. At 6’5”, he is trim, handsome, and healthy. Bill is a man on a mission—to help get everyone fit, no matter what their story is.

In this outstanding, funny, and edgy debut, Going tells an engaging story of two unlikely friends who meet when a high-school dropout talks a boy out of suicide--and who ultimately save each other.

Childhood obesity in the United States has tripled in a generation. But while debates continue over the content of school lunches and the dangers of fast food, we are just beginning to recognize the full extent of the long-term physical, psychological, and social problems that overweight children will endure throughout their lives. Most dramatically, children today have a shorter life expectancy than their parents, something never before seen in the course of human history. They will face more chronic illnesses such as heart disease and diabetes that will further burden our healthcare system. Here, authors Jacob Warren and K. Bryant Smalley examine the full effects of childhood obesity and offer the provocative message that being overweight in youth is not a disease but the result of poor lifestyle choices. Theirs is a clarion call for parents to have "the talk" with their kids, which medical professionals say is a harder topic to address than sex or drugs. Urgent, timely, and authoritative, Always the Fat Kid delivers a message our society can no longer ignore.

In Fat Guy Friday's Slim Now, Slim Forever, number one best selling author Craig Beck pulls no punches and delivers a wake up call designed to change your life for the better, forever! Discover: - The two reasons why you are overweight. - Why every diet you have ever tried has failed. - What the diet industry doesn't want you to know. - The secrets only slim people know. - How to lose weight and feel great without feeling hungry, ever! - Feel better and more healthy than you ever thought possible.

National Book Award Winner The red words painted on the trailer caused quite a buzz around town and before an hour was up, half of Antler was standing in line with two dollars clutched in hand to see the fattest boy in the world. Toby Wilson is having the toughest summer of his life. It's the summer his mother leaves for good; the summer his best friend's brother returns from Vietnam in a coffin. And the summer that Zachary Beaver, the fattest boy in the world, arrives in their sleepy Texas town. While it's a summer filled with heartache of every kind, it's also a summer of new friendships gained and old friendships renewed. And it's Zachary Beaver who turns the town of Antler upside down and leaves everyone, especially Toby, changed forever. With understated elegance, Kimberly Willis Holt tells a compelling coming-of-age story about a thirteen-year-old boy struggling to find himself in an imperfect world. At turns passionate and humorous, this extraordinary novel deals sensitively and candidly with obesity, war, and the true power of friendship. When Zachary Beaver Came to Town is the winner of the 1999 National Book Award for Young People's Literature. This title has Common Core connections.

In this New York Times bestseller, Jackie Warner, America's favorite no-nonsense celebrity fitness trainer, shows you how to get hot, healthy, and thin forever. "Being fat isn't your fault; staying fat is." That's what Jackie Warner tells her own clients, and that's why no one delivers better results than Jackie. This groundbreaking program is filled empowering strategies help you drop pounds and inches fast, without grueling workouts or deprivation. Her two-tiered approach provides a complete nutritional makeover and a failure-proof condensed workout routine, PLUS all the emotional support and encouragement you need to get to the finish line and beyond. With Jackie's core principles, you'll be shocked to find what is actually making you fat, and how easy it is to get thin for a lifetime. Discover her surprising secrets: ADD TO LOSE: In Jackie's 2-week jump-start, no food is off-limits. You'll actually add food to your diet in order to lose weight. CHEATING IS ALLOWED: Eat clean for 5 days, then indulge in whatever you want over the weekend! FAT IS NOT THE ENEMY: Fat doesn't make you fat; sugar does! Learn to finally control those sweets cravings. SKIP THE CRUNCHES: They just build muscle under the fat. Discover the fastest way to shrink your waist and spark your metabolism for rapid fat loss. LESS (EXERCISE) IS MORE: Workouts shouldn't take over your day-give Jackie just 20 minutes and you'll see results. THINK YOURSELF THIN: It's true! Jackie's own breakthrough mind-body techniques called Metaphysiques will help you create the body you want-by thinking it into reality. THIS IS WHY YOU'RE FAT (AND HOW TO GET THIN FOREVER) is your first and last stop on the way to a new fit and healthy you!

Dubbed?some would say drubbed?the ?godfather behind creative nonfiction? by Vanity Fair, Lee Gutkind takes the opportunity of these essays, and the rich material of his own life, to define, defend, and further expand the genre he has done so much to shape. The result is an explosive and hilarious memoir of Gutkind?s colorful life as a motorcyclist, a medical insider, a sailor, a college professor, an over-aged insecure father, and a literary whipping boy. ø In Forever Fat Gutkind battles his weight, his ex-wives, his father, his rabbi, his psychiatrist, and his critics in a lifelong cross-country, cross-cultural search for stability and identity. And from Gutkind?s battles, the reader emerges a winner, treated to a sometimes poignant, sometimes harrowing, sometimes uproarious, and always engrossing story of the simultaneous awakening of a man and his mission, and of the constant struggle, in literature and in life, to sort out memory and imagination. Here, enacted in technicolor terms, is the universal, symbolic truth that no matter how far you travel, over how many years, you will never completely shed the weighty baggage of adolescence. Yet, as Gutkind proves again and again, he has learned to describe his burden with an ever-lightening brilliance.

Give young children strategies to ease anxieties and worries and feel better again. Everyone feels worried at times, and young children are no exception. Friendly and reassuring, this book geared to preschool and primary children explains what worries are and how it feels to be worried. The book assures children that lots of kids—and grown-ups—feel worried, and that they can learn to make their worries “smaller and smaller and smaller.” Talking about worries, moving around, keeping hands busy, breathing deeply, getting a big hug, and thinking good thoughts are all ways for children to cope with worries. The book includes a special section for parents and caregivers with activities and discussion starters. Best Behavior® Series The Best Behavior series uses simple words and delightful full-color illustrations to guide children to choose peaceful, positive behaviors. Select titles are available in two versions: a durable board book for ages baby–preschool, and a longer, more in-depth paperback for ages 4–7. Kids, parents, and teachers love these award-winning books. All include helpful tips and ideas for parents and caregivers.

Teased and abused for being grossly overweight, Jimmy, a fourteen-year-old Scottish boy who dreams mysterious dreams and secretly aspires to become a chef, decides to turn his self-loathing life around by learning how to swim.