When there is a lot of hype about a new book, I always wonder if it will live up to all that pre-release chatter. Well, in the case of, A WORK IN PROGRESS the hype is well-deserved.
Author Jarrett Lerner used his own experience as he created the character of Will Chambers. The experiences are true for many kids as they grow through years of crushing doubt and self-esteem issues that would take down even the most confident adults. Reading this book will help countless kids find a way to live more positively in a world often filled with negativity.
Will jots down his story in a sort of free verse in a notebook filled with his drawings and thoughts. He starts with the terrible memory of walking the hallway in 4th grade. He was stopped and confronted by Nick Fisher who called him FAT. Will says Nick "spat" the word FAT so all could hear. From that moment on Will realized that was how most people probably saw him. The world around him screamed THIN and he was FAT.
Not knowing how to seek help, Will began an up and down life of binge eating. He reasoned that if he just ate one sandwich at lunch and then ate what his thin mother fixed for dinner, he would be a more suitable size. Soon he was skipping lunch in favor of dinner only, and then he began passing on dinner. When this eating disorder caught up with him, the folks around him finally recognized there was a problem. How could he get to a size he found acceptable? Was it even something he needed to do? Could he learn to love himself as her was?
A WORK IN PROGRESS should be read by everyone. When we stop to consider, we are all a work in progress and can learn from Jarrett Lerner and his awesome character Will Chambers.
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