Have You Heard About Maggie?

I've had a couple of posts on hold for a bit, while I mulled thing over.  This is one of them.  It is about a book you may or may not have heard of.
The book is a new one, so new that it's only available for preorder and comes out in October.  Already it is making quite a stir.  The book is called "Maggie Goes On a Diet". 

I've been reading some things about it and trying to form educated opinions. That is more educated than my initial "What the heck are they thinking?!?" reaction.

For a brief background, the book is about a 14-year-old girl who is overweight and ends up, supposedly through eating right and exercising (obviously I haven't read it myself yet), losing weight and becomes the star of her school's soccer team.  The book is aimed to help children overcome obesity.

My internal struggle is this. I want to believe the author, Paul M. Kramer, had good intentions when writing it. It seems he has written other books on things like bullying and divorce. It's hard for me to imagine anything but good intent from someone who writes a book aimed at helping children.

I think though, that Mr. Kramer sadly misses the mark. Here are my issues with it, from I know of the book so far:

1) The title alone is an issue for me. I spent my lifetime growing up watching much-loved family members "diet" to be "skinny". And it worked for a time, but never long-term. Mr. Kramer claims "I am not advocating, and never did, that children should go on a diet. This is a change of lifestyle, this is not meant to be to go on a diet..." Source

So Mr. Kramer, if that's truly the case, why not choose a better title such as "Maggie Gets Fit" or "Maggie Gets Healthy" or simply "Maggie's Story". There are hundreds of better titles that could have been chosen that would reflect a message of adopting a healthy lifestyle v. dieting for looks.

2) The target age. Personally, I would expect a book about a 14-year-old losing weight would be targeted for well, other 14-year-olds. Or at least the 12-18 age group. However, take a look at the cover. It can be here seen at Amazon. The artwork, for whatever reason, reminds me of the Arthur cartoons/books, which are aimed at young children.

Also, if you go to the Amazon link and scroll down to product details, you will see the reading level is for 4 (most of whom can't even read on their own) to 8. That disturbs me, seriously disturbs me.  What 4 year old needs to be listening to a story about losing weight?  At that age, if a child is overweight, he/she should be encouraged to get out and play and be as active as possible.

Dr. Manny Alverez, senior managing health editor of FoxNews.com seems to think otherwise. "To think that this book is going to create anorexia in 5-year-olds is ludicrous."

I'm sorry Dr. Alvarez, but I disagree. Having worked in the child care and education fields for many years, I have seen first-hand, girls in this target age of 4-8 concerned about their weight, staring at themselves in the mirror, while tucking their tummies in and then refusing to eat dinner; refusing to eat chips because "Mom says it will make me fat". It can happen, much more easily than you think. To blow off such a concern is very, very foolish indeed.

3)"More and more people were beginning to know Maggie by name. Playing soccer gave Maggie popularity and fame.”

This is a line from the end of the book. Really, I think this is self-explanatory. But to elaborate - seriously?!? You're telling young girls that if they are skinny they will be popular? My mouth is hanging open here...


I think of all things though, my biggest issue is this: Between the author and the various "experts" I've heard defend this book, I would be willing to bet that none of them can truly know the heart of this issue: what it's like to be an overweight, adolescent girl. These men who are pediatric psychologists and doctors, have most very likely never been in a young girls' shoes.

I have. 

Weight is something I've struggled with my entire life.  My first consciousness of my size was delivered to me in first grade by a classmate.  As we stood in line to take a restroom break, he pointed to the bulletin board we were standing next to, which had a picture of an elephant on it, and said "That's you."  Two little words shattered my world.  While it didn't fully sink in at that time, it was the start of a slippery slope of watching my self-confidence drift away.

What would it have meant to me at 8, 10, 12 to be handed "Maggie Goes On a Diet"?  Would it have changed my life, turned it around and gotten to a healthy point then?  No, I don't believe so.

I think it would have pounded one more nail into my coffin of insecurity.  All it would have meant to me was that one more person thought I was fat, and thereby, not good enough, because obviously I needed to change.  While I can understand the health aspects differently now, I would not have understood that as a preadolescent girl.

Moreover, simply handing a child this book is not giving them the tools they really need to change.  As anyone who has gone down the long, long road of weight loss knows, is that support is number 1.  If you really want to help a child, you are going to need to reach the family.  I don't know that I had a lot of hope in losing weight as a young person, living in a house full of chips, cookies and ice cream.  (Please read:  I am not playing the parental blame-game here.  I love my parents and I know they did their best by us, and they always worked hard to put good food on the table for us.  But I do come from a family of sweet-tooths.)

Putting this book in the hands of a child who has no control over the food that comes into the home will be very damaging.  I have learned my control comes not in resisting the food once it's in my house, but in not bringing it in.  I don't think this makes me weak, I think it makes me smart to know this about myself.  But a young child who doesn't understand this and has no control over the food that comes into their home could end up very depressed from feeling like a failure.  It will drive home that because they cannot do what Maggie did, they are defective, unworthy and not good enough.

Mr. Kramer, I do firmly believe that handing a 6,8,10 year old this book, WILL do more harm than good.  I implore you to reach out to those who have truly been in Maggie's shoes if you truly want to help young children.  But rethink this book.  Even if it does help some, is it worth the harm it will do for many, many more?