Abby is a "chubby" sixth grader trying to fit in with the "medium" girls. When she speaks out against one of them, they turn into mean girls.

I was disappointed with this book. I don't consider Abby's weight (105 lbs.) to be "chubby," and I thought her parents's reaction to her "chubbiness" was extreme and unrealistic. In general, her parents are kind of awful to her (being insensitive about her weight, denying her food that her brothers get to eat, and making her hang out with the mean girls)and never seem to realize the error in their ways. The various strands of the plot just didn't fit together, and I felt that there were many loose ends that never got tied up by the end of the book. I would have liked to have seen more resolution to her issues with her parents. ( )

Is it possible to start afresh when you’re thoroughly weighted down?Seventeen pounds. That’s the difference between Abigail Walker and Kristen Gorzca. Between chubby and slim, between teased and taunting. Abby is fine with her body and sick of seventeen pounds making her miserable, so she speaks out against Kristen and her groupies—and becomes officially unpopular. Embracing her new status, Abby heads to an abandoned lot across the street and crosses an unfamiliar stream that leads her to a boy who’s as different as they come.



Anders is homeschooled, and while he’s worried that Abby’s former friends are out to get her, he’s even more worried about his dad, a war veteran home from Iraq who is dangerously disillusioned with life. But if his dad can finish his poem about the expedition of Lewis and Clark, if he can effectively imagine what it is to experience freshness and innocence, maybe he will be okay. As Abby dives into the unexpected role as research assistant, she just as unexpectedly discovers that by helping someone else find hope in the world, there is plenty there for herself, as well. ( )

This book was disappointing. It's told from the point of view from a young girl who is overweight and is bullied about it in school. There is also a fox, who has certain magical abilities, which were not explained very well in the story.

The main character seemed to have too much self pity, some parts were left unexplained, and some of the characters seemed to act much different than people their age should have.

Near the end when her mom forced her to go to the sleepover, that part seemed just a little forced, the mother ignoring her daughter completely on what she had to say. When her 'friends' locked her in the room and left her there without dinner... well, that just didn't make sense. ( )

Eleven-year-old Abigail Walker turns her back on the crowd of mean girls with whom she has been trying to ingratiate herself, since her best friend Claudia moved away, and finds that many other experiences and opportunities open up before her. Befriended by quiet Anoop Chatterjee at school, and soon part of his soccer-playing lunch crowd, she also finds a friend in homeschooled Anders Benton, who lives with his father and grandmother on a nearby farm. Almost in spite of herself, Abigail becomes involved in the Benton family's project, researching the animals encountered by the Lewis and Clark expedition. Anders' father Matt, an Iraq War veteran with a tenuous grip on his emotions, is composing a poem inspired by the expedition, and Abigail is drawn in to the effort to help him, eventually involving her new school friends as well. Weaving through these narrative developments is a magical fox, one who migrates between various human stories, and has a prior connection to Matt Benton. The fox decides to get involved - something she has never done before - when she sees Abigail become the target of the mean girls' hateful campaign...

There is quite a bit going on in The Second Life of Abigail Walker. Issues of bullying and body image - Abigail's parents and many of her peers (the aforementioned mean girls) seem to feel she is terribly overweight, something they focus upon with unhealthy zeal - as well as questions of belonging and choice. There is the post-traumatic stress experienced by Matt; Abigail's initial fear of the Bentons' horses, and then her discovery of the joy of riding; the question of boys versus girls, in the forming and keeping of friendships; and the issue of dysfunctional family dynamics. Of course, there is also the fox, whose counter-narrative is woven around the sections which belong to Abigail. I imagine that for some readers this would all add up to a hopeless muddle, but I thought that somehow it all worked. I found Abigail's story involving, at times infuriating. Her parents' obsession with her weight, and their response to the issue often struck me as cruel - even abusive - and was far more disturbing for me than the actions of the girl bullies. I thought it was interesting that her mother always wanted everything to be 'nice,' often suppressing experiences and communication that might undermine that goal. When Abigail wonders what to do after you've told the truth, and nobody believes you, I found myself thinking of my own youthful encounters with bullies. I may sometimes have felt that I couldn't confide in my parents, that they wouldn't (or couldn't) understand me, but I can never recall opening up, and having them disbelieve me, having them deny that my experiences were actually real. When Abigail's mother does just that, it is a terrible betrayal, one that is not ameliorated by her later acceptance of Abigail's reality. After all, she may accept that the other girls are unkind to her daughter, but she never shares that knowledge with Abigail's father. Perhaps that would be too uncomfortable, because it would lead to a frank discussion of Abigail's supposed 'weight issues,' and how they themselves (Abigail's parents) have been participating in harming her?

Just as some readers might find the multiplicity of themes here rather jumbled, I would imagine that the lack of definite resolution, when it comes to Abigail's home life, might prove unsatisfactory. I myself found it realistic. It would be lovely if everything were neatly tied up with a bow at the end, but that doesn't always happen. As engaging as I found Abigail's story, I also found myself involved with the character of the fox, whose ruminations were alternately amusing and poignant. I had to chuckle when the fox interprets the mean girls through her own vulpine idiom, deciding first that they are raccoon girls, and then that they are definitely weasel girls. When she asks, "who was tender to a fox?," after her first meeting with Abigail, I had a lump in my throat. In truth, it is the fox that drew me to The Second Life of Abigail Walker, as the depiction of foxes in children's books is one of my research interests. I'm struck by the use of the fox figure here as a sort of magical guide, one not necessarily central to the narrative developments, but whose presence helps the protagonist to move in the right direction. This is very similar to the recent French-Canadian graphic novel for young readers, Jane, the Fox and Me, and seems to point to evolving ideas about the role of the fox - or perhaps the natural world in general - in human lives.

In sum: although not a perfect book, there is much here to entertain the reader, to move her emotionally, and to spark some thought in her, on a number of important issues, from body image to the human relationship to the wild. ( )

A powerful, gracefully written coming-of-age story, sympathetic and true. ( )