Review Detail

Ann struggles with her weight, but also with her family situation. Her parents are long divorced, and her brother lives with her father and his "perfect" new family. She lives with her busy mother, stepfather, and preschool aged twin half siblings. Her grandmother is a great comfort, but when her aunt Jackie announces that she and her girlfriend, Chris, are getting married, Ann goes in to complete panic mode. She decides she HAS to lose 45 pounds before she must be a bridesmaid, and signs up for delivery of expensive, preplanned meals, thinking this is the magic bullet. In order to fund this, she needs to get a job. Snapz, a trendy clothing store in the mall, doesn't hire her, but the Twisty Pretzel does. A couple of the popular girls at Ann's school work there; the "knees". RayNEE is nice, but Courtney is awful. Courtney's cousin, however, is really cute, and Ann is glad to be included in their plans so she can get to know him. The diet goes more slowly than Ann would hope, but she does try, even if her supercritical mother doesn't think so. Ann has an "ah ha!" moment when she sees her sister Libby telling her teddy bears that if they don't eat very much, they won't get fat, and decides she is setting a poor example with her prepackaged meals. She tries to focus on just being healthier, especially after she learns more about the reasons for her mother's behavior.