Meg Cabot is the author of the popular Princess Diaries, so many people think of her as only a young adult writer. However, I just finished Big Boned and thoroughly enjoyed it. Big Boned is about Heather Wells, who is a plus sized former pop singer who is now the Assistant Dorm Director at a college in New York. She has a new boyfriend and currently lives with the brother of an old boyfriend: okay, it is a little complicated. Her boyfriend is her remedial Math teacher, Tad. He's into jogging and health food. Heather is more into walking, fancy coffee, and chocolate chip cookies. She lives with Cooper, whose brother Jordan was once Heather's teen boyfriend; Cooper is a private investigator who felt his brother treated Heather badly and offered her a room.
Heather has moved on from her teen singing career; her days are filled with dealing with emotional college students, demanding administrators, and she has made a number of friends at the Residence Hall. Her beloved former boss, Tom, recently got promoted and her new boss Owen is a rather humorless, bland person. So, imagine her surprise when Heather arrives at work one day to find that Owen has been shot in the head from the street, and is sitting at his desk with a cup of cold coffee in front of him. She calls the police and it becomes evident that she may be really well acquainted with one of them; Detective Canavan questions her and from the references to the "Death Dorm," it is clear that they have worked together before.
I loved the descriptions of the college meetings, the friendships with Pete the Security Guard and Magda the cafeteria lady, and the way Heather goes to bat for her assistant Sarah and the other students. Mix in a proposed strike by graduate students, the appearance of a well meaning but inept PR person named Muffy, a large orange cat named Garfield, and Owen's ex wife and the story is an engaging one. While many books proclaim themselves to be funny, this one REALLY IS funny; I liked the self deprecating way Heather has of describing her reaction to healthy eating and exercise, worrying that her uterus may have fallen out while running. As she tries to reach out to one of her students, Jamie, they share a dish of warm cobbler.
However, I liked the way the author developed the storylines and characters. Heather is not a perfect person; however, she handles the various crises with her graduate students with her heart, and it becomes evident that she gets a lot of satisfaction from doing her job. I also liked that each new chapter offers a stanza of song lyrics from her music. (For example, "You're not fat--though you could get toned--But it's not your fault--You're just big boned.")
Now, I can't wait for the people who checked out Cabot's other two books about the same character to be returned: Size 12 is Not Fat and Size 14 is Not Fat Either. In the meantime, if you're looking for something funny and satisfying, check out Big Boned. You can find it in the Mystery section of the Waterloo Public Library. You might also want to check out Meg Cabot's website at www.megcabot.com.
c Waterloo Public Library 2009
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