Fat Cat by Robin Brande

Catherine "Cat" Locke is a major science geek. This year she's even taking Mr. Fizer's Special Topics in Research Science class - a class known to cause stress overload in even the best students. And they don't even get to pick their own topic. They must blindly choose a photograph from Fizer's desk and base their project on that photo somehow. So Cat, who spent the summer studying fig wasps, is horrified when she pulls an illustration of Homo erectus - "Early hominins from 1.8 millions years ago." She now has until the end of class to write down a preliminary project idea and turn it in. How in the world can she base an entire year's research project - and science project final - on this?!?!

Eureka!

By the end of class Cat has her answer. It will involve Cat becoming her own science experiment. It will mean giving up the conveniences of modern life and most of the foods she loves. But if she succeeds, it will be one heck of a project. It might even beat Matt McKinney's (as if she cared about things like that).

This story is not about a fat girl losing weight and becoming popular, getting the guy, and ruling the school. It's a story about a girl taking control of her life for an unusual reason, but in the process becoming stronger, more confident and healthier. While her decisions may or may not be ones the rest of us are willing to make, they are definitely inspiring. I highly recommend this title!