It was interesting reading this book after reading books like The Body is Not an Apology and Shrill and Landwhale. ( )

Toby lives in the tiny Texas town of Antler, where nothing ever happens. The time is early 1970s, and his best friend's brother was drafted and sent to fight in Vietnam. His own mother has taken off for Nashville, Tennessee to try to make it as a country music star. His quiet, distant father works at the post office and farms worms on the side.
And then a trailer is towed into town, advertising a peek at Zachary Beaver, "The Fattest Boy in the World," for only $2. Everyone in town wants to look. The man taking the money, and taking care of Zachary, takes off in the middle of the night, leaving the massive boy in his trailer. Somehow, all of these things feel linked together in some invisible way, and the presence of Zachary Beaver, makes the other issues Toby and his friends are dealing with a little easier to swallow. ( )

I checked out an audiobook version from the library because it was recommended to me and right away the title sounded really familiar. Once I hit the part where Zachary Beaver calls Toby and Cal a bunch of perverts for creeping up to his trailer I decided to check out google and lo and behold...I saw the movie. And then after finishing the book, I felt robbed.

Toby's summer vacation has just started. His best friend Cal and him have a full summer ahead of them between small summer jobs and just having fun. A freak show act comes to town only there's just one person in the act. Dubbed the fattest boy in the world, Zachary Beaver is displayed for everyone to gawk at his body all while getting charged an entrance fee. As the two boys get to know this boy they gain a friend and also strengthen their own friendship.

I remember watching the movie and hating it. I thought it was pretty dumb how petty Cal was and was annoyed by Toby. Keep in mind I was also their age when I first saw the movie so I thought I could relate to them pretty well. But having read the book I noticed big differences that made me change my mind about the story. I'm aware that in order to fit a book into a 90 minute film there have to be some cuts and changes so I do feel like they robbed Toby of some growth. And then I don't think they did a good job of showing the kind of friendship the two boys had. There were some things that I wasn't a big fan of when it came to the book as a whole but overall I really liked it and I'm kind of shocked because I really hated the movie. ( )

I found this book at a library sale a year or two ago. Bought it because of the National Book Award medal on its cover. Didn't realize until I got it home that it was a children's book. Not even a YA book, to my mind, but a CHILDREN'S book. And that realization sank in pretty quickly as I began reading it.

I'll be frank. I found WHEN ZACHARY BEAVER CAME TO TOWN (first published in 1999) just not very believable. I don't think even a twelve or thirteen year-old kid would find it very plausible, with its premise of "the fattest boy in the world" arriving in the small town of Antler, Texas, and gradually becoming friends with some kids and other townspeople when his guardian abandons him there for a couple weeks. And the two main characters, Toby and Cal, are just cardboard stereotypes of what the author considers thirteen year-old boys to be. NOT.

There's a little of everything in here, all with small lessons to teach: compassion for someone 'different,' fragmented families, a brother gone away to war (Vietnam), an unrequited first crush, curiosity about religious faith, old folks, small town life, death, etc. All these elements are blended blandly together, with intermittent scenes of the two friends racing madly about town on their bicycles, like the kids in E.T. or STAND BY ME.

I know, I'm at least sixty years too old to appreciate this stuff, but the thing is I doubt that the audience it's aimed at would find it very compelling either. It's just too ... too, well, hokey, for want of a better word. I think the author, Holt, just doesn't give her young readers enough credit. The whole story seems to be 'talking down' to them. Or at least that's my take on it. Sorry, Ms Holt. Uh-uh. Reading this treacly stuff was a boring chore. I finished it, but I still can't believe it won a NBA. Not recommended.

- Tim Bazzett, author of the memoir, BOOKLOVER ( )

One summer in the small, sleepy town of Antler, Texas, Toby Wilson's life changes. Toby is a boy who lives with his parents, but his mother runs off to Nashville to enter a singing contest. She doesn't win but she doesn't come home to Antler either.
Later, he and his best friend Cal McKnight meet an extremely overweight, adolescent sideshow freak named Zachary Beaver, who has no parents or friends. Zachary, "The Fattest Boy Ever," spends most of his time in a camp trailer which has hooked up to the Bowl - a - rama for electricity.He is abandoned by is his leagal guadian, Paulie. The townspeople bring him food but Zachary never leaves the tiny trailer. Toby and Cal get to know him, and soon become friends with him even though Zachary is grouchy and doesn't always tell the truth. Toby and Cal discover Zachary had a Baptismal Bible but it only has his name it. Nothing else has been filled out. They set out on a mission to get Zachary baptised. He is of course too big to fit in the local church Baptismal pool.
A good coming of age story. Sweet, bittersweet.

A movie was made of this book in 2003. ( )