Me and my friend Ellie have a system for grading boys – like GCSEs.
A – Absolutely Adorable.
B – Better than most.
C – Could be okay, if…
D – Don't bother.
E – Excruciating.
F – Friend of Frankenstein.
The problem is A-grade boys expect to go out with A-grade girls. (You know – gorgeous face, good figure, skin without a single spot. Brain cells an optional extra.) I'm not, if I'm honest, any higher than a C. Could be okay. Could be okay if…? If I was thinner.
On top of that I'm trying to work out what the creepy Bird Woman is up to and talk to God about it all. And then there's the Awful Babysitting Incident. I don't even want to think about that…
Phoebe is 13, a Christian, and she is overweight. She has a great sense of humour and her escapades are full of jokes and fun. As Phoebe tells her story, she tries to figure out who is poisoning the cats, what's that creepy bird woman up to, why is the perfect girl at church so mean at school, is it OK to be embarrassed about being a Christian, and most important of all, “how on earth can I get boys to like me?” Phoebe discovers it's no good pretending to God, he sees both the beauty and the bad inside you. Body image is a massive issue in our culture causing problems for thousands of young girls. The Phoebe series does not offer solutions, but portrays an overweight Christian girl in a positive light telling of her struggles and discoveries in life.
