A diet book for six-year-old girls: the worst idea ever?

Published: Wednesday, August 17, 2011

Fancy putting your daughter off her food? Then buy her Maggie Goes on a Diet, a children's book aimed - according to Barnes & Noble, one of the many booksellers on whose website it is currently listed - at six- to 12-year-olds. It has been written and self-published by Hawaii-based author Paul Kramer, whose previous titles include Do Not Dread Wetting the Bed, in which little Cynthia "chases away the pee-pee monster"; and Louie the Lobster Mobster, in which a criminal crustacean gets his comeuppance.

The book tells the story of 14-year-old Maggie, who according to its blurb "is transformed from being overweight and insecure to a normal-sized teen who becomes the school soccer star". It's not out until October, but so disquieting is the cover image that perhaps we may, in this case, allow ourselves to judge the book by it. Maggie is depicted as dumpy, pigtailed, wearing an unflattering jumper (has nobody told her that wide lateral stripes aren't a good look when you're carrying a few extra pounds?), staring into the mirror, presumably dreaming of a thinner self who will one day wear the tiny pink prom dress she's holding wistfully to her chest.

Click here to read the full gaurdian.co.uk article.