45 Pounds (More or Less)

Ann describes the warm way she feels when Jon puts his arm around her or helps her in the shoe store. There's a bit of innuendo when Ann starts working at Twisted Pretzel and Jon is her first customer; he jokes that he's glad to be "her first." Other characters discuss the fact that Ann's father cheated on her mom, and may be doing the same to Nancy, his second wife.

Ann responds to intent more than specific language: She's humiliated and wounded when she overhears other girls calling her a "fat heifer," but she laughs at her grandma, who calls everyone a "fat-ass." Lots of characters call Ann's dad a "dickhead."

An old friend of Ann's steals beer and serves it to other teens at a pool party. At another friend's backyard party, a mean girl spike's someone's drink with an unspecified spirit, and the victim becomes drunk and sick. Ann's grandmother smokes cigarettes.

Parents need to know that K.A. Barson's first novel, 45 Pounds (More or Less), offers a painfully realistic view of a teen girl's struggles with weight and self-loathing. Ann digs deep into the reasons she finds solace in eating, including exploring her relationship to fast food and the depiction of body images in popular culture; numerous food and clothing brands (real and fictional) are used in this context. Characters call others or themselves fat (or "cow," "heifer," or "fat-ass"). Issues surrounding marriage and family are also important; Ann's parents divorced because of her father's infidelity, and they are each are married to new partners (many characters call Ann's adulterous dad a "dickhead"). There's a loving, committed lesbian relationship, with a wedding on the horizon. Also note that some teens in the book consume alcohol, and Ann's grandma smokes cigarettes.