Bluebell or BB as she is better know (or Big Bones) is a sixteen-year-old girl who is overweight. She actually doesn’t mind being overweight and embraces her body. She loves food, decent food, but when she has an asthma attack her mum takes her to the nurse who warns her she must lose weight.

After a heated discussion over wanting to get an apprenticeship as a barista instead of going to sixth form, whilst in the nurse’s office, the nurse and her mum come to a decision. She has to keep a food diary for six weeks and she has to join a gym, then they can talk about the apprenticeship when she returns.

BB is a headstrong young woman who likes a challenge so she sets out to write her food diary, although it becomes more of a normal diary featuring food. This is her diary.

Big Bones is an amusing, laugh-out-loud at times book that deals with teenager BB and her weight and her love for food. It also covers her family issues, her mum and dad are having a break from each other and her dad has moved out of the family home. There is also BB’s little sister, thirteen-year-old Dove who loves Parkour.

As well as keeping a food diary and going to the gym (when she can be bothered), she also gets herself a part-time job at Planet Coffee, a cafe run by Australian Alicia who thinks as her staff as aliens, or earthlings, depending on her mood. It is here that BB is trying to get her apprenticeship.

Each chapter is titled mainly by a different food item and BB tells you why she loves or hates that item, as well as something that happens in her life too. I like BB, she didn’t care that she was overweight, she didn’t want to do the same thing everyone else was doing, she was happy just being herself. Yes at times she could be self-centered but I think that had more to do with her age than her weight.

I loved her take on life and also the way she thought about food. It had to look good and taste good, she was a food connoisseur. Dove loved her food too, the difference between the two is that Dove is this slight, slim young girl who never kept still. She was always out with her friends jumping from one rooftop to another, pushing her limits.

This is a beautifully written book that deals with far more than a young girl being overweight. It deals with a lot of things that teenagers BB’s age are going through. Family issues, problems with siblings, what to do once you have finished school, waiting for GCSE results, friendships, and young love.

By the time I’d reached the end of the book, it felt like I’d been following a real persons life. I was invested and I was sorry to reach the final page and would love to hear more from Bluebell in the future.

About the Author

Laura Dockrill is a performance poet and novelist whose wonderfully inventive and creative approach to life is reflected in the rich and vividly imagined worlds she creates. Laura lives in London.