Eliza Bing is (Not) a Big, Fat Quitter
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- $6.99
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- $6.99
Publisher Description
Eliza has had many hobbies in her eleven years... and most of them haven't lasted very long.
After she and her friend Tony create a baking business for a class project, Eliza becomes certain that cake decorating is her destiny. Her parents insist that the summer "Cakes with Caroline" class is too expensive—especially given Eliza's history of quickly losing interest in things.
Desperate to show them that she can be diligent, Eliza volunteers to take her brother's unwanted spot in a taekwondo class. At first, she has absolutely no interest in martial arts, and the focus and discipline of taekwondo is a huge challenge for her since she has ADHD. To make things worse, mean girl Madison shows up in class.
Eliza is tempted to drop out, but a true martial artist never quits. Can she rise to the challenge?
A 2015 Christopher Award Winner in the Books for Young People Category
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Van Vleet, the author of several nonfiction books for children, takes a strong first step into middle-grade fiction with this novel about an 11-year-old with ADHD. Eliza's parents dash her dream of taking a summer cake-decorating class with a celebrity TV pastry chef, saying that it's too expensive and that she will soon lose interest. Resolute, Eliza strikes a deal with them: if she fills (and keeps) the spot in a taekwondo class that her brother quit, she can take the cake class in the fall. Developing the concentration, memory skills, and self-confidence that the martial art demands is an enormous challenge for the easily distracted Eliza; some readers may grow tired of the detailed accounts of Eliza's taekwondo classes. But the story's other tangents including Eliza's longing for acceptance among her peers, her pain at being snubbed by her best friend, and her resentment of her mother's preoccupation with her job are easy to identify and sympathize with. Lively dialogue, quick-moving snippet-style chapters, and believable family interactions give this story additional kick. Ages 7 11.
