Staying Fat for Sarah Byrnes

Crutcher, C. (1993). Staying fat for Sarah Byrnes. New York, NY: Greenwillow Books.

The heartbreaking story of a shattered home and an abused young girl is revealed as Eric visits his catatonic friend at Sacred Heart Hospital. Sarah is an outcast, and so is Eric. Sarah because she has bad burn scars on her face and Eric because he is fat. They were good friends but are constantly picked on by their classmates. They enlist the help of Dale so that he can protect them. Eric and Sarah were a team and they survived because they had each other. Eric even makes an effort to not lose weight when he starts swimming so that he can still be Sarah's friend. When Sarah goes into catatonic state, it is suggested to him to talk to her to see if his conversations trigger her memories and bring her out of this state. During the course of this process, Eric realizes that the burns on her face are not an accident and that her father had been abusing her. This leads to Sarah "come out" of this catatonic state and Eric realizes she's been faking her condition so that she may stay away from her father in a desperate attempt to escape from the abuse which had increased in violence. Desperate to get help to try and protect his friend, Eric confides in his teacher and coach who tries to help out. When he confronts Mr. Byrnes, things get a little out of control. Will he be able to save his friend Sarah Byrnes?

The students that come into our classrooms each have a story, unfortunately not every story is a good one. It is heartbreaking to think that some of these kids have to fear the people that are meant to protect them. So who are they supposed to run to if the ones that have this responsibility to protect them are the ones who are being abusive? It makes you think about the unfairness of life and I'm sure that we have more of these kids than we should. Unfortunately so...

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