A Work in Progress by Jarrett Lerner (Aladdin, May 2023) is a middle-grade novel in poetry about an overweight boy struggling with bullying, his weight, and a growing eating disorder. Told in first person and accompanied by emotional sketches, A Work in Progress shares the spare thoughts of a sixth-grade boy who has struggled with low self-esteem since he first began being bullied in fourth grade due to his weight.
Telling Will’s story in verse made it all the more poignant. I felt like I was reading his actual thoughts. He often returns to memories of the first time a kid scorned him for being “fat,” and this echo felt painful to even me as the reader every time he relived it. The short lines make his thoughts all the more personal because these seem to be how we actually think.
Although Will hides to avoid confrontation, an encounter with Markus, another kid who likewise feels out of place, helps him. Will’s eating disorder and obsession with losing weight led to a final scene in which he faints in school. Even though Will had pushed away his new friend, Markus still comes to check on him and show that he cares. His parents finally take Will to a therapist and Will is able to start the journey to recognizing his positive characteristics and dealing with his body dysmorphia.
The hopeful reminder at the end echoes the title of the book. Just as Markus has slowly improved his skateboarding and Will has improved his drawing, they will always be “a work in progress” when it comes to being like they would like to be. Throughout the book, sketches show scribbles of frustration and in various stages of completion, emphasizing this “work in progress” concept throughout the book. (That said, the art in my digital review copy may not have been complete upon my reading, so I’m curious if the “work in progress” look still carried over to the final version.)
Even with the hopeful resolution, I left feeling a little letdown in the resolution. I felt that the “work in progress” concept needed to be expanded upon more. That said, I did like the interactions between Will and Markus, and then Will and Jules. It seemed realistically awkward and matched his tone from before he began talking with his family and therapist about his anxiety.
From my perspective, I’m not sure that an overweight child in middle school today would be commented on. After all, we live with an obesity epidemic so I would think there would be more than one sixth-grade student that struggles with weight. But, kids are so cruel, it is certainly a possibility.
I appreciated that this story featured a boy protagonist rather than a girl. The bullying, after the fourth-grade interaction, also seemed realistically subtle. The comments that Will heard about his weight were from kids that didn’t know he had overheard: their snide remarks, the judgmental looks, the snickers. Or, was Will an unreliable narrator? It’s possible the whole situation was overblown in his head, and his childhood friends (for example) would have loved to keep being his friend: he simply took everything to heart and assumed they thought he was a monster.
In the end, A Work in Progress gives the reader much to think about in terms of body image, self-perception, and bullying, as well as the ironic message of hope that we all have a long way to go. It’s okay to be “in progress.”
Note: I read a digital review copy.
