Back when I was a newly minted single parent I used to take my kids to the University of Guelph campus quite a bit.
They liked the library, and thanks to my alumni card I was able to get quite a few esoteric children's books out for them.
U of G had a robust children's literature program going on at the time. Professor Mary Rubio was the driving force behind it, if I remember correctly. And as a consequence the kidlit section in the library was chock full of just crazy stuff.
They had kidlit from all over the world. Most of it was totally immune from the breezes of political correctitude that were beginning to waft over the university at the time.
Guelph was also a hot-bed of post-colonial studies. So my kids got all the latest trendy kidlit from all corners of the world.
But their favorite library book of all time was not from the colonies, it was from Scotland. I guess there would be those who would claim Scotland was a colony too, but no matter.
I wish I could remember the name of the book or the name of the author, and if there is anybody out there who can nail it down, feel free to nail it down.
The book was about a fat kid in a working class neighborhood somewhere in Scotland. There were no socially redeeming reasons for his fatness. He just liked to eat a lot.
Eventually he ate so much he exploded.
Made a big impression on my children.
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