Slider by Pete Hautman
Audience: Middle School
Format: Hardcover/Library
A sixteen-inch pizza, fresh from the oven, is a thing of beauty.
- first sentence
So, that opening line tells you a great deal about this book, but not the heart of it. David loves competitive eating, both watching it as a sport and doing it himself. He bids on and accidentally buys (for $2,000, on his mom's credit card) a leftover piece of hotdog from his favorite competitive eater. David must find a way to earn the money to pay his mom back before she discovers what he did. David feels like a failure and thinks the only thing he is good at is competitive eating. On top of training for the big eating competition, David has to take care of his brother Mal (who has autism). David is very good at finding ways to help his brother deal with the world and their relationship is one of the best parts of this book.
The competitive eating parts of the book are rather gross at times, but young readers will probably enjoy that. At the beginning of the book, David goes to a frat house (he sees a bunch of college students drinking) and participates in an eating contest. Overall, it's a fun book with some heartwarming moments, if you can get past some vomiting and gross overeating. :)
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