Call Me Mimi

March 1, 2009
Gr 8-10-Mimi is 17, overweight, and friendless. She has fantasies of meeting Céline Dion, becoming a beauty queen, and finding her sperm-donor father. During the summer between high school and university, she decides to travel from Montreal to Toronto to track him down. Her mother vehemently opposes the idea, but when she leaves to take a job out of town, Mimi takes off. When she arrives in Toronto, she begins spinning an outlandish web of lies in order to gain lodging with her mother's long-estranged sister. She quickly makes two new friends, lands a job, and experiences a series of life-changing revelations about herself. However, when Mimi's mother finds out what's she's done, the whole scheme threatens to come crashing down around her tiaraless head. While the novel has a promising premise, there are a few flaws. Contrived and unrealistic dialogue from adults and teenagers strains belief, and much of the plot hinges on events that happen out of the blue with little rationale behind them. A bright spot is Mimi's aunt, a finely drawn feminist astronomer who has worked hard for her position and suffered a terrible loss in the past. Steer readers looking for teens and weight issues toward Carolyn Mackler's The Earth, My Butt, and Other Big Round Things (Candlewick, 2003) instead.Laura Amos, Newport News Public Library, VA

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