FAT, FAT ROSE MARIE

Though everyone else teases new girl Rose Marie because she's fat, narrator Claire (freckles, heavy glasses) likes her company, and the two become good friends. Then, on a class trip, Claire is lured away by mean (but popular) Genevieve, leaving Rose Marie in the lurch until a particularly cruel jibe from Genevieve recalls Claire to her true allegiance. Shoving Genevieve's ice cream into her face, Claire goes back to her real friend, a little contrite but glad to have altered the class dynamics. Like Claire, readers may not be sure that her assertiveness takes the best form, but that—plus the incisive caricatures in Passen's colorful illustrations—makes the story all the more thought-provoking. (Picture book. 5-8)