Van Vleet, Carmella.
ELIZA BING IS (NOT) A BIG, FAT QUITTER
New York : Holiday House, 2014
IL 3-6, RL 5.2
ISBN 082342944X

(3 booktalks)

Booktalk #1

Eliza has her heart set on taking a cake decorating class this summer with her best friend.  The two just did a school project and they came up with a great idea for opening a pastry shop some day. But Eliza needs to learn more than she does now. And guess what?  A famous tv chef is coming to teach a class in town.  What could be better than that? Unfortunately, Eliza's dad has lost his job and money is tight and the class is very expensive. Not fair!!  Eliza overhears her parents talking about how she quits everything she tries and it is too much money just to have her quit. When her brother quits tae kwon do lessons, Eliza offers to take the classes so they don't lose the money.  She'll show them that she is not a quitter.  But she really doesn't like the class and really wants to quit.

Booktalk #2

Eliza wants to be a cake decorator like her TV cooking show idol, Sweet Caroline, but when her parents tell her the cake decorating class is too expensive she comes up with a plan to take the Tae Kwon Do class her brother doesn’t want to finish. Even after being diagnosed with ADHD and taking her meds, Eliza still has trouble finishing things but her supportive parents give her good techniques to stay focused and to be socially appropriate and polite. The author includes Korean words and pronunciations at the end of the book.(Oklahoma Sequoyah Award, 2017)

Booktalk #3

I’m dying to take the Cakes with Caroline class this summer, but can’t because Mom and Dad are having money troubles and they think I’ll quit this time too, on account of my ADHD. What they don’t understand is that I really want to learn how to create scrumptious cakes from scratch and decorate it too especially from Sweet Caroline, the nicest person on TV! My brother, Sam gets to take a taekwondo class and then quits! In the history of all unfair things in the world, this has to be in the top ten! But I’ve got a plan; I’m going to strike a deal with Mom and Dad to prove that I am not a big fat quitter. I am going to take Sam’s place in the taekwondo class and if I don’t quit they will let me take the Sweet Carolina cake decorating class this fall. The only problem is I have no interest in martial arts. Oh, by the way did I forget to mention, I have trouble focusing and remembering all the new rules and positions. How will I ever pass the test? Yea, there’s a test! Read Eliza Bing Is (Not) A Big Fat Quitter by Carmella Van Vleet to find out if Eliza will discover her inner ninja in time to pass her summer taekwondo class and earn her spot in the fall Cakes with Caroline decorating class. (Prepared by Stephanie Morin, North Augusta Elementary, smorin@acpsd.net, South Carolina Book Awards, 2017