Kids into books - The Fat Man

This week's title: The Fat Man

Author: Maurice Gee

Publisher: Penguin Books, $15.95

Illustrator: Chris Mousdale

Age Group: 11+ years


He soaped all the creases in his fat and scraped the suds out with his fingernails.

Colin lay under the ferns and watched. He saw the man's behind gleaming like an eel's belly in the water. He saw him roll and submerge and come up with his head as smooth as an egg and the black hair on his chest pasted down like slime.

He squirted creek water from his mouth like a draughthorse peeing, and washed around his ears and dug in them, wiggling his finger. When the soap jumped from his hand he submerged again to pick it up.

He put the yellow cake between his teeth, keeping his lips curled to avoid the taste, and swam on his back to the deep part of the pool, where he rolled over like a whale.

He was good in the water. He lobbed the soap on the bank and dived deep and came up with handfuls of creek mud. Floating, he smeared them on his belly and laughed. He could float so well, Colin thought, because he was so fat.

I'd better got out of here, he thought.

* Continued on P12 of The Fat Man