Wow . This book packs a punch. I love the illustrated format and the raw honesty. I purchased two copies of this book for the middle school half of my library.

An important message for kids this age in an easy to read format. I wish it had a different title; there's too many other books out with the same title.

A book that every middle school student, teacher and parent MUST read. I have already recommended this book to several friends/parents. Jarrett uses his own childhood experiences to bring Will's story to life in such a heart wrenching story. How many of us have a little piece of Will inside and have experiences similar to Will?

Excellent work of great importance. Many boys struggle with body image issues and it's very under-represented in kid lit.

In the fourth grade, a bully called Will Chambers "fat" in a mean way -- and everything changed for Will that day. Now in middle school, Will is self-conscious about his body, wears baggy clothes everyday, and isolates himself from his friends. Desperate to be skinny and to "fit in," Will starts eating less and less, even when his body hurts from hunger. It is a new kid at school, Markus, who questions why Will never seems to eat anything, that starts to build a bridge to Will and helps him piece himself back together when everything comes to a head.

Told in expressive verse, this is an emotional and affecting story about a young boy struggling with body image and an eating disorder. Jarrett Lerner is best known for his humorous comics, chapter books, and easy readers, but is able to tell this serious story with great care. Fully illustrated, the black scribbles throughout the book do a good job of reflecting Will's anxieties and other mental health challenges. Like Lisa Fipp's Starfish, this book is an important entry in the catalog of self-acceptance. Important reading for boys' who may struggle with body image and to build empathy in any young reader.

This book was engaging and sweet and wonderful. So so so Good. Highly recommend to everyone children and adults.

Having recently finished “A Work in Progress” by Jarrett Lerner, I am happy to have had the chance for the Advanced Reader’s Edition e-copy; thank you NetGalley and Simon and Schuster Children’s Publishing!

This was my first time reading a novel-in-verse and I was not prepared for the power these words, written in this form, conveyed from the first page to the last. Self image can be a struggle throughout our lives, and understanding that WE ARE ALL “a work in progress” can help to ease feelings of intense isolation. The power of one pink, green, or blue, fingernail painted friend to make a difference; to understand, to share, and to care. Everyone could use a friend like Markus.

Will is self-loathing about his body size, which makes his eating even more disordered. He eats away the sadness and doesn’t eat to try to fix it, and it’s a horrible cycle. As he grapples with his identity and makes a new friend, Will begins to realize that he’s a work in progress and eating, his body size, and his shape aren’t bad. He concludes that it’s not his job to change, to bend or twist to what others want, but only to be himself. Written in verse, this is an unflinching, emotionally-charged look at disordered eating and body dysmorphia.

Heartbreaking middle grade book about diet culture, body image, and friendship. Loved the illustrations and verse sections. Also like that it ends on a hopeful note.

Jarrett Lerner has done a perfect job capturing the body image challenges faced by a middle grade boy, a group who is often stereotypically overlooked when considering eating disorders and the way we talk to young boys about weight. There are so many readers out there who need to have this book in their hands, and it should be on the shelf of any middle grade classroom!

This story is so meaningful because it reminds us that words matter. Will, the main character is called fat in the 4th grade. And that word stays with him far beyond that time.
Through words and drawings, this novel-in-verse follows Will as he tries to work through the emotions regarding his body shape. I think it’s especially powerful that the main character is male, but this powerful story will touch either gender.
Great for middle school students and up.

This is an excellent novel in verse that explores themes of body image and disordered eating from the POV of a middle school boy. This is the first book of its kind that I've read, and I think it is an absolute necessity for any library that serves young boys.

A Work in Progress is a heartfelt journey through a young man’s journey to find himself and his self-esteem as he struggles with his body image in middle school. This is a powerful and important book for boys, men, parents, teachers, and really everyone to read.

What a beautifully heartbreaking book, a novel in verse telling Will’s story of body dysmorphia and middle school. Truly a life-changing read, and a must-add for school library shelves.

Jarrett Lerner has written a masterpiece of middle-grade fiction with this book! Written in prose and in the first-person, he tells the story of Will, a happy middle schooler with a strong friend group who becomes caught up in a sadness and despair over his weight and his perceptions of how others see him. After losing his friends and keeping his feelings and actions about his weight secret, he meets Markus, and his life is forever changed. Not a theme we’ve seen often in middle-grade fiction, particularly with a male main character, but an important one that is so well done!

This is a fantastic book for upper elementary and middle grades students who may feel like outsiders, or who don't feel like they fit in the skin they're in. It is real, heartbreaking, and truthful storytelling that isn't afraid to dig into the depths of mental health issues, relationships with food, friends, and our body image. I related to the story, and I am certain many kids will, too. I believe that the message that we are just "works in progress" is an important one, and I am thankful that the story has an encouraging, hopeful tone, with loving parents who support Will through everything, in spite of his own self-loathing. I could not put this one down, and I am eager to pick up a copy for my school library.

Telling Will’s story in verse made it all the more poignant. I felt like I was reading his actual thoughts. He often returns to memories of the first time a kid scorned him for being “fat,” and this echo felt painful to even me as the reader every time he relived it. The short lines make his thoughts all the more personal because these seem to be how we actually think.

Although Will hides to avoid confrontation, an encounter with Markus, another kid who likewise feels out of place, helps him. Will’s eating disorder and obsession with losing weight led to a final scene in which he faints in school. Even though Will had pushed away his new friend, Markus still comes to check on him and show that he cares. His parents finally take Will to a therapist and Will is able to start the journey to recognizing his positive characteristics and dealing with his body dysmorphia.

The hopeful reminder at the end echoes the title of the book. Just as Markus has slowly improved his skateboarding and Will has improved his drawing, they will always be “a work in progress” when it comes to being like they would like to be. Throughout the book, sketches show scribbles of frustration and in various stages of completion, emphasizing this “work in progress” concept throughout the book. (That said, the art in my digital review copy may not have been complete upon my reading, so I’m curious if the “work in progress” look still carried over to the final version.)

Even with the hopeful resolution, I left feeling a little letdown in the resolution. I felt that the “work in progress” concept needed to be expanded upon more. That said, I did like the interactions between Will and Markus, and then Will and Jules. It seemed realistically awkward and matched his tone from before he began talking with his family and therapist about his anxiety.

From my perspective, I’m not sure that an overweight child in middle school today would be commented on. After all, we live with an obesity epidemic so I would think there would be more than one sixth-grade student that struggles with weight. But, kids are so cruel, it is certainly a possibility.

I appreciated that this story featured a boy protagonist rather than a girl. The bullying, after the fourth-grade interaction, also seemed realistically subtle. The comments that Will heard about his weight were from kids that didn’t know he had overheard: their snide remarks, the judgmental looks, the snickers. Or, was Will an unreliable narrator? It’s possible the whole situation was overblown in his head, and his childhood friends (for example) would have loved to keep being his friend: he simply took everything to heart and assumed they thought he was a monster.

In the end, A Work in Progress gives the reader much to think about in terms of body image, self-perception, and bullying, as well as the ironic message of hope that we all have a long way to go. It’s okay to be “in progress.”

This story is about Will, who is struggling with a negative self image. Written in free verse, this story blazes across the pages, searing images of Will and his pain and loneliness. It's sometimes hard to read because it's so intense, but it's worth every syllable. Jarrett has put out a story that is so compelling and so vivid, readers are going to connect to this one in the best possible of ways. Don't miss it.

“A book for anyone who has ever felt less than.” That’s the dedication that starts A Work in Progress. We all are a work in progress, but sometimes it’s hard to see your own value. When Will is called fat in the school hall—in front of everyone—his self-worth plummets.

In this story we follow Will’s internal thoughts, sadness, frustrations, along with attempts to hide himself and change himself. Although we often hear about girls and body shaming it happens to boys, too. This illustrated novel is a personal book for Lerner, based on his own struggles with body image, an eating disorder, and low self-worth. It can be rough in middle school. Fortunately, Will finds a path forward. It takes time and meeting a classmate who sees value in having Will as a friend.

But it’s not just for kids going through difficult times. Understanding how words spoken in frustration or anger can really hurt someone else is an important lesson for all of us. I hope this book makes its way not just into school libraries, but into classroom discussions as well.

In A Work In Progress, Jarrett Lerner has created a masterful mashup of graphic novel and novel in verse. The main character, Will Chambers, struggles with body image issues that swing from an unhealthy relationship with food as a soothing tool to an unhealthy aversion to food to try to “fix” what he finds most abhorrent about himself. Jarrett has said in his blog and on social media that Will’s story is based on his own past struggles with body issues and food and that really comes through in Will’s thoughts on the page whether in poetry or sketch. As someone who’s had similar struggles, I wept for Will as I understood that self talk spiral and how much power he was letting the bullies hold over him. I hope kids will see Will’s story and translate that to whatever is holding power in their lives, be it grades or sports prowess or body image.
He doesn’t magically get skinny in the end (sorry for the spoiler) nor does he fully move past his issues with his self image but rather he begins to learn that being healthy and being one particular size aren’t the same thing. A VERY important lesson for everyone to learn.
I enthusiastically recommend this book for kids beginning at age 9 and going straight on up to high school.