Norman and Sarah Hill

[LadyDru]

I like Norman, he was sweet..as sad as his overweight issues were, they were portrayed in a realistic manner..common for someone's eating habit to get worse when nagged about them..but I loved how he stood up to Sarah and his determination to lose weight in the end..

Sarah..while she may have meant well, she was such a prick in the beginning..I admit she does come around in the end, which I liked.

[merrymelody]

I felt sorry for him, I think it's a book that aged pretty poorly in terms of how acceptable everyone finds it to mistreat him because of his weight; and how his emotionally abusive parents never really learn anything, he has to be the one (at 7!) to give in and do what they want him to do. (Particularly when there's lip service paid to the issue being his health, but the fact his family stocked loads of junk food, and Claudia's whole character of eating junk with no consequences seemed to suggest it was much more about the aesthetic of fat rather than any risk to his health - slim people with great skin can still have coronaries, Claud!)

[CharlotteTJohanssen]

Norman is such a sweetie! He’s only seven, he could have lost all that fat by adulthood.

Sarah seems okay, I mean I like that she stood up for her brother but she still picked on him with her friend.

[cnj]

Even if Norman had stayed heavy, he still would have been sweet.

Thank God he didn't live in Sweet Valley, where fat-shaming is rampant.

I can actually see several BSC members becoming a tad heavier in high school and university, namely Mary Anne, Stacey, and probably the Stevenson twins.