Model 2 The Cat Ate My Gymsuit

Bibliographic Citation

Daniziger, P. (1974) The cat ate my gymsuit. Maine: Thorndike Press.

Summary

Marcy Lewis is in ninth grade and does not have a very good self image.  She never wants to participate in gym class because she does not like her chunky body.  A new English teacher comes to her school who becomes very popular with the kids.  She is a teacher with new ideas, new teaching methods, and dresses different from the other teachers.  She helps to get the students thinking about communication and sharing their feelings.  The students really like and respect her. The principal does not like this new teacher and tries to have the teacher fired. Marcy decides to try and help her teacher along with other students. Marcy has a mother and a little brother and a verbal abusive father.  Her father is not in agreement with Marcy in her efforts to help her English teacher.  At the same time Marcy learns that she has friends who like her for being herself and she goes out on her first date. 

Impressions

Even though this book was published over 30 years ago, it could still be a book about today's teenagers.  It identifies with the struggles girls have with their faces and their bodies. It is a book about a girl's first love. More importantly, the book has the underlying problem of what students might deal with in their home situations. In particular the book has a verbal abusive and controlling father figure.  The family has fights every day and the mother is caught in the middle.  Also the girl is struggling to find her independence about who she is as a person and dealing with what she percieves others think of her.

Suggestions For Use in a Library

1.  Under the display for this book, have children add excuses that have used for missing homework.
2.  After read aloud over several visits, discuss common problems as a today teen versus the problems identified from this book since it was written from the 1970's.

Reviews

Gr 4-7-- Misunderstood, overweight, and convinced that she'll never get a date, Marcy Lewis wants nothing more than to be "normal." Her admiration and defense of Ms. Finney, an outspoken English teachers with the courage of her convictions, provides a way for Marcy to reexamine what's important to her and to stand up for what she believes. First published in 1974, Paula Danziger's compassionate and accurate portrayal of a young girl struggling to find her own voice rings as true today as it did 30 years ago. A full cast brings this modern American classic of teenage angst to life with humor and pathos. In an afterword, Danziger explains how she came to write this novel.

Lombardo, C., & Mandell, P. (2005). The cat ate my gymsuit. School Library Journal, 51(5), 67.

Gr 7-9-Marcy, who is 13 years old and in the ninth grade, hates her father, school, and being fat.  Ms. Finney, the new young English teacher, helps Marcy to gain more self-confidence and to stand up for her convictions, although this antagonizes her domineering father.  When Finney's unconventional teaching methods and her refusal to say the Pledge of Allegiance result in her dismissal, Marcy and the rest of her class fight for her reinstatement.  The issues of teacher independence and student protest are topical, and Marcy, an intelligent and enjoyable adolescent, is anticlimactic and unsatisfying (Finney resigns her regained position) and some of the characters like Marcy's bullying father are stereotypes.

Coyle, C. S., Gerhardt, L. N., Pollack, P. D., Abramson, J., & Stenson, L. (1974). The cat ate my gymsuit. School Library Journal, 21(3), 62.