Fat To Fast

Kendal Kirby is a morbidly obese fourteen-year-old boy living in Melbourne in a somewhat dysfunctional relationship with his widowed mother after his father's suicide. Taunted and tormented at school by his peers and some teachers, he is missing out on a happy and fulfilling adolescent life, having a dream to be an endurance athlete.
In the house next door to the Kirbys is the Boyd family. The father, Dr Ross Boyd (PhD), is a clinical psychologist who sees and understands their problems, and decides to intervene. With his mother's reluctant consent, in April, Kendal is sent to live with a former colleague of Ross, a retired psychologist named Dr Dennis Cooke, in his home in Hervey Bay, Queensland, for five months. And from the very day of Kendal's arrival, Dennis takes control of his life to instruct him in healthy eating and to impose a suitable exercise regime, whilst home-schooling the boy, home being an emotionally and socially safe environment compared to regular high school.
Facing challenges he never expected, Kendal emerges as a hero by overcoming his physical and emotional difficulties to build trust and self-confidence. But he also shows human fraility as he come to terms with those same emotional demons.
Throughout Fat To Fast, the reader is given an opportunity to join Kendal on his journey through the narrative of Dennis Cooke, and the private thoughts of both Kendal and Donaldson, Dennis's teenage neighbour and Kendal's new best friend, as Kendal heals himself from within, establishes meaningful relationships, and works to fulfil his sporting dream. Also, Fat to Fast allows readers to reflect upon themselves, to consider the trials and tribulations of their own lives and those of their children, and to think about how they might deal with similar circumstances.

Enjoy the raw honesty, pain and humour that Kendal's story has to offer.