Synopsis
It could’ve been just another quiet summer in the sleepy town of Granger, for 12-year-old Toby – a summer filled with riding bikes and slurping snow cones with his friend, Cal, and Cal’s brother, Wayne. But right from the start, Toby’s summer is anything but ordinary. His idol, Wayne, is away with the Army, and his mother leaves home to become a country/western singer. And then one day his town is visited by Zachary Beaver, “the fattest boy in the world”. In a tiny trailer, Zachary is his own one-man sideshow with his friend and business partner Paulie as his ringleader. Naturally, the whole town gathers around to take a look, including Toby and Cal. The boy is about their age, but twice their size. They doubt he is the “643 pounds” that Paulie says he is, but still he’s fat. Understandably, Zachary isn’t too friendly to the strangers, but nevertheless he intrigues Toby and Cal. Out of this unlikely beginning, a friendship develops between the three boys, a friendship that will help carry them through what will be a life changing summer for all of them.
John Schultz