December Secrets

My daughter was assigned this book in school. The main character (Emily) and other students are extremely cruel to a girl names Jill. They constantly refer to her as being fat and use very cruel names when describing her. The main character does things like give Jill a skinny pencil so Jill will want to be skinny, and leave pictures of vegetables on her desk so she will go on a diet. In the end the girls become friends of course, but Emily still does things like tell Jill she looks good today but crosses her fingers behind her back since she really looks fat like always. After reading this book my 7 year old daughter, who is at a perfectly healthy weight started doing exercises and saying she needed to be skinnier. Prior to reading this book she has never mentioned her own or anyone else's weight. She said she is fat and needs to be skinny. I am disgusted by this book and feel is should not be used in schools. I did let her teacher know about my daughter's reaction. I would no recommend this book to any child and would give it zero stars.