The Donut Prince of New York

A fat teen tries to balance his new social status as a football player with his playwriting ambitions in this uplifting tale from Zadoff (Wild and Chase). Unlike his best friends Mia and Ishaan, Eugene Guterman isn’t convinced he’ll have a “junior peak, senior slide” at the start of his junior year of high school in N.Y.C. He’s self-conscious about his weight (exacerbated by his doctor mother’s diet schemes) and he hasn’t even started writing the play he promised to pen for the drama club. Worse, he might be pulled from the only class he shares with his crush, transfer student Daisy, and placed in adaptive gym, a pilot program boasting a more “personalized fitness setting.” After he literally crashes into star quarterback Harry, the football coach, impressed by Eugene’s physique (“Pudge don’t budge”), cajoles him into joining the team’s defensive line. But as he grows closer to his teammates and finally starts making romantic progress with Daisy, Eugene’s other relationships become strained. Laugh-out-loud humor, depictions of genuine teenage connections, and sly reworkings of evergreen tropes surrounding body image and high school stereotypes make for a subversive coming-of-age romp. Eugene is white and Jewish; supporting characters are racially diverse. Ages 14–up. (Nov.)