I read this, I think, in fifth grade. Maybe fourth. I read it again in eighth grade during reading class because I remembered enjoying it. I haven't read it since so there's at least 21 years... 
 21 years? TWENTY-ONE YEARS!!!??? Jesus H. Christ on a jumped up chariot driven crutch, how the hell did that happen? That can't be right. Hold on. Got out of eighth grade in 1992, June. It's July 2013. 2002 would be 10 years. 2012 would make 20. Add a year... Oh my GOD! Has it been that long since my voice changed? No, that happened in seventh, so that's been 22 years! Have I been... Well, never mind the rest of that stuff. Seventh and eighth grade were red letter years, I suppose. They serve as markers. To see them over two decades behind me apparently hit me a little hard. I was physically capable of making a child then. If I had done so, that child would now be able to drink alcohol legally. That's rather astounding. As it is, I have no children, but that's just fine. They might be fat children and would have to deal with unpleasant subject matter found in this book, and who would want that? Oh well. Moving on. Please pardon that brief time-dimensional meltdown, or whatever it was, especially on a review about a kid's book. 
 Like I said, much time has passed between now and the last time I read this book so I'm running off memory here. I do remember enjoying the book both times I read it. I also remember being a little embarrassed about reading it the first time because it was a girl's book, and a little embarrassed about reading it the second time because it was a kid's book. The embarrassment didn't stop me, though. 
 I remember the story tugging at emotions. I felt sorry for girl who was picked on. I remember one trick that was played on her during a chorus rehearsal that upset the girl quite a lot, and I remember being able to relate to that. It's the kind of thing that would've embarrassed the hell out of me back then, though if it were to happen now among adults, even the butt of the joke would laugh at it (unless they were a complete prude. They do exist, now that I think about it). Or maybe I'm wrong... I often am. I guess it's more the mean-spiritedness behind the trick than the trick itself. The desire to single someone out and make them look like a fool. And actually... I hope that scene happens in this book. Maybe it was in a different book? Or maybe I made it up? Oh well. Just like with the embarrassment thing mentioned above, I won't let bad memory stop me from plowing on with this... can you even call it a review? 
 I rooted for the main character who was conflicted between wanting to do the right thing (not pick on the fatty) and wanting to stay good friends with the most popular girl in her class. Then stuff happens, character development ensues, the main character grows (at least a little bit), stuff with fatty gets complicated and she winds up being a bitch, or something, so I didn't feel as sorry for her as I did, then things turn around again, and I'm feeling slightly sorry for her again. At any rate, it spoke to issues that were important to someone of elementary school age, bullying and peer pressure chief among them. 
 More importantly, though, is that this book is the first book I ever read that had cuss words in it! I was shocked to find them. We didn't cuss in my house. I had a friend up the street whose parents allowed him and his younger brother to cuss (and me as well if I felt so inclined, but I could never bring myself to do it in front of the parents except once. My friend shushed me and gave me a look, so needless to say I was confused about the rules). But cussing was taboo in my house and meant punishment. The parents of the main character thought more along the lines of my friend's parents than mine, and I remember being amazed that God had apparently made more than one such animal: my friend's rents and Miss Blume. (I lived a rather sheltered existence, and I was pretty much a complete dork though I wouldn't fully realize that until much later in life. In fact, [and this only proves that point], I remember going to my mother after seeing the first cuss word in the book and asking her if it was OK for me to continue reading it... Aaaaahhhh, DORKUS-MAXIMUS! [She said it was fine, by the way]). 
 I suggest this book for anyone in late elementary school. It might be different today since the internet has changed everything. I have trouble viewing childhood through a lens that includes the revolution in communication that the internet brought about, but I know that the emotional core of bullying is still the same even if the tools and methods used have changed. And really, I recommend this book to anyone. It's a quick read for adults, and definitely not a waste of time. If you don't enjoy it, you wouldn't feel like you'd lost a part of your life that you can't get back like if you had read War and Peace and hated it. (I hate that there's-no-thief-like-a-bad-book feeling, but I include the word "long." I can handle a short bad book).