When Zachary Beaver Came to Town

I checked out an audiobook version from the library because it was recommended to me and right away the title sounded really familiar. Once I hit the part where Zachary Beaver calls Toby and Cal a bunch of perverts for creeping up to his trailer I decided to check out google and lo and behold...I saw the movie. And then after finishing the book, I felt robbed.

Toby's summer vacation has just started. His best friend Cal and him have a full summer ahead of them between small summer jobs and just having fun. A freak show act comes to town only there's just one person in the act. Dubbed the fattest boy in the world, Zachary Beaver is displayed for everyone to gawk at his body all while getting charged an entrance fee. As the two boys get show more to know this boy they gain a friend and also strengthen their own friendship.

I remember watching the movie and hating it. I thought it was pretty dumb how petty Cal was and was annoyed by Toby. Keep in mind I was also their age when I first saw the movie so I thought I could relate to them pretty well. But having read the book I noticed big differences that made me change my mind about the story. I'm aware that in order to fit a book into a 90 minute film there have to be some cuts and changes so I do feel like they robbed Toby of some growth. And then I don't think they did a good job of showing the kind of friendship the two boys had. There were some things that I wasn't a big fan of when it came to the book as a whole but overall I really liked it and I'm kind of shocked because I really hated the movie. show less

A children's book that transcends all ages. When 600 pound Zachary Beaver arrived in sleepy little Antler Texas via a tiny, teeny trailer, the town folk paid $2 each to see the "freak. "

When Zachary Beaver Came to Town and was abandoned by his agent the town folk who previously gawked at him now leave food, wash his clothes and find help.

Set in the 70's and the Viet Nam era, This National Book Award winner is a coming of age story containing many wonderful lessons learned by a trio of three young boys.

Dealing with difficult issues of abandonment, loss and grief, this is a powerfully written story.

A fairly mundane story but somehow I was drawn in to it. Life in a small Texas town in 1971 must have been pretty boring. The usual YA morality play about real life and understanding people different from you. It is a little more grown up than most though, so perhaps that's why I kind of liked it.

Toby lives in the tiny Texas town of Antler, where nothing ever happens. The time is early 1970s, and his best friend's brother was drafted and sent to fight in Vietnam. His own mother has taken off for Nashville, Tennessee to try to make it as a country music star. His quiet, distant father works at the post office and farms worms on the side.
And then a trailer is towed into town, advertising a peek at Zachary Beaver, "The Fattest Boy in the World," for only $2. Everyone in town wants to look. The man taking the money, and taking care of Zachary, takes off in the middle of the night, leaving the massive boy in his trailer. Somehow, all of these things feel linked together in some invisible way, and the presence of Zachary Beaver, makes show more the other issues Toby and his friends are dealing with a little easier to swallow. show less

This was my first Holt book but it certainly won't be my last. This is an accomplished book. I really felt like I was following the lives of several youths in a small Texas town during summer. Characters are quickly developed by Holt and are the kind you'd like to see on TV and even meet. The story reads and feels real to me. I'd recommend this to any kid 11 and up and any adult too.

I found this book at a library sale a year or two ago. Bought it because of the National Book Award medal on its cover. Didn't realize until I got it home that it was a children's book. Not even a YA book, to my mind, but a CHILDREN'S book. And that realization sank in pretty quickly as I began reading it.

I'll be frank. I found WHEN ZACHARY BEAVER CAME TO TOWN (first published in 1999) just not very believable. I don't think even a twelve or thirteen year-old kid would find it very plausible, with its premise of "the fattest boy in the world" arriving in the small town of Antler, Texas, and gradually becoming friends with some kids and other townspeople when his guardian abandons him there for a couple weeks. And the two main show more characters, Toby and Cal, are just cardboard stereotypes of what the author considers thirteen year-old boys to be. NOT.

There's a little of everything in here, all with small lessons to teach: compassion for someone 'different,' fragmented families, a brother gone away to war (Vietnam), an unrequited first crush, curiosity about religious faith, old folks, small town life, death, etc. All these elements are blended blandly together, with intermittent scenes of the two friends racing madly about town on their bicycles, like the kids in E.T. or STAND BY ME.

I know, I'm at least sixty years too old to appreciate this stuff, but the thing is I doubt that the audience it's aimed at would find it very compelling either. It's just too ... too, well, hokey, for want of a better word. I think the author, Holt, just doesn't give her young readers enough credit. The whole story seems to be 'talking down' to them. Or at least that's my take on it. Sorry, Ms Holt. Uh-uh. Reading this treacly stuff was a boring chore. I finished it, but I still can't believe it won a NBA. Not recommended.

- Tim Bazzett, author of the memoir, BOOKLOVER show less

It's the thirteenth summer of Toby Wilson's life; the summer he falls in love, the summer his mom leaves for good, the summer his best friend's brother goes to Vietnam. And it's the summer Zachary Beaver comes to town. At first, the only thing Toby and his best friend Cal can figure out about Zachary is that he's the fattest boy in the world. They visit him in the little trailer where people can go to see him, and slowly learn more about his life as a sideshow. But they also learn a lot about growing up.

Told from Toby's point of view, this book is full of wonderful characters. There's the love of his life, the sensuous Scarlett Stalling, in love with someone else; his father, quiet and preoccupied with his worm-farming business; his show more best friend Cal, full of mischief and jokes; and his mother, who has gone to Nashville to become a big time country star. These characters, with their flaws and their blessings, come alive for the reader. A wonderful portrait of small town living in an era fraught with danger and upheaval. Grades 7--10. show less