When Zachary Beaver came to town

This book is a heartwarming, adventurous tale of a young's boys summer in an ordinary old boring country town. The main character, Toby, is accompanied throughout his escapades by his best friend Cal. The two spend their days summer days doing the same old stuff, like riding bike, going to the

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local bowl-o-rama, sneaking visits to the lake, and eating bahama mama snow cones. All is normal in the town until Zachary, the worlds fattest boy comes for a visit. Zachary, lives in a trailer traveling the country to different carnivals with his guardian making money from people charging to get peak at him. After the show, his guardian leaves him alone while he runs off to book a few more shows. Toby and Cal befriend Zachary and change his life forever by looking at him a a real person just like them. They story also deals with the loss of a loved one during Vietnam through the prospective of a child's eyes. Young love, parents fighting, and religion are all themes in the book as well. This book is definitely worth a read!

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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

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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.

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Nothing ever happens in the small rural town of Antler, Texas, until one day the monotony comes to a screeching halt. Zachary Beaver, the fattest boy in the world, rings in a summer of change for Toby WIlson with his arrival into town. Toby and his best friend Cal struggle to make sense of a

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changing world and their status in it as they tip toe into an unexpected friendship with the sideshow aspiring Zachary. Both Toby and Cal deal with changing family dynamics and the reality of wartime America. The story takes places in a small rural town where a new face is recognized by all and news spreads within hours. The culture of this small town is as much a part of the story as the developing friendship between the three boys. The honest voices of Toby and Cal set the tone for this coming of age novel, and would make a great read for young men between the ages of 11 and 17.

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Great coming-of-age book. Made me laugh, made me cry.

I really enjoyed the book but I was very sad that Cal's brother wayne dies She describes the characters so well that I really felt like I knew them I thought that It was very realistic

It's summer, and there is not a whole lot to do in Toby's town. Along with his friend, Cal, they manage to have some fun, and help a new friend in the process.

600 pound Zachary Beaver came to town for the carnival as the only member in the freak show. But, when the carnival packed up and left, Zachery stayed on in his small trailer.
Tobias and Cal are best friends in Antler, Texas and can't seem to stay away from the trailer now parked across the street

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from the Bowl-A-Rama. They leave bags of food by the stoop and ward off local bullies. Eventually the two young men find themselves inside getting to know Zachary. The three of them form a friendship and all help each other in different ways. This was a truly inspiring story for young readers, letting them know that different doesn't always mean wrong or bad, and that friendship can survive anything.

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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

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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 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.

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When Zachary Beaver came to town he was a freak show in a carnival because he was obese. After he is abandoned by the owner of the carnival the town adopts him and helps take care of him. This is a beautiful story of how humanity and kindness win out in the face of cruelty.

Another one of those stories about a kid's discovery of the complexities of the real world and of his family and friends. ?áThere's a lot of gray; not everyone is good or bad, not every decision is right or wrong; there are no easy fixes. ?áThis book is probably marketed more effectively to

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classroom teachers than to kids. ?áVietnam? Check. ?á1971? Check. ?áRural Texas? Check. ?áMother abandoning family? Check. ?áVisiting kid who almost belongs in The Guinness Book of World Records? ?áCheck. ?áImmigrant field workers? Check.

Some of the side characters were the most interesting, to me, Kate and the Sheriff especially.

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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

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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 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

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This book was okay.

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

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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 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.

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One summer in the small, sleepy town of Antler, Texas, Toby Wilson's life changes. Toby is a boy who lives with his parents, but his mother runs off to Nashville to enter a singing contest. She doesn't win but she doesn't come home to Antler either.
Later, he and his best friend Cal McKnight meet

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an extremely overweight, adolescent sideshow freak named Zachary Beaver, who has no parents or friends. Zachary, "The Fattest Boy Ever," spends most of his time in a camp trailer which has hooked up to the Bowl - a - rama for electricity.He is abandoned by is his leagal guadian, Paulie. The townspeople bring him food but Zachary never leaves the tiny trailer. Toby and Cal get to know him, and soon become friends with him even though Zachary is grouchy and doesn't always tell the truth. Toby and Cal discover Zachary had a Baptismal Bible but it only has his name it. Nothing else has been filled out. They set out on a mission to get Zachary baptised. He is of course too big to fit in the local church Baptismal pool.
A good coming of age story. Sweet, bittersweet.

A movie was made of this book in 2003.

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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

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reads and feels real to me. I'd recommend this to any kid 11 and up and any adult too.

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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

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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 the other issues Toby and his friends are dealing with a little easier to swallow.

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