Catherine Forde

Scottish writer Catherine Forde worked as a secondary-school English teacher until making the transition to children's book author. Publishing her first book in 2001, Forde earned particular praise two years later, when her young-adult novel Fat Boy Swim was released.

Also released in the United States, the novel introduces fourteen-year-old Jimmy, a Scottish boy who is sorely overweight and known around school as "Fat Boy Fat." Asthmatic and chronically bullied by classmates, Jimmy has little to feel upbeat about, and his down-in-the-dumps attitude worries his overly protective mother for posing a direct threat to the teen's health. Fortunately, his upbeat Aunt Pol is a proactive force in Jimmy's life and she helps him sustain a sense of humour. When Jimmy meets a local priest nicknamed GI Joe, he takes to heart the man's encouragement that he take up swimming and cooking. In the water, Jimmy discovers a natural talent and learns that he is capable of changing his life. Meanwhile, a love interest bubbles to the surface in his cooking class. Fat Boy Swim was praised by several critics for its realistic portrayal of a troubled teen. While noting that Forde is "a bit heavy-handed" in defending her young protagonist, Booklist Gillian Engbert added that the novel's "messy ending is satisfyingly realistic; despite his newfound swimming talent … Jim still has complicated, unresolved questions about who he wants to be." A Kirkus Reviews critic called the novel "warm and full of vivid imagery," while Francisca Goldsmith stated in School Library Journal that "each character is developed and interesting." Forde has continued her writing career with the young-adult novels The Drowning Pond and Firestarter, the former a mix of supernatural and frustrated adolescent angst that a Bookseller contributor dubbed "bleakly uncompromising" and full of "historical parallels."