Fat Magic Lite
Found it among "fat collectibles" on the eBay auction on-line page: a children's book with the same name as this erstwhile fanta-sizer page. Naturally, I had to check it out.
Steven Kroll's Fat Magic (Scholastic Book Services, 1978) is a children's picture book set in a fairy tale world. Illustrated by Tomie de Paolo in a style best described as short-hand Sendak, it tells the story of Prince Timothy, a bratty castle denizen who pisses off a wizard named Edgar. Timothy has an insatiable appetite but appears blessed with a metabolism that burns off calories before he's even eaten 'em. Edgar's punishment for Timothy: to make him fat.
This is no small fat curse. Our boy Tim becomes so big that he can't step on an ice pond or a moat bridge without falling through. None of his clothes fit, so he's driven to just wearing his cape. His parents put him on a diet, natch - the worst side effect of all - so all he can think about are the foods he can no longer eat. Angered, Tim plots revenge on the wizard, which he accomplishes by stealing Edgar's magic shoes (apparently just wearing 'em is enough to make you magically adept) and fattening Edgar.
When the now-thin Timothy is asked to reverse his spell, the boy agrees to do so on one condition: "I can eat whatever I want whenever I want, without being teased." His parents, the king and queen, reluctantly agree to this, and order is quickly restored. The book ends with Prince Timothy dashing off "to the palace kitchen to raid the royal ice box." A happy ending, indeed.
Anybody care to guess what this lad'll look like after his adult metabolism kicks in?
Kroll's book is trifling - weak tea compared to the bratty fantasies of Maurice Sendak - but I can't help but be struck by the similarities to some of my Fast Majicke stories. Each deals with characters who owe their sizable state to forces other than simple gluttony. Yet they all know the simple glories of eating ice cream. When Timothy has full possession of the magic shoes, one of his first acts is to transform all the food he's been served into dessert.
I'd like to see what one of my protagonists would do with them shoes. . .
July, 1998
---Wilson Barbers