Chunky

by Paul Mitchell

Published by Katherine Tegen Books/HarperAlley, imprints of HarperCollins that are aimed at younger readers, Chunky describes the high school experiences of Yehudi (‘Hudi’) Mercado whilst living in Texas with his Mexican Jewish family. When not playing with his sister’s Barbie dolls, Hudi spends his time daydreaming about being a famous comedian on Saturday Night Live.

Accident prone and overweight, an asthmatic kid with only one lung, Hudi has a hard time fitting in with the culture of athletic excellence that is encouraged by his school and embodied by his father. As we are told at the outset, “Sports are what separate the men from the boys. A win can make your day… but a loss can ruin your life” (4-5). Despite spectacular and amusingly depicted failures at try outs for the baseball, soccer, and swim teams, Hudi’s innate positivity rarely wavers, and his self-confidence is further bolstered by the arrival of Chunky, his imaginary “mascot” (18). A chubby pink monster with the same sense of fun as Hudi, Chunky is the boy’s “biggest fan” (21) and he is there to cheer on everything that Hudi does—or more frequently, does not—achieve.

Using some of the motifs that are common in coming-of-age memoirs, such as living up to parental expectations, making friendships, and the sleepover as a social rite of passage, Chunky is animated by an effusive wit that adds even greater resonance to the more serious themes that it addresses. These include discrimination, hegemonic masculinity, and Texan gun culture. When, at one point, Chunky advises Hudi not to tell a group of boys that his family nickname is “majecito” (113) (“little dummy”) as it is “too ethnic. These guys will think you’re weird!” (113), Hudi’s lie that his father calls him “shooter” (114) is met with a rapturous chorus of “shooter shooter shooter […] guns guns ratatatat” (114).

Mercado’s Adobe Photoshop images are deftly drawn and vividly polychromatic with a mix of bold primary colors and their shades. This palette, whilst clearly influenced by the book’s middle grade target audience, also adds great visual appeal to the text. In addition, the story is reminiscent of those by comic artists like Raina Telgemeier (Guts, 2019) and Jerry Craft (New Kid, 2019) for its use of humor whilst addressing the topics of ill health and ethnic difference.

More than anything, Chunky is a delightful affirmation of non-normativity. When Hudi is thrown off the school’s football team for refusing to deliberately injure his opponents, he instead finds fulfillment through comedy and other artistic pursuits. Mercado’s story, in particular, celebrates an enrichingly detoxified form of masculinity whereby theater—or, as Hudi’s football coach says, “put[ting] on makeup and tights” (159) —is championed as a valuable alternative to sport as a way to make “ya daddy proud” (159).
A sequel to Chunky, titled Chunky Goes to Camp, was published by Katherine Tegen Books in 2022.

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Paul Mitchell is associate professor of English at Universidad Católica de Valencia San Vicente Mártir in Spain. His latest research project focuses on graphic medical memoirs that are written by men.