ALA Booklist

Burton a Butterball an overweight, ignored 13-year-old until the day he fills a sock with batteries and smashes it in the face of his best friend. There are two immediate results. First, Butterball finds himself stuck in therapy twice a week with an "uptight white woman." Second, the other black kids in Garden City, Long Island, begin giving him mad respect and urging him to attack another kid who deserves it. Loosely based on the youth of hip-hop icon 50 Cent, this is a familiar story simply told, but that does not mean it is without impact. The authors understand the tantalizing power rush that violence gives to the powerless Butterball, and they eke out clues slowly enough that readers will figure out, along with the protagonist, that it is not Butterball's impulsive, thieving father who is admirable, but rather his sensible, penny-pinching mother. Product details ground this in the real (this has more shoe worship than a chick-lit novel), and though obscene words abound, that won't surprise the readers, of whom there will be plenty.

Horn Book (Sun Apr 01 00:00:00 CDT 2012)

[=With]Thirteen-year-old bully Butterball is on a path toward full-fledged juvenile delinquency. An understanding therapist helps him change his behavior while coming to terms with his parental issues (including the discovery that his mom is a lesbian). The character, loosely based on the author/gangster rapper's own life, is ultimately surprisingly sympathetic, and the text, despite its issues-book themes, is generally nondidactic.

Kirkus Reviews

A white social worker helps troubled 13-year-old Butterball understand and change his actions in this tale of an outcast-turned-bully's redemption. When the story opens, Butterball is speaking with Liz for the first time after attacking a boy for reasons he does not immediately reveal either to readers or to "this uptight white woman." As the story unfolds, readers begin to see, if not why Butterball filled a sock with batteries and smashed it against his former friend's face, the social rewards he reaps for having done so. Popular students high-five him in the hallways, and his dad, whom Butterball visits in the city two weekends a month, tells him, "I was kind of proud of you...maybe you're not such a worthless fatass after all." Thoughtful readers, however, will recognize his father's derision and neglect as well as the shallowness of the popular boys' interest in their newly proven tough guy. Themes of masculinity and homophobia are handled subtly and open-endedly here. Butterball is an appealing narrator, mustering as much toughness, humor and, eventually, vulnerability for readers as he does for his fellow students, his mother and Liz. An instructive and inviting look into the psychology of a young bully. (Fiction. 10-13)

Publishers Weekly (Fri Oct 06 00:00:00 CDT 2023)

Rapper turned actor and author 50 Cent makes his YA debut with a candid tale about a middle-schooler dealing with pressures from his peers and his broken family. Overweight and nearly friendless, -Butterball- has just been suspended from school for assaulting a classmate with a sock filled with batteries. As he returns to school, visits his father in New York City, and talks to his therapist, Liz, his frustrations come to light. His always-working mother has too little time for him, while his father spends most of their occasional weekends together encouraging his violence (even forcing him to shoplift) and making fun of his weight. Although Butterball benefits from some positive influences, including Liz and his friend Nia, it-s his desire to better himself (and his interest in filmmaking) that help him overcome his circumstances and his reputation. 50 Cent-s story follows a predictable arc, but he throws in some twists and doesn-t hold back when portraying violence or Butterball-s difficult home life. Butterball-s unrepentant, unpretentious, and authentic narrative voice, meanwhile, is more than enough to carry the story. Ages 12-up. (Nov.)

School Library Journal (Tue Nov 01 00:00:00 CDT 2011)

Gr 7 Up-After clobbering his former best friend with a sock full of batteries, "Butterball" thinks he'll finally get the respect he deserves from his middle-school classmates. But this is just a front for the overweight eighth grader who in therapy sessions slowly reveals his true struggles as a child of divorce recently transplanted from the city to the suburbs, trying to fit in at school and make sense of his overworked mother's new relationship. He eats lunch alone in a bathroom stall at school and has little support from mom, her ever-present female "friend," and a verbally abusive father, who wrongfully teaches him that violence will gain respect. This first YA novel from rapper 50 Cent clearly portrays the life of a maligned middle-schooler vulnerable to the negative messages he receives from peers and his father that inevitably lead to some bad choices. The occasionally raw language is perfectly in keeping with the character. The narrative follows a predictable plot, but offers an observant and aware character often brimming with deep insight, who luckily has an outlet in amateur filmmaking and movies. Shawna Sherman, Hayward Public Library, CA