Title: WintergirlsAuthor: Laurie Halse Anderson
Publish Date: March 2009
Publisher: Penguin Group (USA)
Pages: 288pp
IBSN: 067001110X
Classification: Fiction
Genre: Realistic Fiction
Age Range: 13 and up
Price: $17.99
Amazon: $9.99
Annotation: It all started with a pact between two friends, Lia and Cassie were going to be the skinniest girls in their high school, until there friendship fell apart and Cassie lost her life.
Summary: Lia has just found out her best friend Cassie was found dead in a hotel room. Lia and Cassie were best friends for years, they called themselves wintergirls as they made a pact to be the skinniest girls in their high school. Cassie was bulimic and struggling with family issues. She decided she could not be friends with Lia anymore. Lia was anorexic and Cassie was her only friend. Lia lives with her step mom, Jennifer, Emma her half sister, and her never-home-father. Lia’s mother is a doctor who seems to make Lia’s life more complicated. Lia struggles with her anorexia, she cannot seem to control it (which is ironic because anorexia is a controlling disease). Everywhere she turns she is haunted: by food, by the scale, by Cassie, by the thirty-three missed calls. She cannot escape herself or her pain so she focuses on ways to not eat, to fake a scale reading, to pretend like everything is all right. But everything is not all right. Lia must come to terms with Cassie’s death before she dies herself.
Evaluation: A portrayal of an anorexic teen, which gives the reader an understanding into the mindset of someone dealing with this disease. This was an extremely sad and haunting read. It was hard for me to get through it, not because it was bad, but because it was painful to get inside the head of a young anorexic girl. I have a couple of friends who battled (are battling) these kinds of issues and learning more about it just broke my heart into a million little pieces. I feel I have to make it a point to say I did not feel this was a “how-to-guide” for anorexia. If anything, it is a scary and very real view of the disease that provides a warning.
Bibliotherapeutic Usefulness:
- Having an eating disorder.
- Knowing someone who has an eating disorder.
- Suffering in silence.
- Wanting to get better, but not knowing how.
- Grieving over the loss of a best friend.
Reason this book was chosen: Laurie Halse Anderson is a well-known award winning young adult writer. When I found out she wrote a book about the struggles of a young girl dealing with anorexia and her best friend (who suffered from bulimia), I thought this would be an important read.
Similar Titles:
Author Website: Click HERE
Awards:
ALA Best Books for Young Adults, 2010
ALA Quick Picks for Reluctant Young Adult Readers, 2010
Awards:
ALA Best Books for Young Adults, 2010
ALA Quick Picks for Reluctant Young Adult Readers, 2010
