Wintergirls

Title: Wintergirls
Author: Laurie Halse Anderson
Publishing Info: March, 2009
ISBN: 067001110X
Pages: 278
Price: $16.99
Genre: Realistic Fiction
Reading Level: 7th grade
Interest Level: 9th grade and up
Awards: ALA/YALSA Quick Pick for Reluctant Young Readers (2010), Cybils Award Nominee for Young Adult Fiction (2009), ALA Teens' Top Ten (2010)
Plot Summary: Lia and Cassie are best friends and eating disorder buddies. The two of them are trying to become the thinnest girls in their grade. But soon Lia is hospitalized for her eating disorder and when she comes home the two girls drift apart. The book starts with the Cassie being found dead in a hotel room. Soon Lia is haunted by Cassie and struggles to deal with her death. Lia also struggles with her own personal demons that cause her eating disorder. Can Lia find out what really happend to Cassie in the hotel room? Will Lia ever be able to defeat her demons are will she succumb to her eating disorder.
Critical Review: Wintergirls is a dark and haunting story of Lia and Cassie and their struggle to overcome their eating disorders. Lia goes to great lengths to hid her issue from her parents to she can get thinner and thinner. The book gives an insight into what is going through Lia's mind and she starves herself to death. It also shows her parents struggle with Lia and how they don't really know how to deal with their daughter's disease. The story can be difficult at times to read because it is so real and honest. You find yourself wanting to yell at Lia to eat and to stop her destructive behavior.
Reader's Annotation: Lia and Cassie are best friends and are both fading away as they starve and binge themselves to practically nothing. But when Cassie dies alone in a hotel room Lia struggles to deal with her death. Haunted by Cassie and her own personal demons, Lia slips even further into her eating disorder.
Book Talk Ideas: For a book talk I would focus on the difficult relationship between Cassie and Lia and their destructive path that their friendship leads them.
Issues Present: The book deals very graphically with eating disorders. It also discusses death and drinking.
Main Themes: eating disorders, death, friendship, guilt
Bibliotherapeutic Usefulness: The book is a frank and at times very dark story of a teens struggle with anorexia. Despite her friends death and her failing health Lia still can't stop her anorexia and is determined to get thinner and thinner. Teens struggling with an eating disorder will relate to Lia's struggle. For others it will give them an idea of how those with eating disorders feel. The story also deals with losing a best friend and the guilt that Lia feels for not helping Cassie.
Read alikes: Just Listen by Sarah Dessen, How to Be Popular by Meg Cabot
Author Website: http://madwomanintheforest.com/
Professional Reviews: Publisher's Weekly
Kirkus Reviews
Why Include this book? Laurie Halse Anderson writes honest stories about very difficult and often tragic teen issues. This book focuses on the destructiveness of eating disorders which is important for teen girls to be exposed since many teen girls struggle with eating disorders.