Wintergirls: A Peek Inside the Mind of an Anorexic Teen

Wintergirls hits bookstores tomorrow, and after reading this review, Jill at The Well-Read Child has me convinced that every teenager, teacher, parent of a teen, and therapist should read this book. Wintergirls, a young adult novel by Laurie Halse Anderson, is narrated by Lia, an anorexic teen whose ex-best friend Cassie was just found dead in a motel room. After Cassie’s death, Lia goes into a downward spiral, expertly hiding her relapse of anorexia from her family. Jill says of the novel,

There were times when I wanted to jump into the book and shake some sense into her and her father who seems to deal with conflict by ignoring what’s going on. Even her own mother who is a cardiologist cannot seem to help her daughter recover.

Frightening, intense, and haunting, but not preachy or fake, reading Wintergirls could potentially help convince troubled girls to seek help, and clue-in parents and teachers to warning signs that can be tragically easy to miss. Get it here.

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