Wintergirls

For all the intensity that Laurie Halse Anderson's famous book, Speak, provides, I have to say that Wintergirls provides more. Words that flashed through my mind while reading this book - which explores the world of teenage anorexia, cutting, and suicide - include heartbreaking, frustrating, haunting, and shocking. Anderson gives the reader a window into the mind of her main character Lia in a way that surpasses nearly every other fictional book that I've read. I know that's a bold statement, but let me put it this way: while reading this book, I caught myself turning down a muffin fresh out of the oven because I could be strong and resist. I am not exaggerating and I am not speaking lightly; this book gets inside your head as you get inside Lia's, and it's more than a little disturbing.

Lia and her best friend Cassie have been competing to be the thinnest for years; Lia's chosen method is anorexia while Cassie is bulimic. When Cassie kills herself, though, in the first few pages of the book, and Lia is left alone. Battling against her parents, doctors, teachers, and potential friends, Lia tries her hardest to cheat the systems set in place to protect her and continue spiraling downhill towards the "goals" she's set for herself, even though her best friend is no longer with her. Another small hiccup is that Lia and Cassie had abruptly gone their separate ways months before Cassie's death, creating a world of guilt and inner turmoil for Lia that she doesn't share with anyone but you are an eyewitness to. Just like Speak - and so many of Anderson's books, as I'm finally learning - this book immediately draws you in with its unique writing style, beautiful vocabulary choices, and heartbreaking honesty. I can't even begin to imagine the research that must have taken place in order to write from inside the mind of a girl struggling with anorexia and cutting, but it definitely paid off.

Despite its incredible positives, I am hesitant to bring it into my classroom, not because it's inappropriate but because it's so deeply disturbing and troublesome that I think it would be difficult for many 7th graders to read and appreciate fully. (By the way, I'll be teaching 7th grade this Fall...just found out!) There are definitely 7th graders who could handle it, but I wouldn't want to have it on a community shelf for anyone to pick up. It's deep, it's painful, and it seriously messes with you. I wasn't exaggerating at all about me starting to pay attention to what I ate and how often I was working out...I would never in a million years want an impressionable middle school girl to pick this book up and interpret the wrong message, leading to the development of an eating or exercise disorder. I may, however, consider having a "behind the teacher's desk" bookshelf, which contains books such as this that may be fine for some but not for all, and that, with teacher's and parent's approval, be specially checked out. I've seen 8th grade teachers do that and it worked well. That all being said, this book is excellent, and highly - if not cautiously - recommended by me.