Wintergirls by Laurie Halse Anderson

ISBN: 9780670011100
Publisher: Viking Juvenile (2009)
278 p.

Reading Level: Grade 9 and up.

Summary:

Lia’s best friend Cassie is dead. They had been best friends for years until Cassie decided that she wasn’t Lia’s friend anymore—except on the night she died. As Lia struggles with her own secret and her family’s strife, she continues to become thinner and thinner, for that is all she feels she can control. Her further descent into anorexia as she speaks to the ghost of her angry best friend makes the reader wonder if it’s Lia’s starved mind that is filling her head with visions or if her friend is angry and alone and wants Lia to accompany her. As Cassie’s mother struggles to understand what is happening to her beautiful daughter, Lia is at a loss for words. “Why? You want to know why? . . . Look in a mirror and find a ghost. Hear every heartbeat scream that everysinglething is wrong with you . . . ‘Why?’ is the wrong question. Ask ‘Why not?’” (p. 161) Pretending and tricking her family into believing she is finally well, the lengths Lia goes to in order to hide her illness should serve as a wake-up call for many parents of teens around the world.

Critical Evaluation:

This beautifully crafted novel contains ingenious narrative techniques such as repetition, blank pages, and combined words and forcefully carries the reader into Lia’s head
to depict all the stresses and horrors she is going through.

This novel uses repetition as Lia thinks to herself, printed in stand-alone, right-justified lines such as “. . . body found in a motel room, alone . . .” (p. 1 and throughout) as well as “she called me.” Followed shortly by “she called me thirty-three times” (p. 31 and throughout), such devices hauntingly capture the guilt and despair that drive Lia to cut and bleed herself. Reading through Lia’s point of view for the entirety of the novel is a particularly brutal and honest experience. From her manic way of counting calories to the way she cheats the scale, Lia takes the reader along with her step-by-step as she continues to spiral downward. Although the characters of her family are interesting, it is the never-ceasing assault of Lia’s condition that drives the reader forward to the end. Although a rough book to read, after I finished I felt that I not only knew what to look out for in my own family and friends, but also what someone who suffers through anorexia really goes through.

Reader’s Annotation:

“I inscribe three lines, hush hush hush, into my skin. Ghosts trickle out.” (p. 61)

Embark with Lia on her story of how she tries to save her life.

           

Author Biography:

Laurie Halse Anderson was born in 1961 in Northern New York State. Her writing career started as a freelance reporter for magazines and newspapers which helped her on her path as an author. Anderson’s first was a picture book, while her most recent is The Hair of Zoe Fleefenbacher Goes to School, which was published in 2009.

Anderson is most known for her Young Adult novels, especially her debut with Speak which was a National Book Award Finalist, a New York Times bestseller, and a Printz Honor book.  Wintergirls, Anderson’s most recent has received “starred reviews from Publishers Weekly, School Library Journal, Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books, Booklist, and Kirkus, and was the focus of much media attention for its unflinching and raw perspective on eating disorders.” (Retrieved from http://madwomanintheforest.com/laurie/). I am very much looking forward to future Young Adult novels from this talented author.

Genre: Realistic Fiction – deals with anorexia

Curriculum Ties:

This novel could be used in a health-education class. Novels such as these should be presented as preventative measures to open up discussions about the different types of illnesses, how they can begin, and what help is out there.

Booktalking Ideas:

-What could Lia have done to help Cassie?

-When and how does Lia finally reach out for the help she needs?

-Are Lia’s parents unaware of her problem, or do they blindly look away?

Read-Alikes:

-Massive by Julia Bell.

-Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson.

-Dirty Little Secrets by C.J. Omololu.

-The Echo Glass: A Novel about Anorexia Nervosa by Heather Morrall.

Challenge Issue:

This novel has been challenged as a guide to how to be an anorexic or as a trigger to anorexia or bulimia. To any parent who believes such notions, I would ask if they had read the book. If they had, they would see that painful downward spiral into anorexia and near death is not at all glamorous. The horrible thoughts crowding Lia’s head, her meticulous starvation, and her heartbreaking crash are definitely not alluring glimpses into anorexia. If anything, there are clues of what to look for in one’s own students, patrons, and teenagers.

Reason to include in blog:

Ever since Speak, I knew this author was one to watch. When I read Fever 1793, I found it so beautifully written that my mother ended up using it in her ESL class at the community college where she teaches. Although I’ve had my own battles with weight, more overeating than under eating, Wintergirls serves as a haunting tale of what can happen when parents stop looking too closely at their children. This book and its author should continue to help teens come to terms with themselves and perhaps their shared problems.

References:

Anderson, L. (2009). Officially long official biography of Laurie Halse Anderson.

     Retrieved at http://madwomanintheforest.com/laurie/

Anderson, L. H. (2009). Wintergirls. New York: Viking Juvenile. 

Book Trailer: