Rating: 
Summary: ZZZZZZZZ......
Review: the author of this book seems to know what he is talking about, but this book is just sooo boring. its like reading a text book.
Rating: 
Summary: Compelling and honest
Review: This book is not easy to forget, not so much because of the medical detail, which as others have pointed out, changes as we find out more about anorexia, but for its ability to reveal what a person with anorexia may be thinking and feeling.
The scope of the book is necessarily limited; its effectiveness is not in giving a general factual account of all the possible aspects of the disease, but in getting the reader to care for Francesca and empathise to an extent with her family. I would recommend this book to people who want to read an engaging story and understand something about what having an eating disorder might be like for one particular person.
Rating: 
Summary: this author knows what hes talking about!
Review: all i can say is...wow! this authot knows what hes talking about! he thoroughly understands his subject, and he knows how to get a point across!im 14 yrs old, and i had to read this for a book report...i have never liked reading, i just cant comprehend anything!! well, i cudnt put this book down! i HIGHLY recommend it Francesca Dietrich is an average girl living in New York in the 1970s. She is one of a few siblings. Francesca's parents see her as a perfect little angel, but she sees herself as an atrocity. Francesca presents herself as perfect in front of her parents, but it wouldn't matter, because her parents don't pay to much attention to her in the first place. They just assume nothing is wrong at all. Francesca wants more than anything to be liked by her dance teacher, and wants to go above and beyond her teacher's expectations. Francesca wants to become a stronger person, and she basically aims for that goal in the wrong way. First, she changes her name to "Kessa." She thinks that the name Kessa is strong. She thinks that being "Kessa" will make her a better, stronger person. She wants to be perfect. Her idea of perfect is being skinny, which she is to begin with. Francesca is no longer in charge anymore, Kessa is now in control. Kessa wont give into hunger pains like Francesca did.
The weeks went by, and Kessa was eating less and less, to a point where she didn't eat anything. The pounds started to drop, slowly at first, then very rapidly. She found ways to make it seem like nothing was wrong, and it works for awhile. Her dance teacher gives her encouragement for the "dieting." The dance teacher tells her how much she appreciates Kessa's dedication to dance, and tells her she will be very successful if she keeps this up. As time went by, Kessa's parents started to realize something was very wrong. They took her to Dr. Gordon in hopes to find out what was wrong. Doctor Gordon diagnoses Kessa with anorexia nervosa. Her family must snap back into reality now, and realize they their daughter who they thought was perfect, is in a lot of trouble. They need to find help for Kessa, and fast. Things are getting worse for Francesca. She is admitted to the hospital, and is feeling very weak. Dr. Sherman, a therapist, is called in. Dr. Sherman slowly starts to gain trust from Kessa, and understand her problem. He is Kessa's only hope for survival. He slowly helps her realize that her choice to get attention was a bad one. Kessa is on her way to recovery. Her illness will never truly go away, but at least she now has hope for survival.
Rating:
Summary: Not bad, but too stereotypical
Review: The danger of this book is that it portrays a text-book case. And most of us (anorexics, ED sufferers) are not text-book cases. The author tends to lead one to believe that all anorexics are the neglected, perfect younger children of white, middle-class families who take up dancing. Though the type of person described above is at risk for anorexia, MANY, MANY others who does not fit that "profile" are equally at first. Something else that I must stress both as a recovering anorexic and as psychology major: most anorexic never become nearly as thin as the girl in the book. Finally, I know of many recovering anorexics who found the book to be "trigger"--in the sense that it was a set-back for them during recovery. After reading about her, they felt that they weren't "thin enough" or "sick enough"...so if you are in recovery and truly want to read the book, I'd advise caution. There are better books out there as resources. If you are looking for memoirs/fiction, for example, I'd advise "Hunger Point" or "Stick Figure."
Rating:
Summary: Good Read
Review: This book was quite interesting, though the beggining didn't start off all that great. Ties you in towards the end. Along with illastrating the daily life of most anorexics, this book was also able to explain much of what they do and why through the life of Francesca Dietrich. Didn't exactly end up being what I expected.
Rating: 
Summary: Kessa, anorexia and double standards
Review: I won't say that I "couldnt put this book down".. because truth is I can NEVER put any book down and this one was no exception. However at no point in this book did I feel any compassion or even sympathy towards the main character, Kessa. As you may know Kessa is a 15 year old shy girl who becomes anorexic. What you may not know, though, but will soon find out when you read this book, is that young Kessa is also a majorly self centered, manipulative pain in the back. I instantly liked the character of Lila, the non-nonsense black girl who shared Kessa's hospital room. I felt she was just as helpful in Kessa 's recovery as the shrink was, and unlike Kessa, Lila was the kind of person you'd like to meet. This book was very informative (a bit too much actually, if anybody wants to turn ano there's quite a few tips in there) and did lead me to understanding more about this disease. What it did not do, however, is convince me that anorexic girls are anything but selfish, attention craving, spoiled middle-class girl next-doors who just didnt find any other way to manipulate and control their surroundings. Some questions I asked myself after reading this book were, why do obese children who are suffering just as much as Kessa was, get humiliated instead of being helped like anorexics are ? If fat people's bones were showing, would they get compassion too ? Would someone actually care to look through and find their fears and suffering instead of prescribing yet another diet ?
Rating:
Summary: average
Review: and triggering. this is like the anorexic bible, unfortunately.
Rating:
Summary: would you like to be 15 years old and weight 60pounds??
Review: this is the best book about anorexia nervosa
i have ever read .it give you a lot of imformation about this disease and how dangerous it can be i recommend it to all teenage girl who are having trouble liking their body .and i want to thanks my teacher (even tough she won't read this)becasue if it wasn't for her i might had end up like francesca being an anorexic .i also recommend you this books "please don't go" by elizabeth benning and "second star to the right" and "kim:empty inside "a diary of an anonymous teenager
Rating: 
Summary: Unrealistic
Review: As a recovering anorexic I've read several books and auobiographies on the subject. When comparing them to this book I feel this author has "sugar-coated", if you will, the disease and the recovery. The ordeal is made to look like after a quick trip to the hospital and a few therapists and the main charactor is cured. I'm not saying don't read it, but please keep in mind that treatment of the disease is hardly as swift or easy as this book makes it appear to be.
Rating:
Summary: Disappointing.
Review: I'm not sure exactly what message the author is trying to put forth with this book. When I read a book, I like to feel what the characters are feeling, understand what they are going through. This book just didn't hit home for me. Kessa is a cursory individual, a young teenaged ballerina growing up in New York City. One day in class, her ballet instructor tells her she needs to drop few pounds, and Kessa instantaneously plunges right into middle of the downward spiral that is anorexia nervosa. There's no gradually getting there; there are no slight "symptoms" that worsen over time as typical with diseases. One minute she's fine, and the next, she's refusing to eat. And that's pretty much all the author touches on. He does not become Kessa. I never felt as though I were truly hearing what was going on in her mind. She felt like a character halfheartedly spun from the writer's imagination, and nothing more. Truly, I felt I was reading an impersonal (and somewhat inaccurate) case study taken by an expressionless doctor in a cold hospital office. I feel that Levenkron does somewhat glamorize the sad disease. Also, he makes it seem as though it can be cured over a couple weeks' time, as antibiotics with the flu. I'm not sure anorexia is ever "cured." In my experience, the striving to be perfect, the need to be the best, the battle with food, never completely goes away. It is always looming in the back of the anorexic's mind, even after she learns to deal with it. Levenkron slightly touches on Kessa's need to be perfect in all aspects, but mostly, she just starves herself. I feel that this book is geared toward girls in the 13 - 17 age group. I recommend skipping "The Best Little Girl in the World" and going for "Second Star to the Right" by Deborah Hautzig, which is the best book on anorexia I have read for that particular age group. It is certainly heads above this one.
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