Rating: 
Summary: The best book in the world
Review: I was 11 when I read this book and I hate reading! I hated then and i hate it know, but that book I acutally enjoyed reading. I liked that it was so realistic and that i could someday relate to it. Kessa is so realistic and emotional. I could see her saying it or doing it. It was so real! I would recomend this book to anyone. I want to read the sequels. I think that the author was wonderful and that made the book even more wonderful.
Rating:
Summary: A lasting impression!
Review: I first read this book the year that it came out. I was about 18 years old, I believe. At that point in my life I really wanted to be thinner than I was, although I wasn't heavy at the time. Reading this book put my life, and my health in perspective. The interesting thing is that I have thought about and remembered this book in tremendous detail for that last 19 years. Now I have teenage daughters of my own that I want to purchase the book for. I tried extensively to find it but until coming on Amazon was undable to locate a copy. I'm very excited to have the opportunity to read this friendly, and informational book again and am looking forward to my daughters' opinions as well.
Rating:
Summary: My Absolute Favorite Book
Review: This book is my favorite book of all time because i feel i can really relate to it. I've read it about 6 times already, and i'll probably read it even more. Almost every emotion involved in the book i have known and felt. I love this book, the best book i've ever read.
Rating: 
Summary: I thought this was a book about Kessa, NOT her therapist...
Review: I decided to give this book 2 stars instead of 1 because although the book is extremely stereotypical, it was readable and I didn't toss it aside like I would have if it was *really* awful. This book is definately not one that I'd read a second time though. The first half of the book is written more from Kessa's point of view...so the first half is ok. But then when she enters treatment, it seems to shift focus off of Kessa and the spotlight shines on her BRILLIANT, UNDERSTANDING, and WONDERFUL therapist. It gets very annoying after awhile. If I wanted to read a book about a therapist treating an anorectic I would find one... but I thought this book would be from the anorectics point of view. Anyway, needless to say, this book was somewhat of a disapointment... It's not really worth the read.
Rating: 
Summary: Don't Bother
Review: I'm 15 and dealing with anorexia and bulimia since I was 11. I began reading the book hoping it would help me understand and relate to someone else. From the moment I began reading I could tell that who wrote the book had never experienced the disorder personally. I don't think it really showed how this disorder is. First she was a 15 year old weighing 96 pounds before she even began starving herself and you don't just all of the sudden decide to do this to yourself. I felt it portrayed an unrealistic look at the life of one with an eating disorder. It was your typical eating disorder story and completely predictable. I don't recommend wasting your time on this book. Read Wasted it's worth it.
Rating: 
Summary: Great job showing a hopeful journey and positive outcome
Review: I did enjoy reading this book by Steven Levenkron. It is difficult to find fiction books for pre-21 readers with eating disorders as an issue and that are written with real depth. My favorite part of the book was seeing how the hospital staff was instructed on understanding patients with eating disorders. It is important to highlight that eating disorder patients are often not treated like sick people, but are punished as if committing a crime. It is not a disease of choice! Many therapists, unlike Kessa's therapist Sandy Sherman, treat ED patients with skepticism and don't try to understand the mechanisms behind the disease. I found Levenkron's other young adult book, Luckiest Girl in the World, to be better written, more believable, better developed characters and more applicable to my life in that Levenkron fashions a mother, daughter and her coach struggling to move forward after child abuse issues, self-abuse, divorce, financial strains ect... Involving the coach by showing his awareness of a problem, her dissociation and fear, was a novel idea. It broadened the horizen instead of leaving the character to suffer without notice. On the other hand, Francesca had the stereotypical life of the ballet dancer, blond, upper-middle class family, family support even if not quite on target, two highly functioning parents and success. I had difficulty relating to Best Little girl in the World for the above reasons. If you enjoy reading Levenkron, try Luckiest Girl in the World. It skirts through and around eating disorders in a world filled with multiple stressors! It also helps the reader understand the many reasons why self-abuse disorders occur. Thumbs up for Levenkron's books of fiction! He writes for young adults, but credits them with high intelligence and high demands for the material that is being read.
Rating:
Summary: Stirring and triggering
Review: I love this book, and was deeply affected by it after reading it at age 14. However, the book is a quite romanticized account of anorexia. What insecure teenage girl would not want to be the fragile, thin, beautiful, troubled Kessa? I would say that for most teens, this book would simply be an engrossing "issue of the month" book. However, for those on the edge of anorexia, this book can make the condition seem seductive and appealing. Basically, I would recommend this book for someone who is interested in learning the "why" behind eating disorders, but I would never suggest giving it to an anorexic or bulimic child. An unstable girl will use the book as a bible, and it will likely increase her desire to lose weight.
Rating:
Summary: This was me; I was it
Review: The review of "Frighteningly Accurate" is so much the same as my own experience, it's scary. I, too, am 5'4, like Kessa and the reviewer, and I, too, began the book weighing nearly thirty pounds (I weighed 125, to be precise) more than the charecter at the time of reading it. To top that off, I too, have been struggling with my own eating disorder for some time now, and when I first read this, Kessa was my role model. My own experience with anorexia nervosa was very much like that of the charecter of Kessa in this book. Although my father, a child psychologist, kept me from reaching the point of hospitalization, emotionally, I messed myself up bad. This book is great for someone related to an anorexic. If you want to know what they're going through, read this.
Rating:
Summary: The Best Little Girl in the World
Review: This book gave a somewhat accurate portrayal of an eating disorder; however, it did not describe in much detail the emotions of Kessa as she obsessed about her weight, nor did it mention the sheer agony of being so hungry your body is shaking, and wanting to eat until the point that you might keel over simply from the energy it took you to do so. Also, from what I know personally about eating disorders as well as what I know from others, it's unlikely that one becomes as determined to lose weight as Kessa does and is immediately able to turn around and lose the weight as quickly as she does. Usually, there is more of a battle of the mind to eat, not eat, eat, not eat. Weight is lost quickly, true, but not as quickly as is portrayed in this book. Most anorexics are in their condition for much longer than Kessa was before hospitalization is necessary. (Although extremly rapid weight loss does happen in some cases). Also, please understand that this book was written in the late 70s and while the book repeatedly mentions that there is no cure for anorexia and once you have it, there is no going back, this is simply untrue for many people now that knowledge about the subject has increased.
Rating:
Summary: an interesting book for parentsin denial
Review: i think in this book you can see how this little girl is having serious problems and how her father thik how expensive ande hard her treatment is and how he is trying to deny his daugther illness.
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