Customer Reviews

The Best Little Girl in the World

5 star:		(80)
4 star:		(30)
3 star:		(19)
2 star:		(18)
1 star:		(30)

 

 

I have read this book and yes, it is a great book, but one must use caution when reading it. When I read this book I was in the worst part of my struggle with anorexia, and while reading this book I became wrapped up in some sick competition with Kessa. I continued to use many of the tips i read in the book, along with my own tricks, until I ended up in the hospital. I strongly reccomend that NO ONE currently in treatment or suffering from an eating disorder read this book. Wait until you have reached a strong level of recovery before you read the book. In my opinion, this book is a VERY TRIGGERING book.

I read this book at the beginning of my own eating disorder, and I wish I could say it was all a lie. It was painful to read because I, like Kessa, am 5'4" tall, but at the time I weighed nearly 30 more pounds than when she began. It's been a while since I read it and its sequel (Kessa), but the impact is permenent. One person said that it was written for people who have trouble reading. I've been reading novels since first grade, and while the literary part was simple, the emotional part was like a bullet. This book was my giudebook, almost my Bible, for a long time in my life. I tried to mirror myself off of Kessa. I wish Kessa was real so that I could go find her and say, "I know you. You're me." Maybe we could help each other. It's the most powerful book I've ever read, except possibly its sequel. But don't read it unless you know you can handle it.

I became completly absorbed and obseesed with this book. Stuggling with annorexia myself, Kessa provided companionship for me, as I isolated myself from the rest of the world. It however, I don't think was a healthy influence. The Best Little Girl in the World became me Bible, from which I molded much of my behavior. While it was by no means a cause of my struggle, I found myself adopting many of Kessa's behavior. Read this book with caution. If you are struggling with an eating disorder yourself, I urge you to restrain the temptation of reading it.

Not to sound melodramatic, but this book saved my life. I have been battling depresion for years,and was recently tettering on the edge of anorexia. Kessa Dietrich is misunderstood by many.Often people simply cannot understand the fact that she is starving herself. Kessa's family however,is being riped apart at the seams.Her food is the only control she has in her world of confusion. This book should be read by every girl, for who has not,at least once, looked at her self in the mirror,and thought"I'm so fat!". This book opens a window into the mind of the anorexic. More over it opens a window into the mind of a person.

I first read this book about a year ago and have continued to read it on and off since then. The account of anorexia, bulimia, and obsessive-compulsive disorder it presents certainly makes for an interesting read. However, I feel that the book is somewhat a typical eating-disorders story. The usual characters (passive mother, bullying alcoholic father, helpful non-judgemental therapist) are present, and the book does not offer a deep or honest enough glimpse into 15-year old Kessa's head, nor does it offer any hint of Kessa's personality pre or post-disorder. I also found it odd that Kessa was hospitalized when her weight hovered around 71 lbs; with a starting weight of 98 lbs on a 5' 4" frame, surely she would have been hospitalized before such a fatal weight was reached. Finally, a 15-year-old is not representative of the eating-disordered population. This book is ideal for junior-high anorexia sufferes, but a more realistic and captivating portrait of the diseas! ! e can be found in the recent Wasted by Marya Hornbacher.

This was one of the first books to give us a real inside-the-head look at anorexia, and as such it's quite an achievement. Levenkron isn't faking his experience; he knows as much about how it feels to have an eating disorder as any outsider. However, the book is weighed down by a bit of personal grandstanding on his part, and his theoretical model for EDs is either outdated or just plain wrong.

This book has been rightly criticized as somewhat egotistical. Francesca wastes away, as an indifferent medical establishment either ignores her or subjects her to incompetent, infantilizing treatment (of the "young lady, you stop this silliness right now!" school) Finally, she meets with a wise, empathic psychologist who single-handedly drags her back from the brink. Doubtless Levenkron sees himself in the messianical Dr. Sherman. Levenkron also speaks to the audience during a couple of digressions dealing with the way physicians and psychiatrists look down on psychologists. This is material that I, as a psychologist, found somewhat interesting, but it's of dubious value in a book about a girl with an eating disorder.

The psychology in the book is also questionable. It uses a model of eating disorders in which the initial cause is some variant of obsessive-compulsive disorder. This is unlikely to ring true for many people with EDs (admittedly I've only discussed it with a few), and it's not supported by the research either.

What saves _The Best Little Girl in the World_ from irrelevance is its compassion. It manages to convey a little about how it *feels* to have an eating disorder, something that can be terrfying and perplexing to a sufferer's loved ones. It's not the best description I've ever read, but it might resonate for some -- it's heart-rendingly sad, but decidedly less frenzied and disturbing than _Wasted_ and other books in the genre. Its inaccurate psychological model makes it less-than-perfect as an educational tool, but if you're already familiar with the factual information on eating disorders, this isn't a bad piece of fiction (or possibly bibliotherapy).

I had wanted to read this book for a long time after hearing what a great portrayal of anorexia it is. However, I was dissappointed. I'll save you the plot of the book (if you're interested, it's on a lot of other reviews). This book was not bad, but I have read many better ones, and it did not live up to my expectations.

The way this book was written is exactly like Kessa's problem. She is alone, and her parents focus all of their attention on her siblings. Similarly, this book focuses its attention not on Kessa, but on her mother, her father, her dance teacher, her
psychiatrist, just about everyone but Kessa. She has a supporting role in the book, so that she serves more as just another client for Sherman to talk about and dissect.

I did not like Kessa, mainly because the reader is not really given a chance to get to know her. The book jumps right in with
Francesca deciding to lose weight and changing her name to "Kessa." Other than her teacher's comment that she might want to lose a little weight, we see little motivation. This is fine, because I understand that there are many lingering, old issues that can bring on anorexia (and we see many of them as the book progresses), however, as a reader, I would have liked to see or learn a little more about the actual development of the disease. I also find it a little unrealistic that she just one day decided to be anorexic and stopped eating. In every case of anorexia I've ever heard of or experienced, there is usually some kind of struggle, some kind of "slip-up." I would have appreciated the book more if Kessa were more realistic, instead of the "perfect anorectic."

My main problem with this book is its impersonality. We hardly get to know Kessa. It seems that Levenkron uses her only as a means-to-an-end, just to get across a point. Maybe this was his intention; however, I would have gotten more out of the book if Kessa was more developed. I would also have liked to see her fighting a little more of the battle, instead of just being helpless and depending on Sherman.

However, this book was fairly enjoyable and interesting to read. It was not the best book on the subject (my personal favorites are "Second Star to the Right" and "Wasted"), but I wouldn't call it a waste of time either.

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.

As a sufferer of anorexia, I can assure potential readers that you will be given a very shallow look into the disorder. The characters are so one-dimensional and such stereotypical components of "the anorexic family" that the story is almost predictable. There are several "flaws" to the story. For example, the main character, Francesca/Kessa (is this MPD or anorexia we're talking about! ), wouldn't just consciously DECIDE to starve herself so quickly--that's insane and the disorder doesn't work that way. Maybe Levenkron was saving paper, who knows? And she wouldn't think of herself as being thinner than anyone, let alone supermodels in a magazine. And oh, how wonderful is the male therapist Kessa finally sees? Couldn't be a mirror image of Levenkron himself, could it? Also, recovering anorectic readers won't be encouraged with the fact that the story begins with Francesca/Kessa at an already "very skinny" weight prior to the anorexia. If you want an awesome, powerful (perhaps too powerful for some) book on eating disorders, give WASTED by Marya Hornbacher a try. Now that's the best!

I gave this book four stars because I thought that it was a really good book because it related to teenage girls. This book is about a girl who has Anorexia Nervosa, otherwise called Anorexia. Her dance teachers suggested losing a couple of pounds. She looked up to her dance instructor very much and she wanted to please her so she started losing the weight. When she became very skinny she believed that she was not skinny enough. Her parents weren't worried at first because she would eat some of her dinner, although they did notice some strange habits she had begun. They thought nothing about this though because Kessa (was what she liked to call herself) had always been the child in the family who didn't create any problems. Their older daughter Susanna was the one who was always fighting with their father and her older brother always got attention because he was "perfect". She had started calling her Kessa because she thought that it gave her power. It was her new name and she thought of herself as a new-improved person, who would lose weight and not take anything from anyone. Kessa had always thought that people did not want to be friends with her, and she thought that the girls were always laughing at her behind her back. Not only did she not know that if she kept losing weight she could die, but also she wouldn't talk to anyone about her problems because she couldn't trust anyone, or so she thought.