Girls Under Pressure (Girls Trilogy, Bk. 2) [Hardcover]

Jacqueline Wilson (Author)

Book Description

Series: Girls Trilogy, Bk. 2 | Publication Date: June 11, 2002

Ellie thinks she looks awful. Horrible. FAT. Her best friends are both drop-dead gorgeous and Ellie’s sick of being the ugly duckling. So she goes on a diet. And she even starts to exercise, much to her friends’ and her gym teacher’s amazement. Ellie’s hungry all the time, she works out every spare second, and she’s turned into a grouchy meanie. But if her friends don’t want to deal with the new and improved Ellie, that’s their problem. It’s better to be thin than happy. Isn’t it?

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Ellie is frantic. Her two best friends seem to be living life in the fast lane while she putters along the curb. Glamorous blond Magda has got a thousand cute boys buzzing around her, and Goth girl Nadine has just been asked to take part in a national teen modeling contest. All Ellie has are massive panic attacks about her weight. So she decides to go on a diet. But instead of counting calories, Ellie just tries to stop eating altogether. Soon she's starving, miserable, and lying all the time to her friends and family. Luckily, a frightening encounter with a real anorectic, and an encouraging dose of art history from a handsome new teacher ("Beauty is just fashion. Male artists have used beautiful women throughout the centuries but their sizes and proportions keep changing") help Ellie realize that size is just a state of mind.

In this second installment of the Girls trilogy, fabulous British author Jacqueline Wilson keeps her trademark funny bone firmly in place while simultaneously raising some sobering questions about issues like eating disorders and teens' overemphasis on appearance. Despite the laughs, Ellie very nearly lapses into anorexia, Magda gets a scare when her chronic flirting almost leads to date rape, and Nadine realizes that the modeling business could care less about her individuality or intellect. Wrapping serious messages in a sugary comical coating is always the best way to make the medicine go down. Recommended for those teen female readers who want something both funny and filling. (Ages 12 and older) --Jennifer Hubert

From Publishers Weekly

Feeling like she doesn't measure up to her "drop-dead gorgeous" friends, Ellie tries to take control of her weight, and ends up battling bulimia, in Girls Under Pressure by Jacqueline Wilson, the second book in her Girls trilogy. Ages 12-up.
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 12 and up
  
• Hardcover: 224 pages
• Publisher: Delacorte Books for Young Readers (June 11, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0385729758
• ISBN-13: 978-0385729758
• Product Dimensions: 7.2 x 4.4 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (27 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,199,730 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Magnificent, June 18, 2002

By 

Erika Sorocco (Southern California, USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Girls Under Pressure (Girls Trilogy, Bk. 2) (Hardcover)

When Ellie comes up with the idea to go shopping for Christmas presents at the mall she doesn't realize there's a model search going on. Soon her two best friends (Magda and Nadine) are dragging her along so they can try out. The only problem? All the girls are so skinny and perfect and Ellie is fat (in her opinion) and not perfect.

Soon Ellie begins to stop eating, and starts throwing up when she does eat. But with the help of a friend (Zoe), who's anorexic and begins slowly killing herself, Ellie realizes that being thin doesn't mean anything, it's what's on the inside that counts.

This is a great book, and I recommend it to all fans of books such as "The Princess Diaries" and "Angus, Thongs, and Full Frontal Snogging".

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Best Book, November 4, 2003

By 

Bex "Rebecca Cryer" (Lancashire, England) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Girls Under Pressure (Girls Trilogy, Bk. 2) (Hardcover)

I think Jacqueline Wilson is the best author!! She writes abfab books, she soooo knows what a teenager is thinking and she's thinking our era not her era! I would defenitly give Girls Under Pressure 5 stars!!!!

Ellie, Magda and Nadine are just your typical teenagers! Boymania!!! They stick together in any situation and thats where Jacqueline Wilson has got it totally correct!

I think Ellie goes through all the typical teenage things like thinking shes the only one who doesn't have a boyfriend and thinking shes fat and all the rest!

I think Nadine goes through the typical teenage thing of thinking you can handle having a boyfriend older than you... so she thinks she can go all the way with him because she is so mature! But really Liam (her boyfriend) is just pushing her to go with him, she isn't doing it because wants to!

And Magda... well... magda is the mate who knows all the style tips and has all the hot gossip about everyone plus she has a crowd of lads with her all the time lol! You need magda in a disaster situation (with your hair or make up)

I hope you go out and buy it cos i know i have! :)

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good Book, October 19, 2003

By 

solon (Solon, Ohio USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Girls Under Pressure (Girls Trilogy, Bk. 2) (Hardcover)

The book "Girls Under Pressure" was a good book. It was a book about a girl named Ellie. Ellie has a brother named Eggs her dad and a step mom named Anna. She has two best friends, Magda and Nadine. Ellie thinks she is fat and goes on a diet. But this isn't just an ordinary diet where only nutritional food allowed, Ellie stops eating completely. But occasionally when she forgets and ends up stuffing herself, she runs to the nearest bathroom and makes herself throw-up by shoving two fingers down her throat. Magda is obsessed with boys and is the wealthiest out of the three, plus she's an only child. Nadine is the thinnest out of the three and she tries out to be the model on the cover of a magazine, she has a younger sister named Natasha that she can't stand to be around. This book relates to some girls, because some girls think of themselves as fat and end up starving themselves and turning anorexic or bulimic. I would recommend this book because it can help people, especially if they think they're fat.