Book Bag

     I was sitting at our kitchen table reading the other day and I must have been making a face or something because my daughter comes up and says, "What are you reading?!!!" To which I replied, "Oh it's an awful book!" and then I turned to her and said, "And you should read it!"
     I am sure she thinks I am crazy, but it was an "awful" story and she should read it. I was reading "Winter Girls" by Laurei Halse Anderson. This is a novel about anorexia and bulimia and the toll it takes on young girls. The main thing this novel did was make me look at these diseases from the victim's perspective, much like Jodi Piccoult does in the novels she writes. I've never really known anyone with anorexia, so I never thought about the kinds of things that would make a person want to be so thin. These are the things that I thought were "awful" about the story, but also the thoughts I wanted to hear my teenage daughter's input on. What leads to those feelings of despair and how can we stop it?
     You know that I know this is a fiction book. But, I also know that this author did a lot of research and at least some of this story is based in reality. The reality of things true anorexia patients have admitted to feeling and doing. It really is an "awful" story and you all really should read it.