Wintergirls by Laurie Halse Anderson

Summary: 18 year old Lia is anorexic and is stuck between life and death, a "wintergirl". Lia's ex-best friend, Cassie, dies in a hotel room alone, as a result of being a depressed bulimic. The story details Lia's daily struggle to stay thin and fool her family into thinking she is okay. Lia hates herself but it does not seem like she wants to change; she has been to an intensive rehab program twice but has not changed her ways. Cassie haunts Lia throughout the book, trying to get her to kill herself and join her as a ghost. Most of the story is pretty disturbing and depressing until the last 20 pages or so when Lia decides she wants to live and begins a long road to recovery.

YA Lit Criteria: This books fits the YA criteria in that the story is told from the POV of a young person, Lia. We know all of Lia's deepest secrets, thoughts that no one else in her life is privy to. I'm not sure how many people could relate to Lia (unfortunately, probably more than I would think), because she is a very troubled young girl. Lia's parents are a huge part of her life/the story, they are mentioned on most pages, but although they are physically in her life she is emotionally distant and does not allow them to help her. I know eating disorders is a prevalent issue in the lives of YAs, so this book covers that. There are also themes of friendship, belonging, and coming of age.

Personal Response:
I did not like this book at all! If I didn't have to finish it, I probably would have stopped reading it all together. It was really disturbing to read. Lia seriously hated herself and had terrible thoughts. The figurative language used was really great and effective, but not something I would ever consider using in the classroom. Not even for my class library. I would think this book could encourage girls with eating disorders in the same way that those pro-rexia websites give support for people to "be strong" and not eat. Yes, at the end Lia did decide that her life was worth living and she got help, but that's after 275 pages of depression. Lia cuts herself, almost succeeds in killing herself at one point, and exercises off any calories she consumes. She constantly talks about how fat she is and doesn't understand why she see something different in the mirror than other people. As a healthy person, it is easy to see how crazy Lia is, but maybe a young girl with similar problems would side with Lia and use her character as reasoning for self-destructive tendencies. This book is by the same author as Speak (which I liked and would use in the classroom), by the way.

Here's a link to the author's site for Wintergirls. Has a Q&A and teacher resources.


This is a link for a site with information on teenagers with eating disorders. We may have some of these kids in our classrooms. When reading the book, you saw how Lia floated through school, sleeping during class (because she had no energy) and couldn't think (because her brain didn't have food)

Soulless by Gail Carriger is a short novel about Miss Alexia Tarabotti. Alexia is a twenty-six-year-old spinster in the 19th century London, under the rule of Queen Victoria. She's Italian, has a "large" nose and dark skin and is hot-tempered. Oh, yeah – and she's soulless. As a soulless preternatural, Alexia can remove the supernatural abilities of werewolves, vampires, ghosts and the like, returning them to their human form for as long as she maintains physical contact with them. While werewolves think of her as a curse-breaker, vampires think she's a soul-sucker. Only one thing is for certain – someone wants to experiment on her, whether or not it kills her!

Soulless is from the viewpoint of Alexia, who is not a young adult. In fact, there were no children or young adults present in the novel at all. Being a spinster in the 19th century, Alexia's mother was present frequently as she could not leave the house unchaperoned. However, Alexia frequently did what she wished, regardless of the damage it could have done to her reputation. The novel was fairly fast-paced and entertaining but I do not think it would be for a young adult. There are a lot of historical references and the women are old-fashioned in their manner – prone to fainting and gasps at the mere mention of anything that could be scandalous. It is a fiction novel that is fantasy/sci-fi in nature, dealing with a soulless preternatural so I believe it deals with a variety of subjects in that way. Additionally, Alexia is verbally persecuted frequently for being Italian and having dark skin, a large nose, etc. in comparison to her fair-skinned, blonde and perfectly British half-sisters. The book is silly and fun and optimistic as the characters achieve their individual accomplishments but I find no emotions that would be important to young adults.

For further information, you can visit the author's website at http://www.gailcarriger.com/. She provides information on the novels (it is a series) and London at the time in which the novel takes place.

Having read the first two books, I really like this series so far and will continue reading them for entertainment. However, I would not include this in the classroom or even on my classroom shelves for independent reading. There is no educational value that I can see for young adults, no lesson to be learned. I am not even sure why this book is on a young adult reading list. There is a lot of steamy romance scenes in it that, although they take place in the 19th century, may be too much for a teacher to include on her classroom shelves, especially since there is no underlying educational lessons or themes in the novel. I feel that those things can be overlooked in search of a grander lesson. Instead of being a historical novel, it is a novel that happens to take place in that time period and all references to Queen Victoria's rule are in direct relation to the supernaturals in London and do not portray the events that occurred under her rule. I suppose if students are reading this novel, the appeal could be the entertainment it provides and the love that develops within it, in addition to the vampire/werewolf craze that is currently happening among young adults today.