Letting Ana Go

Gr 8 Up—Fans of Go Ask Alice (Prentice-Hall, 1971) and Laurie Halse Anderson's Wintergirls (Viking, 2009) will gravitate to this compelling account of one girl's battle with anorexia. Asked to maintain a food diary as a part of her cross-country training, the unnamed narrator begins her story as a healthy, well-adjusted teen from a privileged family. Her overweight mother struggles with food issues on a daily basis and receives little emotional support from her husband, who either humiliates or ignores her. Witnessing the deterioration of her parents' marriage, the teen becomes overwhelmed by a flood of conflicting emotions and channels her need for order into restricting what she eats. Through her journal entries, readers witness her gradual descent from self-discipline to denial as she convinces herself that she grows emotionally stronger as she eats less. Readers will relate to the teen's experiences navigating family dynamics, friendship, and relationships, and the first-person narrative lends realism to her character as it allows access to the reasoning behind her misguided decisions. As real as she appears, however, the prose seems too polished and situations feel staged for dramatic effect. Those seeking an authentic story may be better served reading a harrowing memoir such as Marya Hornbacher's Wasted: A Memoir of Anorexia and Bulimia (HarperCollins, 1998).—Audrey Sumser, Cuyahoga County Public Library, Mayfield, OH