Kessie thinks she's overweight. She's five foot four and ninety-eight pounds. Kessie has anorexia nervosa.
read full description
reviews
Jan 02, 2008
Shelia
rated it: 
I read this book in high school several times. It's about a young girl - Francessca dying (literally) to be model thin. You get wrapped up in her rituals that rule her life and you also feel what her parents go thru as they watch her waste away...
0 comments
like
(6 people liked it)
Aug 15, 2007
Shannon
rated it: 
I read this in like high school I think, but I remember it being a really good book that gives a very realistic look into the minds of people with eating disorders.
0 comments
like
(3 people liked it)
Aug 08, 2008
Kelly
rated it:
An anorexia book that I have had to replace twice in the library. The girls love this book. The book is 25+ years old but teens still like it.
0 comments
like
(3 people liked it)
Jun 09, 2007
stephanie
rated it:
important book, though i really hate the author. kessa is, i think, fairly believable. i am enormously glad that he wrote a follow-up book, finally ( kessa), because let's face it, the relapse rate for anorexia is awful high. (this makes me want to read gaining by amiee lui even more RIGHT NOW.)
again, the only problem i really had was that he takes the "typical" trope of the anorexia child - perfect at everything, with troubles at home, especially in communication. the fa More...
again, the only problem i really had was that he takes the "typical" trope of the anorexia child - perfect at everything, with troubles at home, especially in communication. the fa More...
0 comments
like
(2 people liked it)
Mar 26, 2008
Sarah
rated it: 
I read this book when i was about 11 and it honestly became part of my downfall. For me it was more of "how to" then a "dont be like her". Although I still to this day like this book i was WAY to young to read it. I think its an important book even if the writer is in my opion a self-righteous hack... but hes a psychologist who wrote a best seller what can you do. I would highly suggest this book to any parent or family member of someone suffering an eating disorder or a we
More...
0 comments
like
(3 people liked it)
Nov 04, 2008
Joelle
rated it:
I really really liked this book, it was so sad to watch a girl struggle with society and being perfect that she starts to kill herself by not eating! when you read this you want to help her but you can't and she just keeps loosing weight until she ends up in rehab. i recommend this book to everyone because it is a strong powerful book, and just to put yourself in a person with anorexia nervosa's place will let you see what people who have this go through and feel. I am glad my sister recom More...
0 comments
like
(1 person liked it)
Mar 31, 2010
Sammy
rated it:
Steven Levenkron’s The Best Little Girl In The World, is about a teenage girl, Kessa that has the need to look and act perfect. Once her ballet teacher tells her she would look better with less fat and more grace, Kessa struggles with her weight and life. She begins to drop from 98, to 81 to 74 pounds in just weeks. Kessa then begins to fail her classes and focus on nothing but her weight and ballet. Once her parents admit her into a hospital ward for anorexics, Kessa begins to realize the root
More...
Jul 12, 2011
Scooter
rated it: 
Perhaps it should be called, "Another ridiculous and deluded little girl saved by a super smart man telling her what to do"? Besides reducing the inner life of the protagonist to that of a cartoon character and wrapping up a disorder that often skews towards a life sentence by a few weeks of giving the doctor total control, Levenkron seems barely able to mask his sense that all women are kind of fucked up and this particular caricature is an adequate depiction of American femininity, e
More...
0 comments
like
(1 person liked it)
Jan 10, 2011
Greta is Erikasbuddy
rated it:
This book was a nice After School Special (and yeah... it really was turned into one )
It was written by a psychologist dude who was like the god-father of anorexia treatments. The funny thing is... you could tell it was totally a guy when he wrote for the anorexic girl.
The interesting thing is he gave a clear idea of what doctors think about anorexics.
Granted this was written in 1978 when people were just realizing that w More...
It was written by a psychologist dude who was like the god-father of anorexia treatments. The funny thing is... you could tell it was totally a guy when he wrote for the anorexic girl.
The interesting thing is he gave a clear idea of what doctors think about anorexics.
Granted this was written in 1978 when people were just realizing that w More...
Feb 10, 2012
Kristieanna
rated it:
In April 1985, I went on a trip to L.A. with the Single Mother (TSM) and the Perpetually Stoned and yet Surly 14 Year Old Brother (The Stoner). On that trip (financed by the way, by TSM's ugly and rich boyfriend de jour)I discovered:
Nikki, masturbating with a magazine-replayed 1000 times on a Sony Walkman like device- would always be hot and could never get boring;
Muhammed Ali liked me to sit on his lap;
Sonny Bono was a creep-that tree did us all a service.
My mother is More...
Nikki, masturbating with a magazine-replayed 1000 times on a Sony Walkman like device- would always be hot and could never get boring;
Muhammed Ali liked me to sit on his lap;
Sonny Bono was a creep-that tree did us all a service.
My mother is More...
Apr 27, 2009
Jeni
rated it:
i read this book in high skool + wos blown away.
when i say i enjoyd this book, it is not in a sick way, just how wel written it was about anorexia.
since i have not read it for a few years and only borrowed it from the library, i am searced on amazon.com + got a copy all 4 myself. now i have another book on the go, lol
when i say i enjoyd this book, it is not in a sick way, just how wel written it was about anorexia.
since i have not read it for a few years and only borrowed it from the library, i am searced on amazon.com + got a copy all 4 myself. now i have another book on the go, lol
0 comments
like
(1 person liked it)
Sep 05, 2008
brie
rated it:
Though I admire this book because it was ground-breaking when it came out, as it is essentially the first fictional book on eating disorders ever written, I found it a little too dramatic. As someone who has suffered with anorexia myself, this was a little unrealistic. It's worth reading, though.
2 comments
like
(1 person liked it)
Dec 15, 2010
Hannah
rated it:
A truly frightening story.
One day at dance class, Francesca's dance teacher tells her she needs to drop just a few pounds from her already tiny body. And that night, Kessa, Francesca's alterego, is born. Kessa stops eating and begins losing too much weight. Her parents take her to the doctor and try therapy. But Kessa still won't eat. Her obsession begins turning into to an actual fear. She drops to 78 pounds. Her chances of living are looking, well, slim.
253 pages. 1 boo More...
One day at dance class, Francesca's dance teacher tells her she needs to drop just a few pounds from her already tiny body. And that night, Kessa, Francesca's alterego, is born. Kessa stops eating and begins losing too much weight. Her parents take her to the doctor and try therapy. But Kessa still won't eat. Her obsession begins turning into to an actual fear. She drops to 78 pounds. Her chances of living are looking, well, slim.
253 pages. 1 boo More...
Nov 19, 2008
Debbie
rated it:
I probably read this book for sophomore year health class, but it still sticks with me. The idea that anorexia and bulemia could be issues of control and not some twisted desire to taste puke makes sense. I didn't realize all the other stuff it does to a body, though, so the hairy stomach, the hair falling out, and the stopped periods were such a revelation to me. It really helped me understand how in sync our mental and physical well-being was, so it was a valuable lesson for me to learn so
More...
Jan 23, 2010
megan
rated it:
more interesting as historical artifact than as literary experience. the first novel about anorexia, to my knowledge. extremely heavy-handed with the psychologizing, and the heroism of the psychologist reads a bit suspect, given that the writer himself is, ahem, a psychologist. while there is deep sympathy for kessa (l'anorexic), there's also a lot of scorn, from numerous characters and at times from the omniscient narrator himself. this kind of ambivalence interests me, especially given the ped
More...
Jan 11, 2012
Joanie
rated it:
I read this book over and over again when I was younger, taking it out from the library every few months. I think they made a TV movie out of it that stared Jennifer Jason Leigh too. This was the first book I ever read about anorexia and I was completely fascinated by Francesca's (Kessa) rules and rituals surrounding food and exercise. I never realized this was written by a man-he does a good job writing a teenage girl (from what I remember anyway.)
Feb 16, 2009
Sanz
rated it:
I read this in Jr. High School and just picked it up off my shelf again last week. It is set in the 70s and is the story of an adolescent girl who gets this new disease called anorexia nervosa. The doctors and other professionals don't know what to do with her and are convinced there is no cure. This is not a good book for young girls to read, it gives many ideas for strange behavior that would reward with attention.
Apr 11, 2010
angie
rated it:
One of the worst novels I've ever read about eating disorders and yet it somehow has this hypnotic hold over the reader...a much, much better novel is _Winter Girls_ by Laurie Halse Anderson. It does not glamorize anorexia nor make it seem like something good...or something off of a "pro-ana" website. Levenkron's novel, unfortunately, is like a play-by-play manual...overrated and well-known for all the wrong reasons.
0 comments
like
(1 person liked it)
May 30, 2011
Lori
rated it: 
This was insightful, but boring. Very brief, lacks description, cold and analytical.
It was interesting because I am interested in eating disorders, but no other factors redeemed this bland book. The details on the main character described her to be the typical white, middle class, control freak that fits in the expected stereotypical personality type of somebody with anorexia.
Typical, typical, typical.
It was interesting because I am interested in eating disorders, but no other factors redeemed this bland book. The details on the main character described her to be the typical white, middle class, control freak that fits in the expected stereotypical personality type of somebody with anorexia.
Typical, typical, typical.
Jan 06, 2011
Rebecca
rated it:
This novel chronicles the emotional and physical decline of an anorexic teenage female. What I liked best about it was the psychological portrait of the protagonist. Albeit male, the author is (or was) a professional psychiatrist who has dealt with eating disordered patients and therefore, displays some expertise in delving into the psychological abnormalities associated with anorexia nervosa.
Mar 07, 2011
Ashley
rated it:
I loved this boo. Though I sometimes felt weird by the description of "Kessa's" bones. But over all it's a good book.. after i finsihed reading it, It totally got me into the subject of Anorexia Nervosa.. I am interested in it.. and this book helped me understand some things about this disease. I am looking forward to readin Steven's other books, "Kessa", and "The Luckiest Little Girl".
Dec 16, 2009
Anina
rated it:
My cat chewed this up before I could finish it. She has no eating disorder when it comes to pocket paperbacks. They are her favorite treat. Anyhow, sorry library!
I liked it, it was an interesting view into the mind of someone with an eating disorder. Although, the sense of desperation was better portrayed in Wintergirls. The author seems like a self righteous hack, but he still had a good story going, though it seems kind of exploitive, no?
I liked it, it was an interesting view into the mind of someone with an eating disorder. Although, the sense of desperation was better portrayed in Wintergirls. The author seems like a self righteous hack, but he still had a good story going, though it seems kind of exploitive, no?
Jun 02, 2011
Mindy
rated it:
I think recently reading Stick Figure pricked my curiosity of this complex and heart-wrenching disease... thus another anorexia book. At first I felt like the book jumped from perspective to perspective too frequently but by the end I was used to it. I loved hearing the psychiatrist's point of view - really intriguing and heavy.
Jun 03, 2009
Sophie
rated it:
Considering this was written in the 1970's I thought this book was amazing for it's time.
It really opens your eyes to the horrors of eating disorders & what they bring. The longing for control when it strips you of it.
I don't know what else to right but Steven Levenkron was well ahead of his time in awareness concerning EDs.
It really opens your eyes to the horrors of eating disorders & what they bring. The longing for control when it strips you of it.
I don't know what else to right but Steven Levenkron was well ahead of his time in awareness concerning EDs.
Aug 30, 2008
Charles
rated it:
This is about a chubby girl's struggles to join the in group and then her battle against anorexia for her life. Again, it's about choosing your friends well. Obviously this book was a bummer. What struck me hardest was the similarities between alcoholic thinking and anorexic thinking, centering on her need to have control of SOMETHING in her life. Boys can find something to control in a model railroad or an interest in computers, but that would get one branded as a nerd. Girls being require
More...
Jun 23, 2011
Ken
rated it:
Wow, I didn't know I had it in me to read an entire 250 page book in one day, but it just called to me. It is a book about anorexia, but it's really about a dysfunctional family and the moral is to remember to give all your kids attention. I have to say, I got really hungry reading it!
Jul 13, 2009
Laura
rated it:
By far the best and most realistic recount of a character who really gets inside the mind of someone with self-esteem/eating disorder issues. It's not done for the drama of it, but to expose what is actually going on in the head of someone who suffers from this. Beautifully done.
Oct 13, 2011
Kari
rated it:
The original how-to book. The book was among the first ED books offering tips about how to worsen your behaviors. In the ED world, many people remember using this book to "help" them be a perfect anorexic. I would not recomend to any adolescent or anyone trying to recover.
Sep 26, 2011
Pyxipyro
rated it:
I read this book in high school, and re-read it again recently. This book was very surprising to me on the representation of anorexia in the life of a young girl. Great book, some parts were surprising on the detail it went into. I really like how it unfolded.
Apr 04, 2010
™yourbeautifulnightmaree™
rated it:
this book oi learned a lot from. Being intrested in the stidies of eating disorders this book educated me a lot more then i was, and since the book is coming from the point of view of Kessa, it showed me how these people work, and what they are thinkoing, and why they are thinking that. This book was very sad, but it was very eye opening in the sense that it really put me in the shoes of a person with an eating disorder, and the reality of it. Eating disorders are NOT funny, and are not somethin
More...
