What do you think?
Rate this book
Cap Central #2
Running Scared
FOR USE IN SCHOOLS AND LIBRARIES ONLY. Rainie's grades were slipping. Good grades were a lifetime ago. Back when her dad was around. Before her mom's boyfriend started hanging out at their house. Commenting on her figure. Looking her up and down. Before she decided to stop eating. Become invisible. Her friends were alarmed, especially Joss. She knew times were tough for Rainie's family. But she felt like there was more going on. Something serious. And she was going to figure it out.
148 pages, Library Binding
First published September 1, 2014
17 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
July 19, 2016
I didn't think this book would be good, but it was. I was expecting a cheesy piece of crap where the author fails to capture the voices of a group of minority teens.
Leslie McGill really brought Rainie to life, and I sympathized greatly with her plight. I have never experienced the type of situation she was in, but I did suffer through living with a father who at any moment would turn violent, and was a drunk most of the time.
I wanted so badly for Rainie's mother to wake up and see how awful her new boyfriend was, but people won't see anything until they are ready. Rainie's mother was too busing wallowing in her own sorrow over feeling like an unwanted woman, and no matter how worthless the new guy was, he made her feel desirable.
Joss was a good friend to Rainie, she didn't give up even when she was walked away from. The teacher in the book was also upstanding.
I am so glad to have come across a book with a black teen that revolves around an eating disorder. I started wanting to have an Audrey Hepburn figure when I was about 13, and by the time I was 19, Twiggy was my idol.
No matter how hard I tried, I couldn't find one single book about black girls with Anorexia or bulimia. If there were ever any blacks in the books with white characters, the black people never understood what it was like to want to be thin. Even today you will be hard pressed to find a book about black females who want to be thin, including nonfiction.
Rainie thinks that if she gets really skinny, the mother's boyfriend won't be attracted to her. As a teen I hated male attention, so this resonated with me. I thought if I had a flat chest, narrower hips, and a backside that protruded less, they would stop looking. Not all men like curvy females so of course there will always be those who look no matter what, and children are not excluded.
The ending was very good, but I still didn't particularly care for the mother. She should have listened to Rainie. She shouldn't have needed anything proven to her.
Leslie McGill really brought Rainie to life, and I sympathized greatly with her plight. I have never experienced the type of situation she was in, but I did suffer through living with a father who at any moment would turn violent, and was a drunk most of the time.
I wanted so badly for Rainie's mother to wake up and see how awful her new boyfriend was, but people won't see anything until they are ready. Rainie's mother was too busing wallowing in her own sorrow over feeling like an unwanted woman, and no matter how worthless the new guy was, he made her feel desirable.
Joss was a good friend to Rainie, she didn't give up even when she was walked away from. The teacher in the book was also upstanding.
I am so glad to have come across a book with a black teen that revolves around an eating disorder. I started wanting to have an Audrey Hepburn figure when I was about 13, and by the time I was 19, Twiggy was my idol.
No matter how hard I tried, I couldn't find one single book about black girls with Anorexia or bulimia. If there were ever any blacks in the books with white characters, the black people never understood what it was like to want to be thin. Even today you will be hard pressed to find a book about black females who want to be thin, including nonfiction.
Rainie thinks that if she gets really skinny, the mother's boyfriend won't be attracted to her. As a teen I hated male attention, so this resonated with me. I thought if I had a flat chest, narrower hips, and a backside that protruded less, they would stop looking. Not all men like curvy females so of course there will always be those who look no matter what, and children are not excluded.
The ending was very good, but I still didn't particularly care for the mother. She should have listened to Rainie. She shouldn't have needed anything proven to her.
November 20, 2015
I really enjoyed this book and I was pretty satisfied with the ending! The author somehow made it that I could really connect and feel what the other characters were feeling, it was amazing. I really liked it.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews