“‘I won’t be happy till I’m skinny,’ I said to myself, grabbing my skin and letting it fall back to its original place.”

Many young women can relate to this quote, as in the young teen years for girls are hard to see yourself the way you would like too.
This life-changing story is set in New York, in Leslie Hiller’s loving life. Leslie is a fun loving, beautiful and bright 14-year-old girl. She is a perfectionist and when she wants to succeed at something she won’t stop till she has got it. She loves her mother so dearly and has a very close relationship with her. Leslie tries to make her mother proud in everything she does and hates to feel she has disappointed her.
Leslie is just like any normal teenager in New York City; she is strong willed and won’t stop till she gets what she wants, but Leslie starts going on an extreme diet because she feels she is not as stick thin as the other girls at her school. But was it the right thing? Her friends and even her own family are oblivious to what’s going on with Leslie but will they only take notice when it’s too late?
This book is a breath-taking look into the reality of some teenage girls’ lives. I found this book extremely interesting to see what some teenage girls in our society have to go through. I strongly recommend this book to the age group of 13-17 year old teenage girls. I believe this book will help teenage girls prepare them before it’s too late for these young girls in today’s society.

Paris C., Year 9

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Meet fourteen year old Leslie Hiller. Leslie is a smart, well adjusted teenage girl living a privileged life in New York City. She lives a normal life, attends school and like most girls her age, wishes to be perfect and will go to extreme lengths to achieve it. Leslie has exemplary grades, ideal friends and an unrivalled life, a loving mother and father, younger brother Sam, and a best friend named Cavett.

Everything is perfect in her life except for one thing: Leslie has the overwhelming desire to be thinner. After accidentally losing weight due to having the flu, she realises losing weight is easier than she had originally thought out to be. She decides to start an intense diet to achieve her goals of being ten pounds thinner. Being the perfectionist girl that she is, she loses the weight but still finds herself unhappy with how she looks. Because of this, she decides to take her dieting to life-threatening extremes and slowly starts to lose control over everything. Her family and friends start to notice her strange eating habits and low self-esteem. They would soon become very concerned for Leslie’s wellbeing.

Further on in the novel, Leslie is professionally diagnosed with Anorexia Nervosa, a life threatening mental illness.

I appreciated this book because teens can relate to the theme of wanting to lose weight, being as perfect as they can be and being generally unhappy with their body image. This book can also be used as an exemplary case to observe the severe consequences of an eating disorder on one’s body, mind and others around them.

If you enjoy books that’ll yank heartstrings, place you on a walloping emotional roller coaster and leave you teary-eyed, then I would personally recommend this book to a teen audience, because they would relate more to this book than any other age group in particular. I rate this book an 8 out of 10 stars.

Heather, Year 9

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Second Star to the Right by Deborah Hautzig is a truthful, powerful book that shows us the life of an anorexic teenage girl, Leslie Hiller. The book is based on the author’s own experience with anorexia. She presents the theme of anorexia through Leslie’s life truthfully.

Leslie was an everyday teenage girl who has a somewhat perfect life, with a loving family and good friends. The only problem was that she needed to lose a little bit of weight. She decided to go on a diet, and lost some weight. Everyone complimented her and congratulated her on her accomplishment, and this made her happy. As she continued on with her diet, her mind slowly started convincing itself that she needed to be thin to be happy, and the thinner she was, the happier she’d be. She lessens her eating to almost nothing. Her mind is convinced that she shouldn’t eat. Days and months pass, and Leslie is only getting thinner; so thin that people don’t even recognize her. By this time, she was extremely weak, physically and mentally. She starts questioning everything that happens and turns it into a negative. By this stage, she was withering away to nothing. Only a thin line separates her from life and death, and only her will and mental strength can bring her back to life.

A strong positive point of the book is that it’s extremely easy to relate to. The concept of losing weight is common among us and many of us have once attempted to, or have gone on a diet. This is something that most of us can relate to. The fact that we can relate to the story makes us want to read the story more. The tragedy of the story also keeps us hooked. At many points, the words were so strong that Leslie was able to connect with me and I was drawn into the story. Things like this makes the story stick with you for a long time.

However, the book isn’t perfect and has a few flaws. At some points, there seemed to be too many words to explain simple things, and the vocabulary used could’ve been better. Moments like these interrupt the flow of the story and make it not as enjoyable. The story at the start also progressed very slowly. The story could’ve been more gratifying if it didn’t beat around the bush so much.

Aside from these flaws, I found the book very enjoyable and a great quick read. I believe most mature people can enjoy the story and truly understand much more about anorexia, but I would definitely recommend it to teenage girls that are aged 10-16, as they would be able to completely relate to the emotions of the story. I would rate it 8/10, because while the story was powerful and heart touching, it certainly could’ve been improved easily with better wording and vocabulary.

Terina, Year 9