- ISBN13: 9781600063565
- Condition: NEW
- Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
Product Description
Teen Melissa Rollins is determined to have the perfect body, even if it makes her throw up. Whether you’re a young woman, a mom, or a youth pastor, you’ll appreciate the truth and compassion in Melissa’s struggle with anorexia. Will she hear God’s voice before it’s too late?… More >>
I read Skinny from start to finish while on the plane to New York. It’s an easy read and geared toward young teens, which the “voice” definitely fits. It’s a bit young for me, but I can see young teens loving it. The stress young teens face is very well reflected in the theme and emotion of the story. I had a cousin and several friends with eating disorders and the author portrays a realistic scenario with this story. However, the character in the book actually recovered fairly quickly and usually that is not the case. But God can do amazing things when people are willing. I was surprised that main characters had such a warped perspective regarding food, dieting, and the Bible, but then again it made sense that she would see things through that twisted lens. Sometimes young people learn bad behavior from reading these types of books, but I don’t see this book as promoting unhealthy eating, but doing just the opposite. I applaud the author for communicating that well.
Rating: 4 / 5
Skinny, the one word title caught my attention and told me this book was one I wanted to read. In today’s world thinness is valued. For some, the struggle to achieve recognition for being thin can destroy a life. A strong, believable heroine makes Skinny a book that young teens will read and share with a friend. Melissa’s struggles with real life situations are not unlike struggles encountered by Dicey Tillerman in Dicey’s Song (The Tillerman Series #2). Feelings, emotions, questions that young women experience in whatever setting God has placed them are all handled by Laura Smith in a manner readers will relate to. Ms. Smith’s superior crafting of story and characters pulls you into Melissa’s world instantly. As Ms. Smith introduced me to Melissa, Gracie, Beau, and Lindsey I wanted to know more about them and so turned each page quickly to discover more about these real-life characters. I have already recommended this book to many friends!
Rating: 5 / 5
I read this book in only a few nights. I thoroughly enjoyed Laura Smith’s tale of an at risk teenage girl, and her fight to overcome her eating disorder. The author’s voice is very authentic; not at all contrived or unrealistic. I would highly reccommend this book to any teenage girl, or parent of a teenage girl. This book has some very true insights into what girls are facing today. It also illustrates the influence of family, and God, and the role of each in empowering young girls to see themselves – no matter what shape or size – as beautiful.
Rating: 5 / 5
I’m glad that the issues of body image and OCD in teenagers are being discussed, but like so many young adult books, this one barely skims the surface of the problem and oversimplifies pretty much everything involved.
As other commentators have mentioned, the recovery arc is far too swift, and the support group that the main character has is way too idealized. A teenaged best friend that doesn’t even ask for details when her friend is out of school for a week with a mysterious illness? The only character that was very well characterized was the dance coach. Everyone else was fairly two-dimensional.
However, what I found the most problematic was the cheesy, unthought-out inclusion of God in the story. As a Christian, I am sympathetic to wanting to include belief and religious practice into characters. But the religious angle was almost always only tacked on to the rest of the story. The character never grappled with real, personal theological issues until the very end of the story, and that was too little, too late. And the problematic works-based theology that reinforced a lot of the negative behaviors just miraculously resolved itself at the end of the story, with no influence from parents, peers or church. Even then, the way that Melissa justified her actions and interpreted the Bible based on her superficial, randomly chosen reading is never addressed, even though I think that could have been a good jumping-off point for a discussion about true belief, dependence and acceptance.
This is just another example of the terrible, terrible writing that Christians accept, support with their money, and promote to non-Christians. I would never recommend this book to a teenager, despite its overall decent attempt at discussing eating disorders, because of its poorly examined premises and theology being marketed to less mature believers. Also, the writing is not very good, although not terrible when compared to the generally poor writing of much young adult fiction (especially Christian fiction).
Rating: 1 / 5
I really enjoyed reading Skinny by: Laura L. Smith. I wasn’t sure that I would because of the topic but I ended up enjoying myself and it turned out to be a fast read. To many teens these days think they are overweight because of women they see in magazines. I liked how Melissa’s character was portrayed and how the plot was laid out. The characters were very well developed. It kept me entertained from page one. I liked how the ending didn’t just stop abruptly like a lot of books tend to do, and I would definitely recommend this book to a friend. I was delighted to see that she went to her best friend for help and that her family didn’t judge her for what she had done to herself. High school and peer pressure can be extremely tough so I understand how Melissa might have thought of herself as overweight. I have a friend who used to have an eating disorder and her symptoms were a lot like what the book described so I’m really happy that Melissa saw the error of her ways and that what she was doing was harming her body, not helping it.
Rating: 5 / 5