Wintergirls

Halse-Anderson, Laurie. (2009). Wintergirls. New York: Penguin Group.

Wintergirls is a gruesome novel about the trials and triumphs teens with eating disorders encounter. Lia and Cassie are best friends who put one another to the test of who is going to be thinner. Cassie, however, takes it to the extreme and suffers a horrible death, alone in a hotel room. Lia, having avoided Cassie’s phones calls is literally haunted by not being there and helping Cassie out. Lia is in denial and avoids the situation. Lia doesn’t get better or accept the fact that her friend is dead until she hits rock bottom and finally confronts Cassie’s ghost and her own eating disorder.

Wintergirls Website: http://wintergirls.net Teacher’s Guide: http://wintergirls.net/WinterGirlsDG.pdf

Book Trailers and Author Talk: http://us.penguingroup.com/nf/Book/BookDisplay/0,,9780670011100,00.html?Wintergirls_Laurie_Halse_Anderson Song’s Laurie Halse-Anderson listened to while writing the novel.

Have students select songs they think would relate to the novel and characters. http://wintergirls.net/playlist.html