The synopsis: Hannah's parants are glamorous Hollywood royalty, and sometimes she feels like the ugly duckling in a family of swans. After her mother's tragic death, Hannah's grief is compounded by her desperate need to live up to her mother's image. She tries to control her weight through bulemia, and her devastated father is too distracted to notice. The secret of her eating disorder weights heavily on Hannah, but the new eighth grade Beverly Hills clique she's befriended only reinforces her desire to be bautiful. The only one who seems to notice, or care, that something is wrong is Jasper, the quirky misfit.

My thoughts: A while back, I did a review on a book of Katrina Kittle's I'd had on my shelf for far too long before reading it. The Kindness of Strangers was, and still is, one of the most raw, evocative books I've read in the last couple of years and months later, it still resonates. So when Sourcebooks offered me Kittle's first young adult (I think it's actually more middle grade, but I could be wrong), I was intrigued. I'd put Kittle in league with Picoult in terms of bold topics, and though I couldn't necessarily see Picoult's writing style for younger ages, this piqued my interest. The result was incredibly well put together, with a great message for kids without "dumbing it down" or seeming preachy in the least. Holly and I have a 12 year old sister, and I've struggled with some of the topics (as have many, many, entirely too many young girls), and I would love for this book to fall into Hana's hands. While conveying what should be an utterly simple message for young girls, it recognizes just how easy the message gets lost. And it serves as an incredible cautionary tale. It doesn't glamorize the topics, nor does it downplay the severity of the harms young girls can do to themselves at a time when outside sources factor into their self-worth entirely too much. With as much ease as her adult fiction, Kittle won me over with this one.