The Best Little Girl in the World (novel)

Last updated
The Best Little Girl in the World
The Best Little Girl in the World Book Cover.png
hardcover edition
Author Steven Levenkron
LanguageEnglish
French
Genre young adult
coming-of-age
Publisher Warner Books
Publication date
1979
Publication placeUnited States
ISBN 9780446358651 (print edition)
OCLC 29362812

The Best Little Girl in the World is a 1979 American young adult coming of age novel by Steven Levenkron, telling the story of Kessa, a teen who suffers from an eating disorder. [1] The book was originally published by Warner Books in 1979. It was adapted into a 1981 ABC TV film by the same name, and it won the American Library Association Best Book for Young Adults Award. [2]

Contents

Plot

Francesca Dietrich is a middle-class American teenager, aspiring ballerina, and a girl who suffers from anorexia nervosa. She obsesses over a fantasy variant of herself, insisting on being called by the name "Kessa" and worrying over the demands of her controlling, strict ballet teacher. Fixated with weight loss and treated like a young child by her family, Kessa retreats further and further into her mental illness, leading her parents to finally recognize it months later, after which they send her to a male therapist. Kessa develops romantic feelings for the therapist, which would cross ethical boundaries if acted upon, and she also deals with the death of a friend in the hospital. As she gradually recovers, various ideas for what caused the eating disorder are explored at length: Kessa loathes her emerging womanhood and puberty as it affects her contours, including her breasts, waist and buttocks. She feels a strong sense of rivalry with her siblings and her neurotic mother and father. She also surrounds herself with controlling people, such as her parents and teacher, with her eating disorder being the one outlet where she gets to make the rules. Kessa begins eating small portions of food, hoping to be able to overcome her illness.

Legacy

The Best Little Girl in the World was in part based on Levenkron's experiences with deceased musician Karen Carpenter, who later died in 1983 after a long struggle with an eating disorder. [3] It received mixed reviews from critics, with Kirkus Reviews praising the book's portrayal of Kessa's therapist, but criticizing the protagonist's "less-than-convincing interior monologues" and the plot ending that "promises a bit too zippy a cure, and certainly doesn't furnish the eye-opening epiphany required for gripping psycho-drama." [4]

In recent decades, the book has received stronger criticism from female reviewers who approached the book with applied feminism and critical race theory. One such example was a criticism from Erica Kanesaka, writing for Ms. Magazine , who stated, "In high school, I used to go to the public library after school and run my fingers along the spines of the small section of books they carried on adolescent trauma and mental health, books with titles like Reviving Ophelia and The Best Little Girl in the World. The girls on the covers were wispy blondes with watery blue eyes. The pages inside described them as pale and easily bruised, with adults in their lives who loved them and would do anything to save them. I learned from these books that female pain could best be understood through the language of whiteness." [5] Anna Rollins of Electric Lit said of the book, "I devoured Steven Levenkron’s depiction of the stereotypical anorexic (white, cis, female, upper-class, and thin) cured by the (loosely autobiographical) white, male savior therapist in The Best Little Girl in the World... But it was Marya Hornbacher’s Wasted that resonated with me most fully. The book’s soft white cover centered a black-and-white figure of a sad-looking girl in nineties denim." Rollins argued that books about mental health where the female protagonist presents an "unflinching takedown of the patriarchal institutions" were more interesting, and that such books resonated with her into the debate over women's rights and abortion. [6]

The book was adapted in 1981 into an ABC Afterschool Special titled The Best Little Girl in the World .

Related Research Articles

<i>Fear of Flying</i> (novel) 1973 novel by Erica Jong

Fear of Flying is a 1973 novel by Erica Jong. It became controversial for its portrayal of female sexuality, and figured in the development of second-wave feminism.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Shannon Hale</span> American author (born 1974)

Shannon Hale is an American author primarily of young adult fantasy, including the Newbery Honor book Princess Academy and The Goose Girl. Her first novel for adults, Austenland, was adapted into a film in 2013. She is a graduate of the University of Utah and the University of Montana. She has also co-written with her husband, Dean.

<i>The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants</i> (novel) 2001 novel by Ann Brashares

The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants is a young adult novel by Ann Brashares published in 2001. It follows the adventures of four best friends — Lena Kaligaris, Tibby Rollins, Bridget Vreeland, and Carmen Lowell, who will be spending their first summer apart when a magical pair of jeans comes into their lives, turning their summer upside down. The book was adapted into a film of the same name in 2005. Four sequels to the book have been published, The Second Summer of the Sisterhood; Girls in Pants: The Third Summer of the Sisterhood; Forever in Blue: The Fourth Summer of the Sisterhood; and Sisterhood Everlasting.

Steven Levenkron is an American psychotherapist and writer known for his research into anorexia nervosa and self-injury. He lives in New York, where his practice is based.

<i>Cut</i> (novel) 2000 novel by Patricia McCormick

Cut is a 2000 novel by Patricia McCormick, targeted at young adults. In 2002 it was named one of the ALA's "Best Books for Young Adults" for that year.

<i>Pretty Little Liars</i> (book series) Young adult novel series

Pretty Little Liars is a series of young adult novels by Sara Shepard. Beginning with 2006's initial novel of the same name, the series follows the lives of four girls—Spencer Hastings, Hanna Marin, Aria Montgomery and Emily Fields.

<i>The Best Little Girl in the World</i> 1981 American TV series or program

The Best Little Girl in the World is a 1981 television film directed by Sam O'Steen and executive produced by Aaron Spelling. The film is based upon the 1979 novel of the same name written by Steven Levenkron.

<i>Wintergirls</i> Book by Laurie Halse Anderson

Wintergirls (2009) is a realistic fiction novel by the American author Laurie Halse Anderson. The novel was published in 2009 by Viking. The story focuses on a girl, Lia Overbrook, who suffers from anorexia and self harm. Lia struggles to cope with her mental illness while balancing everything else going on in her life. Some months after a fall out with her best friend Cassie, Lia receives the news that she has died from bulimia. This complicates Lia's life even more and forces her to confront her own illness.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Megan Abbott</span> American writer (born 1971)

Megan Abbott is an American author of crime fiction and of non-fiction analyses of hardboiled crime fiction. Her novels and short stories have drawn from and re-worked classic subgenres of crime writing from a female perspective. She is also an American writer and producer of television.

Child psychoanalysis is a sub-field of psychoanalysis which was founded by Anna Freud.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ruby Tandoh</span> British baker

Ruby Alice Tandoh is a British baker, columnist, author, and former model. She was runner-up on series four of BBC's The Great British Bake Off in 2013 and has written four cookbooks. Her 2021 Cook as You Are was named to several best-of lists. Her online debates with many in the UK food world have also drawn attention.

Justine Hardy is a British journalist, author, and integrated trauma therapist who has spent most of her adult life in India. She has been a journalist in South Asia, including Kashmir, where she established Healing Kashmir to help people overcome the trauma of the Insurgency in Jammu and Kashmir that began in 1989.

Kelly Barnhill is an American author of children's literature, fantasy, and science fiction. Her novel The Girl Who Drank the Moon was awarded the 2017 Newbery Medal. Kirkus Reviews named When Women Were Dragons one of the best science fiction and fantasy books of 2022.

Brandy Colbert is an American author of young adult fiction and nonfiction.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Darcie Little Badger</span> American writer of speculative fiction (b. 1987)

Darcie Little Badger is an American novelist, short story writer, and Earth scientist.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sam Maggs</span> Canadian-American writer

Sam Maggs is a Canadian-American author of books, comics and video games, and is known especially for her work on The Fangirl's Guide to the Galaxy, Marvel Action: Captain Marvel, and Rick and Morty: Ever After.

<i>Worthy of Love</i> 2019 young adult novel by Andre Fenton

Worthy of Love is a 2019 Canadian young adult coming-of-age novel by Andre Fenton, which follows the story of mixed-race Nova Scotian teenager Adrian Carter, a boy who has an eating disorder. The book received generally positive reviews from critics, and was commended for featuring taboo subject matter of eating disorders in men. Worthy of Love won Bronze in The Coast Best Of, a Nova Scotian annual contest.

<i>Letting Ana Go</i> 2013 young adult novel

Letting Ana Go is a 2013 book about a girl suffering from anorexia nervosa, published anonymously with no discernible author. The main character, "Ana", is a sophomore student and athletic track star who keeps a strict food diary and finds herself growing increasingly distant from her own family, while her own mother struggles with newfound morbid obesity and separation from her husband. The book calls into question the mental healthcare system in The United States and the financial cost of such care as a barrier to sufferers of issues like eating disorders. Letting Ana Go was published under various imprints of Simon & Schuster in 2013.

<i>Elatsoe</i> Young adult novel published in 2020

Elatsoe is a 2020 young adult novel by Darcie Little Badger marketed to young readers aged 12–18. It is Little Badger's debut novel. It was included on Time's list of the 100 Best Fantasy Books of All Time. Some publications have classed the novel as part of the Indigenous Futurism movement.

<i>A Snake Falls to Earth</i> 2021 novel by Darcie Little Badger

A Snake Falls to Earth is a 2021 speculative novel by Darcie Little Badger marketed to readers aged 12–18. It falls into the distinct genre of Indigenous Futurism, which includes narratives regarding "the process of 'returning to ourselves', which involves discovering how personally one is affected by colonization, discarding the emotional and psychological baggage carried from its impact, and recovering ancestral traditions in order to adapt in [a] post-Native Apocalypse world."

References

  1. The best little girl in the world. WorldCat. OCLC   29362812 . Retrieved 11 September 2022 via www.worldcat.org.
  2. McEntyre, Marilyn. "The Best Little Girl in the World: Levenkron, Steven". medhum.med.nyu.edu. NYU Langone Health. Retrieved 11 September 2022.
  3. Schmidt, Randy (23 October 2010). "Karen Carpenter's tragic story". The Guardian . Retrieved 11 September 2022.
  4. "THE BEST LITTLE GIRL IN THE WORLD by Steven Levenkron ‧ RELEASE DATE: Aug. 1, 1978". www.kirkusreviews.com. Kirkus Reviews. Retrieved 11 September 2022.
  5. Kanesaka, Erica. "Refusing Perfection: Toward an Eating Disorder Politics for Asian American Women". msmagazine.com. Ms. Magazine. Retrieved 11 September 2022.
  6. Rollins, Anna (20 May 2022). "I Developed An Eating Disorder. Then I Became Pro-Choice". electricliterature.com. Electric Literature. Retrieved 11 September 2022.