Don't Call Me Kit Kat Paperback – April 20, 2015

This is an outstanding book. My daughter actually was in middle school when anorexia and other eating disorders became a serious problem for young girls. I am not saying that it was never a problem before. However, the increase in eating disorders coincided with increased pressure on girls and women to be thin.There were numerous preteen and teen fiction books written about girls with eating disorders. Also there were the "after school specials" once so popular with kids.My daughter focused on the books and tv shows but , fortunately, didn't develop a disorder. However, she knew several girls , both in middle school and high school, who did have such problems.The heroine of this book, Katie, feels pressure from her mother to be thinner. She compares herself to her pretty and thin older sister. Katie alsofeels rejected by her father. Her parents are divorced and he lives in a different city. He has remarried and has a young daughter. Her mother has also remarried. Katie likes her stepfather, Gary, but doesn't feel close to himThe story begins with her entrance into 8th grade and her changing relationships with her friends. The final push to an eating disorder comes when she is rejected from the cheer squad and her best friend is accepted. Her friend seems to pull away after that and only hang out with the "in crowd."All through the story we feel empathy for Katie--and, yes, for her friends--and for her family. The title of the book comes from the nickname given her many years before the story starts. She no longer thinks its cute, for a variety of reasons--and asks that friends and family no longer use it. This book is a good one for middle school readers. And it is also recommended for readers of any age who are interested in reading about young people today and the challenges they may face.

This book was hard for me to read because of where Katie was at the beginning...in an unhappy place, in a bickering family, feeling alone, insignificant and lonely. She never felt good enough and was almost always afraid...mostly of interacting with others. But, I'm glad I stuck with it because Katie goes through some hard times and comes out on the other side able to love herself, to feel appreciated, and to ask for help.Whether your life is perfect and you feel perfectly in control, or if it's in a shambles and out of your control, Katie's story is important because it will help you understand another person's struggles and growth. It could help you learn something about yourself, or about how you can be there for someone else. And, in the process, it will give you opportunity laugh a little and to cry. Take the chance to spend some time with Katie's story; then, share it with another.

At 13, Katie Mills is all too aware of always being scrutinized. It's bad enough when it's the cool girls at school, but when it's her own mom, constantly making little comments about how Katie isn't as skinny as her older sister Kelsie, it's horrible.After accidentally witnessing one of the popular girls making herself throw up after lunch, Katie begins to follow her example. Not only is she losing weight quickly, but Katie loves the feeling she gets afterward, of being totally empty and in control of her life.She can't understand why people soon become alarmed when they see her, asking if she's been ill. Can't they see how enormous her gut and hips are? She still has lots of weight left to lose, not to regain.While this topic has certainly been addressed countless times in young adult fiction, Farnham manages to put a fresh feel to it. She depicts adolescent life spot on, with multi-dimensional characters that readers of all ages are sure to relate to.

This is a painfully realistic story exploring an eating disorder, which is even more heart-breaking because it’s about a 13-year old girl. And, it’s just sad to see so many eighth grade children working so hard to be adults (if “being an adult” means that you have to be forever unsatisfied with who you are, or need someone else’s approval to feel self-worth). It's a good story if you want to better understand one journey of recovery with an eating disorder. It shows how an eating disorder isn’t necessarily about being fat, not having friends, or wanting a boy to like you. Katie is smart, has good friends, a measure or popularity, and is even desired by a cute boy, *but* she has a lot of feelings and emotions that she has been stuffing down and ignoring for the bulk of her short life — until literally purging brings her a few moments of relief from everything she is trying to not deal with.This is a really difficult story to read — especially if you have an eating disorder, or care about someone with an eating disorder. I usually wouldn’t read a book like this. I should have read the blurb, but an author I like recommended this author, so I gave it a shot without research. I read it all the way through. It is well written, but the content is difficult because of it’s honest look at addiction and family.

Middle school and high school libraries. The last two books I have read by Me. Farnham containing subjects that no one seems to want to talk about, but these are subjects that people need to talk about and need to open their eyes up to these problems that are going on around them. We cannot just sweep these sore subjects under the carpets and expect them to go away. And in her last two books I have read, she brings the subjects out in the open and on the table like no other author I have ever read. This book is about bulimia, and this is Katie's story. I recommend this book to all middle-grade and young adults.

This is not the sort of book I would usually go for but something about it spoke to me when browsing so I decided to purchase it. I am so glad I did.This is about so much more than eating disorders, it is a deeply insightful look at the experiences of teenagers throughout the "First World". From the outside it all looks so easy doesn't it, we all have so much and yet, the one thing we often don't have is Control. This novel is from a teenage girl's perspective but it could just as easily be a teenage boy that is in this situation. Final year of middle school and on the cusp of that scary entity called High School and everything is changing. Friends are seen less often as they make new relationships with other people that take the same class or are in the same after school activities. Parents relationships may be under strain, have already broken down or one parent may simply have died - no matter which you feel abandoned. As everything around you changes you start feeling isolated and like you don't fit in and would do anything to change that.Don't Call Me Kit Kat is about just that, how far one lonely girl will go to making herself "fit in". How she sees herself as less than others. She doesn't push her friends away because they are not who she wants to be but because she sees herself as not worthy of their friendship. Yes, Katie comes across as self absorbed and quite unpleasant at times and it is refreshing that the author does not shy away from the negative aspects of her personality. Her propensity to blame others for her feeling "less than" is only normal and one I am sure many of us went through at this stage in life, especially once the hormones of puberty kick in. Katie is a normal teenager who takes control of her life in the only way that makes her feel calm, feel able to cope and this is to binge and purge.This is a book that all parents of teenagers should read, the frailty of the human psyche and the pressure upon teenagers to conform to what their friends want, what their school wants, what their parents want and what society as a whole displays as being worthy is laid bare. It can be an uncomfortable read as you recognise aspects of your own parenting style and how easy it is to slip into a constant cycle of stick and no carrot. It also reawakens those feelings of inadequacy at school. Growing up we are told that school is the best years of our life and this book reminds us this is not the case for everyone and is likely not the case for most of them.If you have a teenager make them read it too. Maybe it will open that teenage bravado and armour up enough to start a dialogue with you about their life experiences and how they are coping.There is no sensationalism here, it is a tale told straight down the line. There is no prettying it up and making it seem glamorous as some articles and stories I have read seem to do. It will grip you and force you to read to the end even as you feel the tears staining your cheeks. I know I've made it sound "worthy" but it genuinely isn't - the tale comes above any attempt at that - it is simply a story told with realism and compassion.

I have never read a young adult book that deals greatly with eating disorders. When I first started reading this book, I never read the blurb so I didn’t know what to expect and it completely moved me when the eating disorder progressed. The storyline progressed slowly but there was never a time when any part of the book wasn’t necessary. At times, it was hard to read because Katie’s eating disorder develops when she feels like she’s losing control of her life. A life where she has friends but she always wants to strive to be in the “it” crowd. It doesn’t help that she’s nicknamed Kit Kat from an early age which she doesn’t like.I really loved reading this book. Definitely one to recommend.

Dang. I had to stop and read this book in several sittings because I needed to get myself together. The story within is heartbreaking and beautiful.It's about learning to let go, forgive oneself, and heal. It's also about friendships—both good and bad; communication—or the lack, thereof; and the phenomenon that seems to be the desire to fit in.I totally recommend this ... ish. This book might make some very uncomfortable, especially if they don't stick it out till the end. I'm just glad this book has a happy ending. Well, for the most part.NEGATIVES: some comma splices and the fickle use of the serial comma. Yikes. There were also a few missing words from sentences.I'll make my highlights and notes public on Goodreads (only friends can see them). They include all the corrections I've made through the ebook.

This story had me in tears, the trials and tribulations for teenage girls just trying to fit in, the book held my attention all the way to the end.

This is an in-depth, sensitive exploration of a teenage girl with an eating disorder. I strongly recommend it for anyone who has a loved one suffering with an eating disorder. The books explores not only Katie's experience of the disorder but her experience of treatment and the meaning behind the disorder. As a nurse I give it two thumbs up!