Skinny - Softcover

Kaslik, Ibi

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0002005077 ISBN 13: 9780002005074

Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers, 2004

Synopsis

"Do you ever get hungry?" Giselle asks her younger sister, Holly. "Too hungry to eat?" Giselle is 22, a top medical student and a functioning anorexic. Except now, driven by the pressures of school, and haunted by her late father's rejection of her, Giselle is no longer functioning. Holly, a 14-year-old track star, can see that Giselle is going to have to confront the memory of their father if she wants to get better. It seems easier for Holly she sweats through life's problems but now even she feels burdened by the past.

Skinny is the lyrically written, heartbreakingly honest story of two sisters struggling to come to terms with their adult selves. A gritty and often wryly funny look at growing up, the messy family bonds of love and pain, and the hunger for acceptance that drives us all. Skinny strikes home hard, a novel that enters a young woman’s world and comes out the other side with resonance and grace.

About this title

About the Author:

IBI KASLIK is a freelance writer, teacher and journalist,with a master’s degree in English Literature from Concordia University. Hershort stories have appeared in several literary magazines, including Geist andMatrix. She lives in Toronto.

From School Library Journal:

Grade 9 Up–In her first year of med school, 22-year-old Giselle Vasco seems to have it all together. But a lifetime of bitter relations with her deceased father is slowly catching up, and she falls into a downward spiral that her mother and her younger sister, Holly, are powerless to stop. Skinny, though, is much more than a study of one young woman's battle with anorexia. What starts as Giselle's story quickly develops into a rich and powerful tapestry of a whole family. When Thomas and Vesla Vasco emigrated from Hungary in the 1970s to escape communism's rigid caste system, Vesla was already pregnant, and Thomas had always questioned whether the baby was his. His doubts color his whole relationship with his older daughter, and when Holly is born eight years later, the divide becomes more apparent. Holly, a natural athlete, struggles to understand and avert her sister's self-loathing. The chapters alternate between the sisters' voices, and the ability to see the events unfolding through their eyes adds a depth and a poignancy that would not have been possible with a single narrator. Kaslik's first novel hits the mark with characters with whom teens will empathize, and tackles a relevant and painful subject with grace.–Kim Dare, Fairfax County Public Schools, VA
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About this edition

• Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
• Publication date: 2004
• ISBN 10: 0002005077
• ISBN 13: 9780002005074
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 243