In the novel Wintergirls the main character Lia is constantly aware of how much food she is eating and how many calories she is consuming (apple 70, toast 80, butter 100 total breakfast 250). Lia is also aware of the food that others are eating and she associates them by food. Nowadays many are counting calories and watching what they are eating. How often do you think/worry about food? What is normal thinking and what constitutes as abnormal? What could you do to help a friend who may think about food in an abnormal way?

Pink is a recurring word or idea in the story. As I read I noticed the word pink used many times. Cassie's mouse was named "Pinky", Lia's "pink mouse stomach likes to be small and empty", Cassie's insides popped like a "pink party balloon", Emma put potato chips one by one into her "pink conveyor belt", when Lia was in treatment they stuffed her full like a "pink little piggy ready for market", and Lia's empty string balloon of guts turned from "pink to ghost gray as the cells died off from neglect". The color pink makes me think of things like pure, young, new, innocent, and unharmed. In our society we associate the color pink with baby girls. What do you the author is trying to convey by using the word pink as a metaphor so often in the story?

A SECOND Deep Question

WINTERGIRLS is about a young woman that is emotionally frozen. The author, Laurie Halse Anderson, expresses that her main character “Lia” is “not dead, but not alive". She is like the fairy-tale princess Snow White after she eats the poison apple. She is waiting to be loved in order to be alive.

Lia loves to make a distinction between her NOW and “when she was a real girl”, when did Lia stop being "real"? If she isn't real, what is she? Have you ever felt as though you weren’t real? Why?

Wintergirls.....

This question is for middle school students. I think it would be interesting to see how they perceive the issues in this book. Here is my question:
Many adolescents in the United States have some sort of eating disorder like the two main characters, Lia and Cassie, in the book Wintergirls. The two girls took an oath to be the skinniest girls in school. What do you believe Lia's motives were? Do you believe all the problems Lia was going through were because of her issues with weight and food? Or something deeper? Explain your answer and support it with evidence from the book.

A question to chew-on.

Laurie Halse Anderson’s novel WINTERGIRLS brings us inside the private thoughts of her main character “Lia”. I feel that Lia has experienced such turbulence in her life(her parent's divorce and subsequent lack of connection) that she has become a person that no longer desires to “feel” anything. I believe that emotions were so painful to her that as a defense she would rather feel none at all. She had no control over her parents ending their marriage even though it so deeply affected her life. She likely feels that one of the only areas of her life that she can control is the food she intakes. Since she sees the world in terms of food (“marshmallow-airbag” or “cake-frosting clouds”) and since she has decided that empty is good emotionally and she can control food, she feels the same way about her eating. She even says, “I am shiny and pink inside, clean. Empty is good. Empty is good.” This could mean both empty of unhealthy foods or painful emotion.

Do you agree with this interpretation of the literature? In addition, assuming that Lia did see life as unhealthy and unsatisfying processed foods that are harmful to her, what food would you use to describe your life? And why?

Wintergirls: Deep Questions

In the book Wintergirls by Laurie Halse Anderson, the character Lia's eating disorder seems to develop within the chaos of her home and family. How does Lia's anorexia seem, to her, to reduce her chaos? How does it contribute to the chaos? Besides divorce, what are some other issues that cause young adults great stress? How have you seen these issues dealt with healthily and negatively?

-TRH

Wintergirl-Deep Question for Thought

This question is from the point of view of what you would do as a teacher and one that I think about on a regular basis. In the book Wintergirls, Lia comes from a blended family and one that doesn't seem to get a long very well. Her parents are usually arguing and Jennifer and Lia's mom don't seem to get a long at all. Now if you had a student in your classroom, like Lia, who is suffereing from an eating disorder and you noticed that she wasn't doing well in school, how would you go about getting the family together to talk about Lia's issues and possible problems at school?

Wintergirls Question

This is my burning question for teachers re: this book--

I'm stuck. What I want to know is--when would you introduce the discussion of body image and eating disorders to a class? I don't think anyone would argue with the "pound of prevention" maxim--but when does the prevention begin? Too early and it's confusing/not-relevant/scary. Too late and it's too late. So--when? Negative body image--once it takes root, it stays there, whether or not it festers into something "serious." So does one wait for signs? This is my "deep question." WHEN? And futhermore--HOW? As a whole-class? In a "girls club" kind of ASA? In small groups? How to make it safe and comfortable for sharing?

Okay. That was a lot of questions. What I want to know--When do we bring this topic to the table?

Wintergirls Deep Question

In the book Wintergirls, Lia is tortured by the fact that she did not answer the phone when Cassie called her, (33 times). It is obvious that Lia feels guilty about not being there for her friend, when she needed her most. Do you feel that Cassie would have lived if Lia had answered her call? Also, have you ever felt that you have let someone close to you down when they needed you most?

Wintergirls Question: trapped between holidays

I would direct this question toward my middle school students.

Lia uses the phrase “trapped between holidays” to describe subdivision yards decorated with Thanksgiving and Christmas décor. In a way, she was also describing herself, trapped in the clutches of anorexia. Have you ever felt trapped or stuck in a situation or struggle? Describe the situation. How did it make you feel? How did it affect your attitudes and perceptions of yourself and others?

I will direct this version to my fellow future teachers.

What other kinds of situations/struggles to you think young people today can get “trapped” in? What effects do these situations/struggles have on their social, emotional, and academic well-being? What connections might there be between some of these struggles and more life threatening ones like anorexia, drug abuse, severe depression, etc?

Megan Deutschman : Wintergirls

Social and family constructs greatly shape the kind of person we become and lives we lead. It is apparent that Lia, the main character in Wintergirls, suffers from the collapse of her social and familial world. There is much research into the age-old battle between “nature” and “nurture” and what effects a person’s disposition more. Lia is clearly effected by “nature”: pressure from friends to be thin, social media telling her to be perfect, etc. but she also is effected by “nurture”: parents who pressure her to be academically perfect, dealing with her parent’s divorce, etc. What construct: social/nature or family/nurture had the greatest impact on Lia’s illness? Why do you believe this? What evidence from the text can you use to support your answer?

Wintergirls Deep Question.

Considering Lia's mental and physical condition, how will you as a teacher try to intervene when observing characteristics of similar traits or problems with your students?

Deep Question for Wintergirls

As you read Wintergirls, it is apparent that Lia and her parents have a bit of a rift in their communication. Unfortunately, communication is lacking between many teens and their parents these days. Do you feel that a lack of communication between a teenager and his or her parents can contribute to mental illness in a teen? If so, how? Are there certain parental downfalls/traits that may negatively affect a child's mental health during his or her teen years?