drey's library

drey’s thoughts: Hannah Carlisle should be on top of the world. Her parents are movie stars. She herself is an artist and an athlete. Her life is good…Then she starts at a new school, and all at once everything changes. Why? Because she can’t seem to get herself—her real self—unstuck from the person she becomes with the group she hangs out with at school… Seems like an easy solution: stop hanging out with that group! But Hannah’s bravery has deserted her, and she can’t. So she finds another way to deal with that stress.I couldn’t believe that such a lovely and talented girl would fall prey to the clutches of the mean girls at school, right from the get-go. Then again, I was never in that situation, so I’m not in any position to say what could be real or not… I wanted to read this book to see how an author addresses one of the many problems that our young girls and women face as they battle their own body image. And see how a young girl’s own self-image could become so skewed.What happened to Hannah can happen to any other eighth-grader, or any other young girl or woman you know. We are too often bombarded with negativity–we’re too fat, too tall, to short, too flat, etc. Even when we do well at school or other pursuits, even to those who love us best, it seems our looks are still our most-used measuring stick–and we never seem to measure up. Why is that?Who defines beautiful? Is it the media? The entertainment industry? Our families? Friends? Acquaintances we barely know? Whose opinion carries the most weight? Why? And most importantly (to me at least): Why do we give control of our own selves over to those who certainly (usually?) don’t give a rat’s behind what happens to us? And what can we do about it? Ok, so maybe I’m being a little harsh–after all, we expect that our parents and loved ones do give a rat’s patootie. And we’re all just a bit (hah!) too sensitive…Hannah’s being “outed” by her aunt is one step towards recognition, and possible recovery. And when she has to go to Ghana for four weeks, that’s four weeks dedicated to something other–other than thinking and stressing about her self, her weight, her insecurities… Can she keep up the progress once she’s back in the USA though? You’ll have to read Reasons to be Happy to find out.drey’s rating: Pick it up! We need more books like this to reinforce a healthier self-image for our young girls and women! And not just books and messages; we also need to follow through with action. What we say and do is definitely worth more than what we say to do!