The Best Little Girl in the World

She was a five-foot-four, ninety-eight-pound monster!

That's how Kessa saw herself, at any rate. She began tearing out the photographs of the thinnest models from her fashion magazine. Soon I'll be thinner than all of you, she swore to herself. And then, I'll be the winner. The thinner is the winner. She felt a contraction in her stomach, almost as if it were echoing her words, but she would not be intimidated by hunger pans, despite the fact that it was two o'clock and she had eaten nothing so far today but half a grapefruit. The thinner is the winner, she repeated, and smiled menacingly at the models, who grinned back at her in vacant pride at their own appearance.

Praise for The Best Little Girl in the World

"This will no doubt be a book of major importance this year as more and more information about this strange disorder becomes known...the book is so readable that most of those beginning page one will not put it down until the ver last page."

Books Today, Myrna Jean Warren

"It is an important book because little is known about this complicated psychological phenomenon that strikes thousands, and Levenkron succeeds in unfolding the mystery."

Syracuse Post Standard

"Too little has been written about anorexia nervosa, and in this fascinating case history, Steven Levenkron brings the terror of the problem alive. It is a necessary and important piece of work, a gripping and sensitive story."

Julius Fast, author of Body Language

"A clear and dramatic presentation of a mysterious, highly complicated psychological syndrome."

Robert Redford

"Anorexia nervosa is on the increase. Parents and professionals who deal with the problem will find the dynamics of the illness clearly explained and an optimistic therapeutic approach offered."

Virginia E. Pomeranz, M.D., coauthor of The Mother's and Father's Medical Encyclopedi