Reasons To Be Happy

Reasons to Be Happy  By: Katrina Kittle

Ever thought about how you might feel if you are going to a new school, your movie star mom has cancer and is dying, and your movie star dad just can’t seem to handle it? Well Hannah is finding out. When she enters the new school and is suddenly part of a group of popular girls and boys who make her feel not quite right about herself, she wants to be thinner but turns to bulimia to solve her problem.  Next she starts to steal food. Her life is spinning out of control and gets even worse when her mom dies.  Hannah just wants to know what has happened to the girl who used to make lists about reasons to be happy.  She wants someone to catch her and make her stop but cannot control herself. When she goes to visit her aunt and her aunt catches her and tries to help her she thinks nothing could be worse, until her dad is arrested and she has to go with her aunt to Africa.  Here is where she finds herself and realizes that there is more to life than what she has been doing. Will she be able to control the fight within herself, and can she win her battle and come home?

At first when I started reading this book I thought why would anyone write such a sad story about a girl.  It is really raw and edgy to me because it was awful to read and feel the emotions that Hannah was going through. I didn’t think I would continue reading but felt I had to see how the book ended.  When finally someone cared enough about Hannah to talk about the bulimia I felt relieved for her, and then when she started to make changes on the trip to Africa I started to enjoy the book. I think that this is a powerful story of sadness and shows you that it is never too late to give up. And I think it also shows that people need others in their lives to help them and support them, it makes you take a minute to look at the people in your life and see if maybe you are missing something.  I think that I would not suggest this book for anyone that is mature, maybe freshman in high school if they can handle it.  It just is such an emotional book. I think that it has an awesome message and I really did end up liking the way Hannah was able to turn herself back around and get back to what really mattered in life.

I borrowed this book from the public library.

ISBN: 978-1-4002-6020-9