Johanna is in hospital, writing letters to her best friend, Issy: letters because for Johanna, most things that we take for granted have turned into privileges. She can only have visitors, leave her room, or even use the phone, if she starts to eat. Johanna suffers from anorexia, and her condition has reached a point where doctors, nurses, and counsellors have had to find new ways to encourage, bribe, cajole - or, as she thinks, punish her - into returning to a normal weight. As Johanna exchanges letters with Issy, and her own family, the novel is also peppered with extracts from Johanna's diary, quotations from the hospital notice boards, poems, and even bathroom graffiti. Johanna offers us wry, insightful portraits of her fellow patients in the ward. Counterbalancing her experience, Issy offers us a picture of a full family, school and social life, a life that Johanna has left behind . for a while at least. Slowly, we - and Johanna - start to unravel the history that brought her to these desperate circumstances.It's the story of a young girl struggling to understand her mother's actions, and taking on too much responsibility because of an adult's inability to cope; it's also the story of how Johanna, through witnessing the worst possible outcome of anorexia, begins to pull herself back to recovery. Sandy McKay tackles a very sober topic with a lightness of touch that neither undermines the gravity of the subject, nor skirts the most difficult truths about the condition. This is a novel about a young girl's journey back to health and on towards independence, and the power of friendship. And it is her best yet. We admire this novel's sanity, its directness and its heartfelt, delicate touch. A landmark novel.

 

This book was recognised in the Fiction - YA category by the Storylines Notable New Zealand Books. It was recognised in the Esther Glen Medal for Junior Fiction category by the Lianza Children's Book Award.

This book is aimed at children in secondary school.

There are 192 pages in this book. This book was published 2007 by Random House New Zealand Ltd .

Sandy McKay is a New Zealand born author who began writing stories when her children were little to encourage them to read. Her first novel Recycled (Longacre Press) won the New Zealand Post Children's Book Award for Junior Fiction in 2002. She has since had three other titles appear on the Notable list for the same award: My Dad, the All Black, 2002; Who Wants to be a Millionaire?, 2005; Losing It, 2008. Mr Tripp Smells a Rat is Sandy's first title with Walker Books. Sandy lives in Dunedin with her husband and her three children. Ruth Paul is an award-winning author and illustrator from New Zealand. She draws on everyday life for inspiration and ideas, and is particularly interested in how people get on together. Ruth calls herself an "old-fashioned" illustrator, working in hands-on media such as acrylic, pastels and pencils, using Photoshop to do last-minute work on scans where required. Her title The King's Bubbles won the Children's Choice Award, New Zealand Post Children's Book Awards, 2008; and the Children's Book Design Award, Book Publishers Association of New Zealand Design Awards, 2008. Ruth lives in the country in a straw-bale house powered by its own remote electricity system, with her husband and two young sons.