BOOK: Månefeen - Kjersti Scheen

Title: Månefeen (Maanmeisje)
Author: Kjersti Scheen
Genre: Teen, drama
Publisher: Lemniscaat 2005 (1993)
Pages: hardcover, 157
Language: Dutch (translated from Norwegian)
Rating: 7/10
Summary: Fourteen year old Cindy is a good student,athlete and a popular girl in school. When she falls in love, she gets insecure and starts to feel uncomfortable in her body. To gain control over her life again she stops eating.

Spoilerfree review
Every year during the "Children's Bookweek" I purchase a teenbook, mostly from the excellent Lemniscaat collection. Their covers are beautiful and the stories are usually not too cliché, even if they deal with subjects that have been written about a thousand times before. This story about anorexia is no exception.
Even though I now apparently reached that age where teen-struggles make me roll my eyes more than ever before, I still recognized the inner turmoil and drama. Food has been an issue in my life as well, although I use it for comfort not punishment. I didn't really relate to Cindy's fight with food, but I completely understood the being in love confusion.
Despite the drama, it's a sweet story; to me it seemed the author has a bit too much faith in people; everybody is so very understanding, it sometimes made me nauseous. But even if it at times her family and friends seem too good to be true, it's clear Cindy's journey is not an easy one and the book doesn't provide solutions or an 'all's well that ends well'. I consider it another worthy addition to my teen-collection.