My name is from the book "The Best Little Girl In The World" written by Steven Levenkron which my mom read when she was pregnant. My mom just thinks it is a nice name and of course my dad agreed. She did not really consider the health condition of the 15-year old character in the story.

SYNOPSIS

The book The Best Little Girl in the World is a timeless story of a girl going through life, looking for attention, and finding it unlikely, and dangerous ways. Francesca was a young girl going through life's changes, unable to handle the stress of growing up, she decided to take action. Afraid of rejection, she tries to become a poster girl for her dance instructor. Unfortunately, things go terribly awry. Now she is trapped in a swirl of events that could ultimately lead to her death. In the end Francesca is a troubled girl looking for attention.

Francesca Dietrich is a 15 year old girl living in New York during the nine-teen seventies. To her parents she is the perfect child; to herself she is an abomination. In an attempt to gain the affections of her dance instructor she goes on a diet hoping to make herself a better dancer. In the process she picks up strange eating habits, she even goes so far as to change her name. Now she insists on being referred to as "Kessa" insisting that it will make her a stronger person (pg. 11). For example, as Kessa tries to lose weight she does not feel the hunger pains that plagued Francesca, and soon she has lost the weight she was trying to lose. In fact, she has lost too much weight, her pediatrician, Dr. Gordon, diagnoses her with Anorexia Nervosa. Now her family must decide how to help her, and they must do it quickly. With the help of Francesca's pediatrician they begin to find hope.

Before things get better for Francesca, they get worse. Francesca now has even more to deal with, and she doesn't know how to handle it. She has been admitted into the hospital, and is progressively getting worse. That is, until Dr. Sherman, her psychiatrist is called in to take action. He is Kessa's only hope for survival, and he knows this. In his own way he is able to gain the trust of the girl, and slowly she starts to understand her problem. Dr. Sherman is soon able to convince her that her choice of how to deal with her problems was not a good one, and starts her on the road to recovery. Though Francesca's illness will never truly go away, there is now, at least a little hope for her survival.

Francesca was just a lonely girl looking for acceptance, and attention from her parents and teachers. Though she may have been looking for it in all the wrong ways, she still was able to find it. Though her journey to this point may have been a long arduous, she was still able to come out of it on top.