How to Be a Reasonably Thin Teenage Girl: Without Starving, Losing Your Friends, or Running Away from Home

It is always reassuring for young readers to know that the writer shares or has shared a similar problem. Lukes, an ""ex-fatty,'' has been through all the diets and tells her readers that few actually work. Her advice is often amusing (``You can't eat your cake and have it too, because it tends to settle around the hips''), and she shows readers how to cope with nondieting family and friends. The author's advice is sensible and sound in most instances, but she does not tell readers about the need for medical approval before changing one's eating habits. And she glosses over the benefits of exercise (`` . . . old standbys such as sit-ups and leg raises . . . since I don't do them, I don't have anything to tell you about them''). Lukes's book would have been more beneficial to readers if meal plans and a more extensive calorie chart had been provided. (12-up)