The Luckiest Girl in the World

The main character is Katie Roskova. She is a 15 year old figure skater that goes to a private school on a scholarship. Her mother is self-sacrificing. While in public Katie is always seen with a huge smile that she uses to fool everyone. She has a secret. Her secret is one that is shared by as much as one percent of the population, self-injury. She sometimes “spaces out” and cuts herself as a way to lower the immense stress she is under as an Olympic hopeful figure skater. One day she is found repeatedly banging her head into a wall after a difficult skating session. They take her to a hospital and she is ordered into therapy. Katie resists the help of her therapist, Sandy Sherman. He nonetheless becomes a source of hope.

The Luckiest Girl in the World was a best selling book for young adults in 1998. This book takes a problem that is more common than people want to admit and puts it into a nice story of hope and love. Katie shows us that even the most successful seeming people have secrets and need help sometimes. This book is geared at young adults, but is a good read for anyone, especially those who self-injure or those who have loved ones who do.