Breathless

by Pam Withers

Beverly is in Hawaii, helping her uncle at his dive shop, learning how to dive and trying to lose weight and get a boyfriend. When Garth, an accomplished diver, shows an interest in her, Beverly is ecstatic, until it turns out Garth is only interested in one thing. Struggling with failing strength from her self-imposed starvation diet, Beverly finds herself in deep trouble when she has to fight Garth off underwater.

Also available in Spanish.

Genres: Young Adult, Fiction, Canada

128 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2005

About the author

Award-winning YA author Pam Withers -- a former outdoor guide, journalist and editor -- has written 21 sports and outdoor adventure books for teens. She has been nominated for three Red Maple Awards and numerous others. Besides her novels, she has written an athlete's biography and Jump-Starting Boys, a book for parents on getting boys to read. Pam lives in Vancouver, Canada, and tours North America extensively.

Reviews

[Brad · Rating 5 out of 5]

I think this was a really good book about a teenage girl having the problems girls have now. In the end she gets threw them and learns from her mistakes and she is better of now from learning from them.

[Katherine D. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Este libro se trata de una niña que se llama Beverly y tiene quince años. Beverly es un buzo que tiene problemas con su apariencia porque nunca he tenido un novio y piensa que es gorda. Por los vacaciones del invierno fue a Kuaui y se quedó con su Tio por una semana. Ella paro de comer en esa semana para perder de peso. Allí conoció un hombre que se llamaba Garth que era mayor que ella pero se juntaron. En el fin ella salvó a Garth y descrubieron que ella no estaba comiendo. Como casi no podía salvar a Garth porque esta muy debil, ella se dio cuenta de que tenía que comer y empezo a comer de nuevo. Me gustó este libro porque era diferente como nunca había visto un libro de adolescente que trataba de un buzo y porque hablana de una problema comun entre los jovens que mucha gente ignoran o que no se dan cuenta de que sí pasa. Es un libro medio facil para leer asi que es bien relajante y facil para imaginar la historia. Lo que no me gusto era que era muy ingenuo y previsible. Tampoco me gustó que introducaron personajes que parecían importante pero no más salieron una vez. Y no me gustó que tenían una niña joven con un hombre mayor porque eso no da una mensaje buena a las jovenes. Pero todavía pienso en leer más libros de la misma autor.

[Eve L-A Witherington · Rating 3 out of 5]

Beverly goes to Hawaii to stay with her Uncle Tom and do some diving which she loves.



However wanting to be noticeable and desirable to guys, she doesn't eat anything wanting to lose ten pounds in ten days and as the crash diet takes hold of her accidents occur...



This book was very realistic about the effects on your body from not eating anything for a long stretch of time. The struggles she goes through with her health is very real and the repercussions made this book a gripping quick read. The relationship with Garth, a diving instructor to me was unclear whether e was trying to push her or even harm her but by the ending seems doubted by Beverly herself despite her struggles. Overall it was still worth a read.

[Liralen · Rating 2 out of 5]

Conceptually, I remain intrigued by the Orca Soundings books, which are hi/lo (YA themes for reluctant or unconfident readers)—it's always interesting to see what can be done with straightforward language and with tight page limits. This one didn't really do it for me, though; it's hard to pack multiple significant themes into a hundred pages and have the book feel fully fleshed out. Here we have Beverly's crash diet, her love of diving but lack of confidence, a player of a pushy older boy, and a side character with a major tragedy in her past. That's a lot, and while all of them were explored to some extent (probably to the extent that a hundred pages allowed), on the whole I think my preference would have been to see something cut to allow the others room to breathe.

[Tina · Rating 2 out of 5]

I am disappointed with this book.

This series of books is aimed at YA and, for the most part, they have pertinent and necessary titles.

This is not one of them. It is a bit dated, so that may be part of the issue, but unless you are passionate about diving, you will not get anything out of this one.

The sensitive subjects that the character has are basically eating disorder and unwanted male attention and the author does not manage to bring either subject to the forefront.

In short, this book is trying to do too many things at the same time and it does not work.

[Hannah Williamson · Rating 4 out of 5]

I think this was a really good book about a teenage girl having the problems girls have now. In the end she gets threw them and learns from her mistakes and she is better of now from learning from them.

[Shaundel · Rating 3 out of 5]

Easy little story about a teenage girl visiting her uncle in Hawaii. While there, she tries a crash starvation diet, meets an older guy (with intentions she's not sure she can trust), and works at her uncle's dive shop.

[Susan Forsgren · Rating 3 out of 5]

Quick read, easy to follow story line and interesting characters.

[melissa Kamy Ramirez · Rating 2 out of 5]

Se me iso muy aburruda la historia

[Aria Izik-Dzurko]

Este es el primer libro que leo en español… no hay comentarios sobre la historia en sí, fue escrito de manera bastante simple, y aún no domino el idioma lo suficiente como para apreciarlo.

[Brooklyn Byers · Rating 3 out of 5]

For as short as it was, it was pretty good.

[ale ♡ · Rating 4 out of 5]

It was a good book, Garth weirded me out but okay.

[Vanessa Robinson · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is about a chubby, not very attractive girl named Beverly, about 14 or 15 years old who goes to Hawii to visit her uncle. She's a great scuba diver but she wants more than just scuba diving. Her goals are to loose ten pounds in ten days and get a boyfriend, but it's difficult becsuse she starves herself and she's never sure if a guy is flirting with her or making fun of her. I really liked this book because the author made the scuba diving so desriptive and it made me feel like I was with her scuba diving. I also liked it because it helps me understand the thoughts of a person, like Beverly, and it just give me a different perspective of things. I didn't have a favorite or least favorite part because I liked the whole book. I decided to read this book because I've never been scuba diving and I want to know what it was like, and it did meet my expections and beyond. I might be an expert at scuba diving, just kidding. So if you are interested in scuba diving or teenager problems and stuff then I recommend this book to you.

[Viviana · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is about a chubby, not very attractive girl named Beverly, about 14 or 15 years old who goes to Hawii to visit her uncle. She's a great scuba diver but she wants more than just scuba diving. Her goals are to loose ten pounds in ten days and get a boyfriend, but it's difficult becsuse she starves herself and she's never sure if a guy is flirting with her or making fun of her.She gets involed with a guy that is a lot older than her and she gets scared. She realizes he really loves her.

I can connect this book to the book where this girl gets involved with an older guy but soon she realizes he was just using her to do the work for him. she then knows, she can't trust older guys.

I rated this book 5 stars, because I could barely stop reading it. I think some scenes were a little inapropriate but I recomended for any teenage.

[Quentari Walker · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pam withers wrote the book Breathless that I enjoyed a lot. The first beginning of the book started with a bad diving Experience for Beverly when see saw a Green Moral Eel. She nearly killed her self when she saw it because she lost her breath, but her Uncle Tom came to save her when he was diving with Beverly for her first time. Beverly is from Winnipeg, Canada. She went to visit her Uncle Tom over her spring Break in Kauai, Hawaii. One Of her best friends in Kauai was Garth Olsen, because Garth was her diving buddy. Bev Couldn't wait to get back home to Manitoba where she wants to try ice diving in the cold lakes. When she got back home she Knew every thing about diving. This was a very adventurous book with a lot of action.

[Jisoo · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is nice. You can also read this in the tumblereadables.

The book is about a girl name Beverly who loves diving and went to Hawaii to her favorite uncle on December. Her uncle owns a dive shop and Beverly learns how to dive with her uncle because she only dived at lakes. She promised herself that she would lose weight even before going back to Winnipeg even if it would kill her. So she gets to lose weight and a boy named Garth seemed interested in her. But after she realizes that he is interested in only one thing. She goes diving with him on christmas, and while diving she needed to struggle with Garth and fight him. Then it turns out that he gets an accident and Beverly saves him. He apologizes to her for what he did and she goes back to Winnipeg.

[Christopher Pelaez · Rating 4 out of 5]

Breathless written by Pam Withers is a book mostly on romance. This is because the main character Beverly went to visit his uncle for winter break and her two goals are to loose some weight and to get a boyfriend. She finds a couple boys that get interested and even a man flirts with her.

This book was published in 2005. The part were I really got surprised was when Beverly was drowning. I thought she was drowning because she was very interested in the boys like any other girl, but actually i realized it was because of her diet. I gave this book a 4 because at some points it confused me so I kind of stopped reading because there was no point of reading a part that I don't get.

I would recommend this book to anybody that like a little romance genre

[Elaina Sadler · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book immediately caught my eye because of the title. It was a very quick read and I would recommend it for struggling readers.

Once I began to read that Beverly was a certified Scuba Diver and was going to spend her Christmas Vacation in Kauai, Hawaii with her uncle.

The book explores a fifteen year old young girls dislike about her body and her weight and how she plans to loose weight on her trip and maybe even find boyfriend. When she begins to do things that are not productive to herself and can also be detrimental to others her view on things get distorted.

There is some sexual innuendo throughout the book when Beverly gets caught up with her Dive Master Garth who is older and she must learn between what is crossing the line and what can get distorted.

[Hua · Rating 3 out of 5]

I just randomly picked this book however it came out to be a great book. This book is about Beverly who is from Canada. She came here to visit her uncle. She learned to dive and was trying to loss weight by starving herself. I agree with this book that starving is unhealthy however I personally tried and it worked. Anyways, from this book i learned that people shouldnt use this way unless they are desperate to get skinny and they didnt know any better ways (like me, I didnt know how to eat healthy and get skinny). I think this book carried a really good message. People should read it especially girls that wanted to loss weight. Loss weight and be smart about it.

[Emma Braatz · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pam withers did a phenomenal job tying in dramatic scenes with a romantic plot. I recommend this book for someone who is looking for a quick read, that has many cliff hangers.
The main character Beverly is a diver and her Uncle Tom invited her to his house for Christmas break and he lives on the ocean and he owns a diving shop. She got to help him out for Christmas break. Although she finds the dive master really likes her and because of this Beverly has to lie and keep her uncle from finding out her romantic secret.
I finished this book in two days and whenever my teacher said "okay put your books down" I was at the edge of my seat.
~Emma Braatz

[Elizabeth De Jesus · Rating 5 out of 5]

The book,"Breathless,"by Pam Withers I thought it was a great book. This girl named Beverly changes a lot through out the book. She learned about how to be confident and stand up for herself. She learned about deafening herself when something bad happens like when Garth . She learned about how to be more sociably around people. She learned about she doesn't need a guy to be happy. She learned about always being honest and don't lie to the people who care about you. She became a good diver. She learned that she doesn't have to be perfect and love herself as who she is don't change only because you want a boy to like you.

[Hui Lin · Rating 4 out of 5]

The protagonist of this book is Beverly. She is from Canada
and she went to Hawaii to visit her uncle during her spring break. She was learning to dive and trying to lost weight there, too. From this book, I learned that no one should ever try to lose weight by not eating anything. Because by doing that, it doesn't help you lose weight at all and it actually hurt yourself. I think that almost everyone girl has struggle with their weight sometime in their life. And I think every girl should read this book to learn that starving can't help you!

[Veronica Sanchez · Rating 4 out of 5]

The book,"Breathless,"by Pam Withers I thought it was a great book. This girl changes a lot through out the book. She learned about how to be confident and stand up for herself. She learned about deafening herself when something bad happens. She learned about how to be more sociably around people. She learned about she doesn't need a guy to be happy. She learned about always being honest and don't lie to the people who care about you. She became a good driver. She learned that she doesn't have to be perfect and love herself as who she is.

[Jian]

This book had taught me in a way, and to see the reality because this book could related to any teenager girl. Beverly was from Canada and during her spring she went to visit her uncle in Hawaii. The conflicts of this problmes was that while she was learning how to dive she was also trying to lose weights, and she starves herself. Teenagers should started reliazing that losing weight doesnt mean you have to starve yourself because its not good for your health.

[Dolly S. · Rating 3 out of 5]

In this book i think that Pam Withers is trying to get out that goals are difficult to accomplish and have consequences that were not thought over.A girl goes to her uncle's shop for a vacation and 2 of her goals are to loose i think 10 pounds and get a boyfriend.Then as she acomplishes them they start affecting her and limits how much fun she can have. I think that its like she feels that she has to do this for herself but she really doesnt.

[Hong Deng · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm sure that every girl has try to lose weight some point in their lives and not eating is one of the most common way girls use to lose weight. I have tried to do that myself. After I read this book, I would never try to lose weight by starving myself and neither should you! Want to know why? Read the book and find out yourself!

[Stephanie · Rating 2 out of 5]

The Orca books are always a really fast read for me. They're plot-driven and they all have the same formula, so I really know what to expect... which sometimes is really nice. I feel very smart when I read this series - they are very predictable.

This story was entertaining, but I didn't really "buy" a lot of what happened. I was willing to just enjoy it.

[Kiara · Rating 5 out of 5]

i thought this was really interesting. its about a girl who goes to help with her uncles scuba shop in Hawaii and she meets an older guy who is really into her. I thought it was difrent i never read a book about scuba diving and romance in the same book before! i would definitely recommend it if you like mysterious romance.

[Bridgette · Rating 5 out of 5]

Hi-Lo Book. Beverly helps her uncle by working at the scuba shop in Hawaii. Her goal is to lose weight, ten pounds, and find a boyfriend. Beverly basically starves herself to lose 10 pounds and she meets an older man, named Garth at the shop. But is Garth only interested in sex? Excellent story. Highly recommend.

[Cesar]

I thought book Breathless by Pam Withers was okay. It was not as interesting as the other books I have read. I would have thought there would be more action in this book. I think this book would have been better if there had been some kind of contest or race to get me more excited about reading this book.