You Never Called Me Princess

The Kaitlyn Chronicles #1

by Elaine Babich

Kaitlyn Simons has had enough of her father calling her “Chubs.” She hates the name, and she's beginning to hate him. To stop the name calling, she decides to go on a crash diet. A very strict and unhealthy diet. A diet that works all too well.

After all, it’s easy to lose weight when you don’t eat, right?

Kaitlyn quickly discovers that the rewards of being thin are fantastic. Boys in school take notice. Her popularity soars. Meanwhile, Kaitlyn restricts her diet even more. Unfortunately, Kaitlyn’s unhealthy weight loss falls under the radar since her family has other problems. Big problems, life-changing problems.

But when Kaitlyn's weight loss reaches a critical phase, as her family rallies around her, Kaitlyn will discover that there's more to life than being popular and thin. But will this revelation come too late?

Genres: Young Adult, Fiction

230 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2006

About the author

Elaine Babich currently lives in Southern California with her husband and three children. For more about Elaine and her books, please find her on Facebook.

Reviews

[Dana · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have a VERY IMPORTANT Friday Review for you, please take the time to read this. "You Never Called Me Princess" By Elaine Babich, I JUST finished this book and Immediately needed to come online and write a review through my tears. This is a YA book that I believe EVERY parent and teenager should read. Its told through 13 yr old Kaitlyn's eyes. We watch Kaitlyn's life through a series of life changes, her best friend moving, a sister being attacked another sister in an abusive relationship and Parents who are just like you and me, even though we don't want to think so, we watch Kaitlyn go on a downward spiral that could kill her. I cannot even begin to tell you how well this book is written.Wonderfully told as a 13 yr old would tell a story. Sometimes I wanted to just ooohhhhh shake her and tell her to STOP IT! And other times I wanted to take her in my arms and tell her everything would be alright. As a parent this was hard to read , as a parent of child who suffered with an eating disorder this was a MUST read. Kaitlyn's story is so many teenager's story, and how many times we just don't see it happening. Elaine Babich writes a brutally honest look at what goes through the Child's mind, and how family and friends react. I give this book 5 GOLDEN STARS I wish I could give more.. SO WELL WRITTEN...Just WOW!!

[Tania · Rating 4 out of 5]

Refreshing and thought-provoking look into the life of a 13yr old girl struggling with an eating disorder. Took some getting used to the writing style but you feel so close to Kaitlyn as she talks you through every day. Tough topics dealt with in this book and the characters were written age appropriate. Lovely writing style - after getting used to it I started loving it - plain, simple, teenage diary talk and all her feelings added. Unlike the other bystanders I actually knew what Kaitlyn was feeling and what was going on inside her head. I was honored to have been allowed to be part of those feelings. Heartwarming story. Well written

[VLynch · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book starts out a bit slow, but I think that is actually a point the author was trying to make. No one starts a diet and then suddenly find themselves less than 80lbs. It takes time for family and friends to realize how deep someone is into their "food hell". I think this a great book for parents to read. My daughter actually knew a girl when she was in the 5th grade who had a serious eating disorder. It was horribly sad, and my daughter was very scared. Kids should not have to worry about these adult issues, but it happens much more than we know. This is the type of books I think kids should read in High school and discuss. We need more open honest conversation about subjests like this.

[Andi (Andi's ABCs) · Rating 2 out of 5]

Took me a bit to get into it but not that bad once I did. It is about a very serious issue that a very young girl has to deal with after being criticized at home. It's sad what a couple of ill placed words can do to a young girls self-esteem. I didn't like the book enough to read corresponding books, but I didn't hate it either.

[Bianca · Rating 1 out of 5]

I thought I could finish this. I tried to finish this.
Horrendous, just horrendous.
I know the story is told in the point of view of a pre-teen, but the writing is just childish. Cringe-worthy. Couldn't, for the life of me, finish this.

[Melissa Kalina · Rating 3 out of 5]

Wanted to see about girls and eating disorders, but this was an eye opener and somehwhat depressing. Good insight into name calling.............

[Katherine Harvey · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book let me understand why poeple become anerxic/bulaimic and how other poeple can infulence others.

[Veronica · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good for a young teenage girl

[Verna Hargrove · Rating 5 out of 5]

My daughter. An amazing author. I've read all of her books (almost).

[Liralen · Rating 2 out of 5]

Pretty standard. Some good points—there's a lot going on with the family, so it isn't only Kaitlyn's stuff—but it doesn't rise above, either. Feels a bit outdated: Kaitlyn buys a blue jean dress early on; a a school dance where dates are supposed to dress to match, another (wealthy) girl is described as wearing 'yellow satin shirts with black tassels' (30); Kaitlyn babysits and ends up spending the whole night unexpectedly because the woman doesn't come home until 7 a.m., but she only gets paid $30. Even for 2006, the original publication date, this is all pretty outdated.

Some weird stuff with the hospital, too: the nutritionist works a 'split shift' with a two and a half hour break in the middle so that she can 'help whoever needs [her] at meal times' (180), and she acts like this is a good deal because she can go to the gym at lunch. And then Kaitlyn's in hospital for three weeks before the doctors weigh her again(!). It's possible (likely) that they wouldn't want to discuss her weight with her, but considering that she went in at a critically low weight, there's no way a hospital worth its salt would wait three weeks to check in on that. Just makes me question the research and so on.

So it's...fine. Can't really recommend it, but I've read too many of these to find anything in here particularly egregious or even surprising, so...there she goes.

[Rebecca · Rating 2 out of 5]

This doesn't really read like a typical YA book. It's really for early adolescence, maybe as a health class project. Labeled as a YA, you expect it to become young-adult like in tenor at some point. "Okay, here Katie sounds juvenile, but I'm sure she'll mature and start to read more adultish." She really doesn't. It's written from the perspective of an eight-grader during one school year and remains so. It's sort of a diary and sort of a narrative. Katie happens to be the youngest child from 3 screwed-up sisters. The parent dynamic is super difficult to figure out. Are they overly indulgent? Super strict? Shallow? Stupid? One sister moved out at 14 and the other at 17? The parents are excited about a teen pregnancy but can't confront spousal abuse or an obvious, severe eating disorder? The drama and family crisis are just too much. So is the idea that kids still write each other letters.

Overall - it was just okay. It might be good for young kids with some adult guidance. There's too much adult theme to be just for kids and the perspective in too choppy and eye-roll-worthy to be just for adults.

[Sonja Randall · Rating 3 out of 5]

Name calling can lead to disaster; it is one of the worst forms of bullying.
This is a writer trying too hard to create a story with three girls all with extreme problems. This is actually a story about the worst kind of parents. If a child lives in your house and you do not realise that she is losing weight as this main character, you should be reported for child abuse. I find this very unbelievable and it spoils the story.
The hero in this story is Victoria, a sister with problems of her own whom still support the young Kaitlin.

[Beth Lind · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is a book I would have really liked in high school but life experiences have taught me that things don't wrap up like a sitcom with a happy ending for everyone. And what about all the crises in this book? I think the author might have missed an opportunity to add in an earthquake, but that is just me.

[Nicole Condon · Rating 2 out of 5]

In two minds. The first book was a fairly interesting account of a young girl inadvertantly giving in to disordered eating and shows realistically how easy it is to slide into this kind of thinking. The voice of a young teen writing diary style suits the subject. The rest of the books though I cannot recommend. Why does Kaitlyn, a supposed genius teacher continue to talk like a brain dead 13 yr old for the rest of the series? She sounds like she is actually mentally retarded a lot of the time, as she mindlessly waffles on about trivialities and quotes dialogue that sounds completely unrealistic. Why didn't the author allow her character to grow up in her style and character as well as in the storyline? It is quite bizarre. Could have been much better.

[Sarah · Rating 3 out of 5]

Kaitlyn gets name called by her dad for being overweight. She's 13 and weighs 130. Her dad calls her chubby and tells her to lose weight. Kaitlyn begins the journey of diets to lose the weight but it never seems to make dad happy. Kaitlyn has a poor self image she thinks herself ugly and fat even at 95lbs. Kaitlyn's family has some other major stressors going on this same time, including rape, separation and a baby in the way. Her parents don't have the time or energy to focus on Kaitlyn's eating habits or lack of food intake while dealing her sister's and their families troubles. Kaitlyn's mother evidently takes her to the doctor where she gets admitted to the hospital. Caring workers and staff help Kaitlyn begin her journey to healing.

[Abi · Rating 3 out of 5]

Actual rating - 2.5

This wasn't a bad read, but it wasn't as good as I thought it would be unfortunately. It took me ages to get into it, and even then it wasn't one that I loved.

The main problem I had with this was the writing style - the way it was really put me off the whole story.

Overall, Not a bad read, but not one I can say I really enjoyed.

[Cheryl F. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good story

I felt this story was good but it definitely dragged on too long.
I know this is a huge problem with society today for girls to be thin.

[Diana · Rating 2 out of 5]

The book begins and reads as a "diary" by a young girl. If you or anyone you know suffers/ed with an eating disorder, this sums up childhood and HOW eating disorders develop (for me anyway)

It begins with pressure from the world and society around. Pressures, judgement and the belief that thin=happiness, acceptance, popularity, etc

Kaitlyn begins as a happy young girl just doing things most kids do. She is completely unaware of her body, weight, eating, etc. She is a "normal" girl. Eats what she wants, when she wants pays no mind to food, calories, etc

She is a healthy young girl, growing up. She goes through the normal puberty, experiences some (normal and healthy) weight gain, then begins to suffer the consequences of her family, father especially. He begins to make comments, that instead of brushing off, she internalizes as not being good enough.

Kaitlyn takes the comments as a strive for success. She has no control of anything in her life, so that one thing, she CAN easily control is FOOD , what she puts in her body and doesnt

I could totally relate to HOW her eating disorder began. It starts off with something simple as cutting a few things, going on a "diet" , etc. Then what happens? She gets noticed. Boys start liking her more, family starts accepting her more. She gets praise, comments, attention. Something missing from her current life

She continues this spiraling eating disorder, until it is full blown and she is 76 pounds, hospitalized and still believing she is fat, ugly and not good enough.

During her time in the hospital she begins to confront and communicate with her family, which really has a difficult time accepting and dealing with Kaitlyn's eating disorder. The family begins to realize the seriousness of it and become very scared, because kaitlyn may die.

During this point is where my 2 star rating comes in . The staff at the hospital is ridiculous and IF YOU ARE CURRENTLY IN ED RECOVERY DO NO READ THIS BOOK . It is a HUGE trigger. The nutritionist gives the most ridiculous advice. She herself probably suffers from disordered eating.
It actually reminds me a bit of my first nutritionist and MY first experience with eating disorder recovery. NO WONDER I RELAPSED!

The book misses the whole point of recovery, while I understand they were trying to just get her to eat on her own and get her back to a decent weight, but really? The nutritionists advice was ridiculous. "Potatoes do not make people fat, its the BUTTEr people put on it that does".....Wow, really!?

Being published in 2010 I would have hoped for a little more, especially if young girls are reading this. I mean, if you are going to give advice, give the right advice,not a bandaid!

Overall it was a great book that gave a surfac-y look into the world of an eating disorder through a young girls eyes.

Just a reminder to be kind to ourselves and our children, focus on working on our INSIDEs and not worrying so much about our outsides <3

[Jo Notary]

141pgs, Kaitlyn Simons has had enough of her father calling her 1CChubs. 1D To stop the name calling, she decides to go on a crash diet. Kaitlyn quickly discovers that the rewards of being thin are fantastic. Boys in school take notice. Her popularity soars. Meanwhile, Kaitlyn restricts her diet even more. Unfortunately, Kaitlyn 19s unhealthy weight loss falls under the radar since her family has other problems. Big problems, life-changing problems. But when Kaitlyn's weight loss reaches a critical phase, as her family rallies around her, Kaitlyn will discover that there's more to life than being popular and thin. But will this revelation come too late?

[Claribel Solis · Rating 4 out of 5]

A book any young girl should read about the dangers of eating disorders.
This book is about a young girl who is struggling to see herself as beautiful.
She looks at herself in the mirror and all she sees is fat her problems get so bad that she nearly dies, however this book doesn't only focus on one problem it has many other issues young girls or women may encounter throughout a lifetime with issues such as rape, drug related deaths and domestic violence. I would highly recommend this book and I'm looking forward to see what happens next with Kaitlyn.

[Elena · Rating 3 out of 5]

This a very sad story about a girl with life struggles. This book is a short book, that doesn't have details. The book is overall an emotional story, I thought. It was very hard to read because it was so sad. It is a good book to read because its about life lessons and emotion it has in it, I found it interesting. This book was nothing of what I thought it would be, this book took a turn before the middle of the book and got interesting but sad too. I wouldn't say this is my favorite book, because it is so sad and about hard topics, but it was good to read.

[Christine · Rating 3 out of 5]

I don't know why, but I expected this book to be written for an adult audience. I was surprised to discover it is a young adult book. Regardless, I stuck with it, and it was pretty good. Being written from a young girl's perspective, it covers a heavy topic (anorexia/bulimia) without going into too much detail. Probably a good book to use to open up discussion with young people about these disorders.

[Carla · Rating 3 out of 5]

This YA novel for girls in about 7th or 8th grade does a good job of showing how negative comments can hurt and deeply affect young people. Like so many of these novels which teach a lesson, too many topics were addressed. The primary issue of an eating disorder was enough.There was no need to tackle spousal abuse, racism, rape, and drug abuse. The author did a great job writing through the eyes of a 13 year old girl.

[Kaylee Morgan · Rating 5 out of 5]

At first when I saw the book, I thought it was going to be stupid and boring. Besides, I was only reading it because I had nothing else to read. But the more I read about Caitlin's life, the more I needed to know. Where did her depression come from? Why did her dad nickname her Chubs? So I learned by reading this book, you literally can't judge a book by its cover.

[Alicia Huxtable · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was actually hard to read. Written from 13 year old Kaitlyn's point of view, it shows how she felt about her body and how comments and nicknames cemented her opinion that she was fat. And so started the many diets and the binging and purging and the subsequent hospital stay.
Elaine Babich has produced a very eye opening book that in my opinion, everyone should read.

[Bonnie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked the story, but I'd give it only 3-1/2 stars. It was interesting to see the world through a modern day young, innocent teen girl's eyes. It was heartbreaking how she dealt with the changes in her life and to see how words can hurt. I just think there could've been a way to write it in her voice just a little cleaner, not so choppy.

[Chris · Rating 1 out of 5]

I had high hopes for a quality novel on an eating disorder. Instead, I read a book with choppy sentence structure, and a story that was wrapped up way too tidy. Eating disorders are not solved anywhere nearly as this book portrays and it does a disservice to adolescents or others reading this book believe it does.

I do not recommend this book to anyone.

[Catherine Coulombe · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked the plot, since it is what I like to read. However, I thought the writing and grammar were very poor, therefore I am only giving it 3 stars!

[Lmg · Rating 4 out of 5]

what I expected and think it is a good book for all young girls. Maybe this would help someone who doesn't even realize what they are doing to themselves.

[Traceylee · Rating 5 out of 5]

Why

I liked how they dealt with her hearing disorder and it goes to show you watch the comments you make about calling people names can take it to the worse in a person like this