Withering Tights

WITHERING TIGHTS
Louise Rennison
Harper Teen
Harper Collins Publishers
Hardback
2011
ISBN: 978-0-06-179931-0
288 pages
$16.00
Fiction, Interpersonal relations, Camps, Performing arts, Self-confidence, Yorkshire, England

Many fourteen-year-old girls desperately are trying to fit in and to become popular. It is difficult when you grow unevenly and feel like you are all legs even if you’re living in Britain.

Tallulah Casey is thrilled to be able to fulfill her dreams since she has been accepted to spend the summer at a Performing Arts College. Being that her application was accepted late, there wasn’t room for Tallulah in the dormitory. The school does arrange for her to stay at a nearby home with an eccentric local family.

The theme for the summer program is Wuthering Heights in this moorland of the Yorkshire Dales. Where sheep abound in the town and squirrel slippers keep you warm on chilly mornings, Tallulah begins to awkwardly grow into her height, starting to understanding embarrassing families, kissing boys, making friends, and discovering if she has any talent for this performing arts school.

Making new friends seems fairly easy. The school itself is a challenge since none of her teachers seem to think she has any talent, just clumsiness. Also interesting is that there is an all boys school also in the town. So knowing that boys are around, maybe Tallulah will be kissed for the first time. More importantly, maybe she will finally begin to fill out and need a bra.


Withering Tights is the first book in a new series by Louise Nicolson who is known for her Georgia Nicolson stories. This is a fun-lighthearted book for those girls who are not in high school and enjoy the companionship of a fourteen-year-old girl point-of-view, complete with her mistakes and ungraceful life. Also, most importantly, is the learning from Tallulah about learning to laugh with others, even about yourself. The reading audience is for girls who are in their early teens.

Withering Tights is a funny and realistic journey into the life of a typical British fourteen year-old girl.