When Lori Gottlieb was 11 years old, she did something girls that age often do: She started a diary. And like far too many other 11-year-old girls, she also began starving herself. Stick Figure: A Diary of My Former Self chronicles her transformation from a bright, healthy kid into a hospital patient on the verge of death, and it illustrates how a young girl can become convinced that anorexia is the answer to her preadolescent confusion.

With an edgy wit and keenly observant eye, Stick Figure delivers an engrossing glimpse into the mind of a girl in transition to adulthood. Fortunately, the 11-year-old Lori recorded her journey to recovery in her diary, and her story is funny, slyly insightful, and surprisingly universal.

An unflinchingly candid, bitingly funny debut, Stick Figure's compelling mix of irreverent humor, satire and autobiography offers dead-on observances about everything from mothers to the medical profession, gender roles to the absurdities of society's obsession with beauty. Martin Scorsese's company, DeFina/Cappa Productions, has purchased movie rights to Gottlieb's journal.