Rating: 
Summary: what a ridiculous and inaccurate book
Review: Joan Ryan's perceptions of women's gymnastics and figure skating are entirely untrue. She fails to mention the unending rewards from a sport that requires not only physical fitness but focus and determination. As with any sport, these have some problems. Not every athlete walks away happy, and there are injuries. However, Ryan chooses to highlight isolated incidents and claim that is all that results from these sports. She generalizes everything and in the end the book is more a work of fiction than fact. She herself has no true experience in the inner workings of the sport and gives and unfounded and unqualified judgement of the sports, which, in reality, have rewarded thousands of young girls in numerous ways.
Rating: 
Summary: More for gymnastics fans than ice skating ones
Review: More for the fans of gymnastics rather than ice skating because the content is very uneven. But serious ice skating lovers should also get something out of it. The book contains a lot of personal experiences and a lot of young athletes heartache but it fails to ever fully convince it's reader that things are all bad in the sport. Mainly due to the lack of up to date accounts. Almost all the horror stories are from the late seventies and eighties. If things are still so bad, why not mention the current troubles? The writing is at times weak. There is a lot of references to the title... a lot! And the stories are sometimes split up in nonsensical ways. But overall, if you love the sport and want to know more dirt than they print in the stars' biographies then it's a great read.
Rating: 
Summary: Fascinating look at the inner workings of gymnastics
Review: I've been a gymnastics fan for years but I was never aware of the conditions that produce our country's star gymnasts. The material covered by the book is very interesting. The author sometimes repeats herself (occasionally more than once) with facts and anecdotes, something a good editor should have caught. Also, if you're interested in figure skating, this book is not necessarily for you - the author's main focus is gymnastics. All in all, though, it is a very engrossing read.
Rating: 
Summary: What a waste of paper
Review: I was really disappointed by the new epilogue. I know that the author meant this book to have some type of happy ending (with the American gymnasts maturing) but it mostly focused on the financial and family problems of Dominique Moceanu. While the author included pictures of the upcoming gymnasts, she fails to write anything about them. She could have also dealt with the problems of underage ice skaters at the olympics, on how it is turning into a gymnastics on ice. But no, she just includes pictures of the Olympic skaters of 1998 and writes nothing about them. If you are going to include a picture then at least write something about that. Otherwise, the readers who have no knowledge of skating or gymnastics will get confused. I would've given this book only 1 star but I have read the book in its first print (1995?) and I really enjoyed it. The epilogue just denigrates the overall quality of the book.
Rating:
Summary: An Unnecessary and untruthful account of female sports
Review: I am 14 and a gymnast. I know about the long hours and the grueling workouts a gymnast has to go through, but I also know that is the was for me to achieve my dream. And I know the satisfaction and joy of winning when you realize all those hours in the gym have finally paid off...its an awesome feeling. Little girls in gymnastics participate because they want to. The coaches push gymnasts that need it and that too is only going to get you another step closer to your dream. If gymnasts love their coaches do you actually think that they are abused by them? Kids do not like people that hurt them and dont care about them and if they recieved this kind of treatment from their coaches they would not stay with that coach long. Gymnasts are never forced by anyone to compete if there is a possibility for them to seriously injure themselves. Kerri Strug in the 96 Olympics has said that she vaulted the second time for herself and for her team not for anyone else. She would have vaulted again even if her coaches had told her she'd better not. Gymnastics is becoming a sport for little girls but the competition age in the Olympics is going to change that which I think is wrong. Older gymnasts have more of a chance of getting hurt because the sport gets harder for them. Even if I wasnt allowed to compete anywhere until I was in my 20s I would still be training now as much as I do because Im doing what I love. Elite gymnasts have said, "I am not used to being happy in the gym because I am working hard, but that does not mean I dont like the sport, I love the sport" Gymnasts, and figure skaters as well, are involoved because they love what they do and they have a dream that they want fulfilled. So if people like the author of this book want to demorilized these sports and keep people they know out of them, thats fine. But nothing will stop girls from reaching their goals if they have the chance to, its in their hearts; they dont do it for anyone but themselves and the overwhelming satisfaction that comes with it.
Rating:
Summary: Making of Figure Skaters, Breaking of Gymnasts
Review: I am a 14 year old gymnast and i think this book is a horrible depiction of most gymnastics clubs around the country. Yes, in the early years of gymnastics, lossing weight and stunting growth was very common, but, come on now, we live in the 21st century! Look at such gymnasts Bogenskia and Korkina, they are 5'4 and 5'6 and still win competitions. And Kim Zemeskal is certinly not a little pixie and is still winning competitions to this day! And, it's a fact that gymnastics helps build bone density because of the pressure of tumbling. And, on one last note, Kerri Strug was NOT forced to do the final vault in the Olympics, she wanted to, for the team. Ask n e gymnast about the pro's and con's of the sport and they'll tell u the only bad part of the sport is being sore!
Rating: 
Summary: A real eye opener
Review: This book is truly an eye opener. We see all these little girls in competitions with their wispy hair pulled back in tight buns, glitter on their cheeks, and a touched of make-up on their determined faces. Yet beyond what viewers can see from the television is all the grueling hours these little children put in at the gym, all the days they went without eating because their coach called their seventy pound body "fat", and the childhood that they were robbed of. I know this because this was my life for six long years. The book is telling the truth, the total truth. While not all gymnasts experience such a nightmare day after day, some do, and some is too much. A must-read for anyone who dares to dream of being an elite gymnast.
Rating:
Summary: The Horriific Truth Finally out in the open
Review: I had been a gymnast since i was about 7 years old. i made it to the elite level and never once did i ever want to go to the olympics. Eveything ms. ryan stated in that book really happens at gyms. Little Girls in Pretty Boxes is the truth whether people want to belive it or not. the problem with our society is that people belive gymnastics to be a wonderful glamorous sport. with kerri strug winning the gold for team america seemed very glamourous. but one must wonder why if she was in pain did she still do the second vault. the L.G.i.P.B is the truth and reading it could stop parents from putting their children in the wrong sport.
Rating:
Summary: Some people don't know what they are talking about
Review: Some of the people who have written to this online thing do not understand the background of gymnastics. I am a gymnast and i have been for nearly 14 years now. I do gymnastics because it is fun. But there are some, like in the L.G.i.P.B. book, that do starve themselves and want to be the "ideal gymnast" no matter what it takes. Just because you read the book does not mean you have to like or dislike how these girls are treated but this is a fact and this really takes place. Even though I know about the dangers of certain diets i still am tempted to try them. Yes, other sports such as hockey and football are dangerous but since when do you hear a football coach say "you need to be under 100 pounds to make the olympic team"? You don't. So if you read this book then thats great. Now you know about the real life of about 40% of the gymnasts in thos country. As for those of you who choose to think it is garbage and doesn't happen, I just hope that your child doesn't end up like some of these girls did weather it's in gymnastics or another sport.
Rating:
Summary: Interesting...
Review: It was interesting to read. That is all I have to say about the book. I did not agree with the author, nor did I really believe her. The book seems to be almost biased against gymnasts, but some gymnasts, I believe, really do practice gymnastics because they enjoy it. And are not other sports just as dangerous as gymnastics? You see football players and hockey players getting hurt everyday! Everything has both advantages and disadvantages, and if you tried to nitpick your way through all of them, you'd never get to do anything else. While you're online reading this review, another insane hacker may be trying to stalk you. Those girls just happened to be the unfortunate ones, but just because they got hurt doesn't mean gymnastics is bad. And what does Ms. Ryan plan to do about it? Abolish gymnastics, like slavery?
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