Starfish

It's the end of summer, and Ellie is dreading returning to school.  Not only will she be back under the storm of bullying and harassment, but she will have to do it alone.  Her best friend is moving.  She'd rather just keep spending all her days swimming and floating in her pool.

When she meets her new neighbor Catalina, she's skeptical.  Catalina is so thin, and usually thin people (all people, really) bully Ellie about her weight.  But Catalina doesn't seem to pay attention to Ellie's body at all except to enjoy dancing to the music they both like.  In some ways, this friendship is freeing, but in other ways, it only highlights some of the worst parts of Ellie's life.  Catalina's whole family accepts Ellie without reservation.  Why can't her own mother do the same?

The bullies at school are cruel and unrelenting, but Ellie's mom is the worst of them all.  Ellie is always on a diet and pretty much always hungry.  Her mother didn't even buy her new school clothes this year.  The worst may be all the doctor visits her mom drags her to.  Her mom is always looking for some magic solution that will make her daughter thin, but Ellie knows the truth.  She will never be thin, and her mother will never love her.  

Lisa Fipps's debut novel is a heartbreaking look inside the life of a fat girl in America.  While boys have body issues, too, the bulk of body insecurity seems to be the burden of women and girls.  Plenty of people have body issues, some very severe, but unless you're a fat person, you will never really know what it's like to be a fat person.  Fipps gives readers a window into that world where you should accept bullying because you deserve it and doctors often believe "fat" is all that's wrong with you.  Some people may read this book and think the behaviors are too extreme and unrealistic, but that's just not the case.  Even fat kids who grow up with loving parents get well-meaning but hurtful comments about weight and that's not to mention the horrors of middle and high school.  I wish I had been as brave as Ellie is when I was younger.  It shouldn't take four decades to give yourself permission to take up space in the world.  Books like this are vital to the literary landscape.  This is a must-read for kids and parents.