Starfish

Novel in verse. The main character, Ellie has been bullied about her weight at school and in her family since she was five years old. She finds allies and that helps her to confront all the fat shaming she has had to deal with. Strong and sympathetic female character.

Dealing with comments from her mom about her weight and size since age 4, middle school is torture for Ellie and it gets even worse when her best friend moves away. Home is not much better with her mom's articles around the kitchen, poor treatment from her siblings. She also knows that treatment of

Show More

her is a big source of conflict between her parents. When Ellie starts with a therapist she is skeptical, but it is helpful and the process helps Ellie replace her negative thoughts and gain some control in her life. Her new neighbor and her family are accepting. Ellie is snarky, likable, hurting, and healing. The author's afterward is powerful. This quick story had me doing some reflection.
I didn't pick up on that it was a novel in verse in the audiobook.

Show Less

For anyone who has ever been bullied or felt uncomfortable in their own skin - this is the book for you. Ellie has been obsessively bullied about her weight ever since she had an under the sea 5th birthday party and wore a whale swimsuit. It's not just classmates, it's her siblings and her mother

Show More

too. When your nickname is splash - life is anything but a cakewalk. Everything gets harder when her best friend moves away and her mother starts pushing her for surgery. She doesn't want to be skinny, she wants people to accept her for the way she is. Is she not good enough? Written in verse, this book also has so many great quotes or takeaways that readers will want to write down or commit to memory. Fat shaming is never ok - and so many angles are confronted and dissected by this precocious young teen. This middle grade novel will attract readers of all ages, so many people can relate to her story. Empowering and uplifting. A must read for everybody.

Show Less

Ellie has been overweight and bullied at school since she was 5. Now that she's a tween, she's internalized the negativity and created a set of Fat Girl Rules to follow ("Move slowly so your fat doesn't jiggle"). Even her mother harrangues her about dieting and appearance, posting articles on the

Show More

refrigerator and talking up bariatric surgery. Her siblings bully her too. The only ones on Ellie's side are her father, who gets her into therapy, and Catalina, the new girl next door who never passes judgement on Ellie's appearance. Ellie conveys the pain of being a bullying victim, and trying to fit in in a world that doesn't approve of her. She haltingly finds her voice and self-acceptance thanks to her therapist. Ellie's narration is compelling, revealing the torment of being "the fat girl" and moving readers to see her humanity.

Show Less

STARFISH is a middle-grade verse novel about Ellie, a girl with a big problem. Because of her weight, many people feel Ellie is fair game for teasing, ridiculing, and bullying. Yet Ellie has true friends who love her and care about her no matter how she looks. Are loyal friendships enough to get a

Show More

girl through a mean, fat-shaming world?

I LOVED this novel. Everything about it is thoughtful, careful, and kind — which is to say, it walks its talk. Ellie is a poet, a lover of words and music. She is also a girl with finely tuned “fatdar”: her awareness of people all too willing to remind her how to manage herself: “No making waves. / You don’t deserve / to be seen or heard / to take up room, / to be noticed. / Make yourself small.” The novel’s verse is finely balanced; even readers who don’t normally enjoy verse novels shouldn’t mind this one, and readers who prefer verse novels will love the poetic flourishes here.

Ellie is unquestionably the star of this novel. The plot is a relationship-based growth arc. Ellie is surrounded by friends and bullies, and her task is to affirm “I’m not a whale. / I’m Ellie” — no small feat when her bullies include her own family members. But Ellie is bright, caring, determined, and fabulous; she refuses to follow the conform-lose-weight-and-be-ordinary path. With the help of her friends and a compassionate therapist, she will find her own way. I was cheering for Ellie on every page, even while I was crying for the cruelty she experiences. We need more starfish in this world. We need more Ellies.

Without question, STARFISH is one of the best middle-grade books I’ve read this year. I was utterly overwhelmed by how beautifully told the story is — and by how badly needed books like this are. Brava, Lisa Fipps, for writing this gorgeous book.

Show Less

Star Fish by Lisa Fipps is a novel in verse and selected as a Lone Star, 2022 novel.

Ellie has been bullied her entire life even by her mother. Ellie must be obese. When people claim to be fat in a book, you don't know if they are completely wrong, merely puffy, or outright overweight. Nonetheless,

Show More

I imagined a very large teenage girl because of the comments people make to her. I honestly can't imagine someone being a size that people would say such horrible things to her. Her own brother NEVER says a kind word to her (that story line never resolves). Her mother is particularly bad. She talks constantly about Ellie's weight and wants her to have bariatric surgery even though her own sister almost died from it. The kids at school call her Splash and often compare her to a whale, which dates back to her sister calling her that nickname at a birthday party where she dressed like a whale and cannonballed into the water. Ellie develops fat rules for her to live by. She wants to pass these rules along to every chubby child she sees to save them the experience of discovering them. Basically, Ellie's entire life is about her fat, not who she is as a person.

Ellie does have good parts to her life. Her father absolutely supports her and does not sit idly by while the mother acts awful. I will say he could do more about the articles Ellie's mom cuts out. Ellie also has a best friend who loves her for who she is, however, she moves away. Pretty much the day before her best friend moves, another new girl joins the neighborhood. She only sees Ellie and doesn't see her fat. When going next door, Ellie is treated like a family member, fed, and enjoyed as a person. She only wishes her life could be so accepting in her own home. Finally, Ellie has her therapist, whom her father set her up with to talk through the bullying. The therapist is totally awesome and help Ellie fight for herself without literally fighting someone.

A positive novel, Starfish is a quick read and makes you smile. It's focused on one storyline, so there's nothing complex. I will admit that I've never heard of people treating someone as Ellie is treated. I also believe that wanting someone to be healthy is not bullying or fat shaming. In this novel, Ellie is definitely, unequivocally bullied. It's hard to watch her deal with the comments, especially from her mother. I would have liked to have seen more of a resolution with the mother. I had to realize that the novel is about Ellie finding her voice and standing up to bullying and not having resolutions with the people who did the bullying. I would like to see her efforts making a difference to others and others changing. Ultimately, my takeaway (and I don't think it's the one Ellie would completely agree with) is to be beautiful with your size, but more importantly, be healthy whether skinny or overweight.

Show Less

12-year old Ellie is having a rough year. When her best friend moves away, her only escape from the bullying of other kids in school and shaming from her mother and siblings is to swim in the pool- there her weight does not matter. All she wants is to be treated like everyone else. Then Catalina

Show More

moves in next door and Ellie is finally not judged but accepted by this girl and her whole family. She only wishes her own family would be the same. Ellie's dad is her only ally at home; he sets up a therapist for her when he sees how much she is hurting. As she works with Dr. Woods, Ellie finally learns how to stand up for herself and in a way that doesn't hurt others. Grades 5-8.

Show Less

Starfish is about a middle school girl who is overweight and is bullied relentlessly by her schoolmates, as well as her brother, sister, and mother. Ellie feels like she deserves the bullying and is desperate for acceptance for her she is. She confides in her dad, and he promises to help her. Her

Show More

mother wants her to have bariatric surgery (at 11!), but Ellie's dad promises that won't happen. Ellie does have some friends who are good to her and she finds a therapist who helps her to get in touch with her feelings and confront her mother.
My heart broke for Ellie over and over. The meanness of people is astonishing and I know it happens. I think this is an important book for children and adults to read as it may help them to understand how hurtful their criticisms are, and perhaps will change their attitudes.
I am thankful that the author wrote this book, and am sorry that she herself experienced these hurtful people and comments.

Show Less

The topic is a hard and toxic one, and this book takes it on without flinching. For me, the verse format made it easier to confront the awful way that Ellie's family and school treats her. I loved that she had great friends. I loved that she had access to water. I loved the teachers and librarian

Show More

who helped her, and I loved that this book has a therapist -- even knowing what therapy could be like and some techniques to take power back is going to help a lot of readers. I wonder why it took her dad so long to become an ally, but it was good to see Ellie come into her own and challenge her bullies.

Show Less

5.0

A rare five stars. This book should be on every middle grade reading list!

This was so powerful and hit so close to home. This book does a great job of highlighting the power of not just words, but friendship, a support system, and finding your inner voice. A must read for any fat girl who feels

Show More

like they will never fit, and any parent raising an overweight child. This is also an important book for a world that loves to reduce people to thier skin and makes them ashamed of existing, the bullies, the harsh doctors, and those that may consider themselves "well meaning."

Show Less

Ellie has always struggled with her weight -- but it's been less about her fat to her and more about how people perceive her as nothing more than a large body, with no heart, feelings, brain, or thoughts. And one of the most painful parts is how it's not just her schoolmates who bully her, but her

Show More

own mother who harps on her weight the most. Finally, her father recommends that Ellie starts seeing a therapist and she finds the words and actions to stand up and defend herself against the hurt others try to cause her.

This book was such an emotional roller coaster. Ellie could be both perceptive and sarcastic, resulting in moments of wry humor. Her genuine kindness allows her to make friends with those with true hearts who don't judge her, allowing for very touching moments. But when others, particularly her awful mother, unrelentingly mock her, it's so deeply upsetting. I found myself close to tears a few times in this book as Ellie evokes all your empathy as a reader. And when Ellie finds ways to express herself, it's such a feeling of satisfaction to see her be able to take a stand against those who want to bully her.

The novel is written in verse, which is easily justified because Ellie views herself as a poetic writer and the whole narrative is told in first-person point-of-view. But it's also free verse, so it reads more like a prose story than a bunch of obscure poems that the reader has to try to piece together and weave a plot from those pieces. It reads quickly as a result of these short poem-chapters and frankly, the story and its characters are so engaging that you won't want to put it down. If anything, my only real complaint with it was I felt it ended too soon as I wanted to see what happens next and learn more about some of the ancillary characters.

Speaking of characters, this book is full of diversity. Ellie's family is half Jewish/half Christian, her new next-door neighbors are Mexican-American, and Ellie observes how one of her bullies is himself bullied because he lives in relative poverty. In many ways, this book will tug on the reader's heartstrings, force them to look at how they treat others and how they stand up for others who are being treated poorly, and elicit all kinds of sympathy.

Show Less

2024 reading challege: award winner, novel in verse, body positivity.

children's audio fiction (3.5 hrs) - ~4th-9th grade? (has appeal to wide range of ages inckuding teens)

fat tween Ellie with fat-disapproving mom (Christian, trying to help her daughter in the best way she knows how and perhaps

Show More

not aware of how much her words and actions hurt) and working dad (Jewish, pushing for therapy over surgery, which actually helps with the bullying issues, etc.). Set in Texas.

short chapters (in verse, though you can't tell in the audio version) make an enjoyable, highly readable story that bring this little big girl (tween) to life. Narration is great ( I sped it up to 1.15-1.2x speed). Relatively short, but with so much crammed in -- a complex mother-daughter relationship (keep tissues handy), a developing friendship with another bullied student (who is himself bullied), and a healthier sense of self thanks to a fabulous therapist. More books like this, please!

Show Less