Starfish

By: Lisa Fipps

4/5 ⭐️🐟

Written in beautiful verse, Starfish follows 12-year-old Ellie on her quest to accept herself and her body. Ellie has been the "fat girl" as long as she can remember. She evens remembers when her self-realization brought her world crashing down: her sister called her "splash" at her fifth birthday pool party. Since then, Ellie has been writing Fat Girl Rules for herself to make life easier.

However, the rules don't always work. No matter how hard she tries, Ellie can't become completely invisible. Bullying is all too prevalent at school and even at home. Her mom has put her on diets as long as she can remember, and keeps insisting on surgery to "fix" Ellie. Seeing the pain in her eyes, Ellie's father insists she begins talking to a therapist. Will Ellie learn to love herself and find her voice?

This book was absolutely beautiful! I listened to author panel before reading it, and hearing Lisa Fipp's story makes Starfish even more beautiful. She makes a point to say this is not an autobiography, but instances were pulled from her personal life. I think knowing this gives the story even more power. I can't thank Fipps enough for sharing her story and creating such a relatable and realistic piece of work.

Ellie herself is a great narrator. Yes, she's a little too well-spoken for a 12-year-old, but you can see her age in other reactions. In my opinion, it evens out. I also love that Ellie faces other issues aside from fat-girl shaming. She is a 12-year-old, after all! Her friendships are heartwarming, and she's not looking for romantic validation, which is a nice escape from that trope. She is just a girl, finding herself with her own heart and own devices.

I also have to mention the integration of therapy in Starfish. Fipps does an excellent job of not only normalizing it, but she also shows how it works for Ellie. Like most people, Ellie is closed off at first, so it's wonderful to see the progress and benefits of going to therapy and truly opening up.

Honestly, I only have two complaints. One, this book wasn't around when I was younger, which is a major bummer. And two, the ending did seem a bit rushed. There were a lot of moments where I had to remind myself that this is a book for middle grade readers. It's meant to be short and sweet, not full of other life discoveries. Due to the age range of this book, this fault didn't really affect my rating too much.