Mom is pushy and rude, Dad is comforting and kind. My Best Friends Are Books: Starfish by Lisa Fipps (3.23.21) Publisher’s Weekly New and Noteworthy Kids’ and YA Books: March 2021 (3.22.21) NJ.comLibrary system looks to spread body positivity among youth with ‘mindfully-curated’ collection (3.18.

Mom and Dad fight a lot over how to handle Ellie’s weight.

Multi-faith family – Dad is Jewish, mom is Christian, kids are allowed to choose.

Quote featuring infidelity: “Viv’s mom caught her dad with another woman and said Texas wasn’t big enough for the three of them.” This is referring to Ellie’s best friend Viv, who is moving due to her parents getting a divorce.The bullying descriptions from peers at school and elsewhere are intense.Ellie’s older siblings are very mean to her, her sister comes around but her brother remains horrible throughout the book.I know mean moms are out there and have known some, but this was still really hard to read. It was VERY hard to read this over and over again as a mother. Ellie’s mom is just plain awful and mean to her.My criteria for including things below is, “Do I know at least one person who would want to know this was in the book?” and if my answer is yes, I am telling you about it below. Below I will share some issues that you may or may not have a problem with. In addition to the main themes of the book (listed earlier in this post), there are slight mentions of some things parents may have concerns about. I was deeply attached to the character and storyline. The story was engaging, I read it in a day, written in verse it went by quickly. I can’t even begin to comprehend how mean and horrible her mother was to her. This book was hard (emotionally) to read. I personally enjoy reading books like this and don’t limit my kids to books that are for specific grades. If I had known about this book I probably would have put it on a 6th-7th grade book list.

With this support buoying her, Ellie might finally be able to cast aside the Fat Girl Rules and starfish in real life-by unapologetically being her own fabulous self.I will be adding this book to my daughter’s 8th-grade reading list as an option if she wants to read it only because I didn’t find it sooner. Fortunately, Ellie has allies in her dad, her therapist, and her new neighbor, Catalina, who loves Ellie for who she is. It’s also where she can get away from her pushy mom, who thinks criticizing Ellie’s weight will motivate her to diet. In the water, she can stretch herself out like a starfish and take up all the room she wants. To cope, she tries to live by the Fat Girl Rules-like “no making waves,” “avoid eating in public,” and “don’t move so fast that your body jiggles.” And she’s found her safe space-her swimming pool-where she feels weightless in a fat-obsessed world. Ellie is tired of being fat-shamed and does something about it in this highly acclaimed debut novel-in-verse.Įver since Ellie wore a whale swimsuit and made a big splash at her fifth birthday party, she’s been bullied about her weight.

Books like starfish by lisa fipps