Starfish by Lisa Fipps is a free verse novel that tackles tough topics for kids such as body image, body shaming, and loving who you are. Ellie is the youngest of 3 who faces bullying by her older siblings and even her mom about her weight. Her best friends moves thousands of miles away and she's navigating the hurt, the words and actions by others, and the heartbreak she is feeling all on her own. Her journey to learn to love the skin she's in is heartbreaking and heartwarming at the same time. Ellie's journey will resonate with many, many middle grade readers. A must read for all Grades 4-8 classrooms!

Eliana Elizabeth Montgomery-Hofstein needs to learn to take up and own her space. As much space as it takes to write out her name. But what happens when the person who is supposed to love you the most and defend you, doesn’t? How can you defend yourself against bullying behavior without harming others? Starfish is Ellie’s story of how to use her words to express herself and own her rightful space in this world.

This novel in verse grabbed a hold of me and didn't let go. My heart was simply breaking over how much we humans hurt each other over something as arbitrary as appearance. This does have a happy ending- and I'm buying several copies to give to kids that I know will read and share this story.

Fipps' debut novel in verse is about Ellie, an overweight kid who is relentlessly bullied by everyone: kids at school, strangers on the street, her siblings, and even her mother. When her father takes Ellie to talk to a therapist, she finally starts to gain the confidence to stand up to her bullies without attacking back and learns that she's enough exactly as she is. Ellie is a character that a lot of kids will relate to and Fipps' book may help some kids with their issues.

I found "Starfish" to be a beautiful story. Ellie is the hero for every middle grader who is being bullied. She learns to stand up for herself and to embrace who she is and to be comfortable in her own skill. When you accept yourself, you start to heal and I think that this is something that can DEFINITELY be seen.

A heartfelt novel in verse- a tween girl who's bullied and fat-shamed by her classmates and her own mother. Her own MOTHER!!! Reading that part made me heartbroken and furious. I think the verse form served the story and its emotional impact well. I got so invested in the characters, I forgot it was in verse somewhere midway through.
I hope tweens will read this and find comfort and acceptance in it. I really hope tweens who don't see themselves in the book will pick it up and feel compassion... but I don't know if they'll pick it up as much as the grownups in their lives might want them to.

This novel nailed the middle grade voice and came across as the authentic experience of a middle school girl who is struggling with her body weight and all of the societal pressures, anxiety, and judgement from others that comes along with it. I think young readers will see themselves in Ellie's story and will enjoy the easy to read novel in verse style. I wish there were more books featuring fat characters when I was a kid, but what a wonderful thing for kids growing up now to be able to see themselves in a character.

Starfish! Beautiful book written in first-person prose...Ellie is a beautiful poet with two best friends who love her just as she is, but how can she get her family to see her the same way? And her classmates to stop bullying her?

This book was incredible. I could not put it down, and I read it straight through. It was a nonstop tear-fest, but in the best way possible. I could not stop crying because of how touching and beautiful it was, and also because the author lent the character such an authentic voice. I want every one to read this book, but I especially want to put it in the hands of any child struggling with being fat and healthy when society tells you that the two cannot coincide.

I found this book heartbreaking yet hopeful. It made me step into the shoes of another person. I will definitely recommend this book to patrons.

I am a huge fan of Julie Murphey and I am so happy to have something similar for a younger audience. Ellie has been bullied about her weight since she was five years old. Her biggest culprit is her mother. In Starfish, Ellie makes a new best friend after hers moves away. She practices the coping mechanisms she learns in talk therapy (yay for normalizing therapy!). And she moves towards self-love and self-acceptance. I will be recommending this book every chance I get.

I really enjoyed this book. I loved the verse and thought it did a wonderful job of dealing with the complexities of body positivity and family and friends.

Sometimes, the universe delivers a book to a reader right at the moment they need it. Despite having a TBR list of 23 books, most of which need to be reviewed in the next few months, I decided to pick up Starfish today. So many people in my Twitter feed have been reading and loving it, so I decided it was my turn to see what all the hype was about. I picked it up and I didn't put it down. I didn't move from the couch until I finished it. It is a book that I imagine rereading and sharing with others. It definitely lived up to the hype. There are so many reasons that so many people loved it and will love it. If I were to write a bulleted list of things to love about this book, it would go on for pages. There were so many lines I highlighted or took a screenshot of, so much wording that reached right into my soul. I'm glad Lisa Fipps words found their way to me today, and I think these words will have an impact on readers to come.

Starfish deals sensitively with a lot of difficult topics, especially emotional abuse and fatphobia. It's the kind of book I would give to a kid struggling with fatphobic bullying at home or at school, because the conclusion is emotionally satisfying without feeling unrealistically happy, like everything got wrapped up with a big red bow.

The cadence of the poems in Starfish is like waves, which really adds to the experience, since Ellie's favorite hobby is swimming.

I loved this book and I would probably read it aloud with my older students (fifth and sixth grade), but not without content warnings, because the emotional abuse Ellie deals with at home is potentially triggering.

Starfish is a book that is needed in the middle grade world. As Ellie navigates her health, body image, and relationships with family and friends, readers are drawn into her struggles and the lengths she will go to in order to keep herself mentally healthy. This novel in verse will open up much needed conversations.

So important. Fat main character whose mother and brother and classmates are the worst of what the world does to fat girls. Every middle schooler should be reading this book.

There are rules every fat person follows and Ellie knows them all. Through pose, Ellie eloquently shares her experiences through all spaces and how they affect her. Starfish gives a raw and emotional look into the life of a child that is over weight. Fipps does an incredible job portraying Ellie and making her relatable in every way. Giving voice to a real person who deals with the same struggles as any other child. Her worth should not be determined by the number on a scale nor the way society decides to categorize each person. The family dynamics are painful to read but will resonate with readers on how their perception of what a parent should be like and how they are in reality. The struggles and miscommunication between the siblings reflects real sibling conflicts and fights. The societal pressures to conform and acceptance of bullying that is in the educational system is on full display, while also contrasting it to the increase in bullying if there are any punishment to the bully. The positive and progressive therapy sessions are a great way for readers to get a taste of how beneficial therapy can be. But Fipps didn't stop there but also included the misconception of bullied food chain and how some are just trying to survive by putting others down. Friendship is a huge element and it was awesome to see Ellie interact with established friendships and creating new one. A must read for any age!

Starfish is a juvenile novel told in verse about a girl who has always been a bigger size than what is seen as normal. I love how this book tackled the stigma of mental health with therapy, that you are beautiful and have a right to be happy no matter what society's definition of beauty is, and how to face problems when others see you as your main problem. I could have benefited from the book as a child and hope to put it in the hands of children that can benefit from its strong message.

I kind of regret reading this. Since I'm fat myself, I was hoping for an empowering, relatable reading experience. Instead it was a horrible reading experience as I felt like the author went out of their way to include as much triggering material as possible, with hardly anything to balance it out. A book like this is supposed to be empowering and yet here I am, with worse body image issues than I had before. And this is a middlegrade too, how is this safe to read for kids?

My issue isn't necessarily with the fatphobic content, because I know that's realistic for a lot of people. The thing is though, for a book to not be damaging, it needs to have a good balance. And while the main character did get support from a few characters, I don't feel like the horrible abuse she faced from her mother especially was handled enough. Quite honestly, I feel like the only good outcome for this would have been for her dad to divorce her mum and get full custody and she'd never have to see her mother again. I don't see potential for their relationship recovering from this, I think that would damage the MC further. So I really don't feel like the mum was challenged enough. I also don't feel like she actually went through that much learning and changed enough.

I think mainly this book was too short to achieve anything actually meaningful. I feel like it ended before it had done what it set out to do, which is challenge fatphobia and provide an empowering narrative. I wanted to see accountability and most of all I wanted to see the main character grow into herself more. Throughout the book, we don't actually get to know her outside of being a fat girl. And this is intentional - she says in therapy that people focus on her being fat so much that she doesn't know who she is as a person outside of that. I just wish more of her growth could have been focused on finding out things about herself.

As it is, I can't give this book more than 2 stars, as it was a damaging reading experience for me and I don't think it lived up to its potential or achieved what it meant to do.

This book is getting all the well deserved love and I look forward to having it on my library shelves for the short while it will be there. Once it starts going out it will remain so.