jamie_bibliotecaria 's review for:

Starfish by Lisa Fipps

4.0

---

Definitely an issue-driven book about the experience of being a fat kid, with a mother who has always had you on a diet, indifferent siblings and a hostile school situation. The talk about learning to "take up space" felt much older than the child in the book and there wasn't a ton of other plot--she's bullied at school but makes a new friend next door and practices speaking up for herself--but I appreciate the effort to get inside the mind of a kid this age, and also that there is no "why" she's fat. Nor is there an easy solution to her problems with her mom.