Ellie Mont­gomery-Hof­stein received the nick­name ​“Splash” at her fifth birth­day par­ty when she dressed up in a whale cos­tume and can­non­balled into a pool. Ever since then, she’s faced bul­lies at school and with­in her own fam­i­ly, hold­ing onto her list of ​“Fat Girl Rules” to help her cope. The pool is the only place she feels safe enough to take up space. When Ellie’s dad takes her to see a ther­a­pist, she starts to under­stand what it means to defend her­self. Ellie and her mom strug­gle to com­mu­ni­cate, and it’s not until her mom takes Ellie to see a doc­tor about under­go­ing life-threat­en­ing weight loss surgery that Ellie finds her true strength.

Starfish is writ­ten in verse, mak­ing it a quick but very pow­er­ful read. Each poem gives an inti­mate look into Ellie’s life and true feel­ings. Her growth and char­ac­ter devel­op­ment are pal­pa­ble because Ellie’s emo­tions are effec­tive­ly pre­sent­ed through the poet­ry. The themes of body pos­i­tiv­i­ty and anti-bul­ly­ing fur­ther the mes­sage of the sto­ry, espe­cial­ly because the oppo­site of both runs ram­pant in ado­les­cence. The book also high­lights life in an inter­faith house­hold, where Ellie’s father is Jew­ish and her moth­er is Chris­t­ian. Both par­ents encour­age their chil­dren to choose which reli­gion they wish to fol­low, with Ellie adopt­ing ele­ments of both.

Lisa Fipps has writ­ten an extreme­ly engag­ing sto­ry that evokes many emo­tions. This pow­er­ful series of poems is a won­der­ful com­ing-of-age sto­ry, relat­able to both adults and youths.