by Lisa Fipps
4Rbooks: 3/6, grades 5-7
Amazon: 4.7/5, grades 5-6
Goodreads: 4.48/5
Common Sense Media: 5/5, age 10+
Synopsis:
Ellie loves to swim. It is where she feels most free, and less like herself. She also loves to read and journal. Some of her teachers think she is a poet.
Ellie is getting ready to start sixth grade at her private school. Her best, and only friend Viv, left town, but she has a new neighbor, Catalina, and they bond quickly. Unfortunately they will be going to different schools.
Ellie is not looking forward to school because she is constantly harassed about her weight. It would be bad enough if that was the only place she was bullied, but she also suffers lots of negative and embarrassing comments from her family, especially her mother. She has created a list of "fat girls rules" to survive daily life.
Ellie begins going to sessions with a therapist. She is reluctant at first, but soon learns that the doctor really cares, and has some good ideas and plans to help her learn to cope with the bullies, but also to learn how to appreciate herself, just as she is. Maybe she doesn't need her "rules" after all.
Parent Guidelines:
The verbal abuse Ellie suffers through is difficult and heartbreaking, especially that which comes from her family, her mother in particular.
Ellies is constantly called names at school and embarrassed by her peers.
Bullies at school remove the bolts from Ellies desk in math class so it will collapse underneath her.
A PE teacher watches Ellie being bullied and does nothing about it.
In a surgeon's office, Ellie grabs a pair of scissors and holds it to her belly as a sign of despair over bariatric surgery.
Ellie is constantly harassed and ridiculed at school, and often in society.
Ellie's dog runs away and is found by two of Ellie's bullies who hold him for ransom... the opportunity to humiliate Ellie one more time.
Recommendation:
Though the book is written as a series of journal entries making it an easy read, It is a rough book to get through. The emotions are raw, and the situations truly sad and horrid. I would never read this book in class. While it might lead to good discussions of bullying and acceptance, it also could add fire and ammunition against overweight students in the class. It might work as a small group read, but it needs to be a hand picked group of kind, gentle, caring students.
At the end, the author states that most of what Ellie goes through in the book happened to her. That's sad to hear, but it seems like she may have suffered through an extreme case. I was an overweight child and suffered some of the slings and arrows she describes, but not as often and not from as many people. I also taught 6th grade for many years and rarely saw the degree of bullying that Ellie goes through. Few students were truly friendless, and most teachers did their best to stop the abuse and take care of the children.
As such, I can't give this book a higher rating. While much of it rang true, there was just so much of the abusive bullying that it didn't ring true for me. It seemed overly dramatic to enhance the moral of the story.
There is a positive relationship between Ellie and her therapist, and Ellie learns effective techniques for dealing with her emotions and confronting her bullies, including her mother. There is also a sweet make-up scene between Ellie and her sister. Catalina's family, her new neighbor, is one of the few positive situations in Ellie's life.
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