What’s behind the “ nunya bidness door”? And is that a gun sticking out from Grandpop’s waistband? Reynolds’ middle-grade debut meanders like the best kind of summer vacation but never loses sense of its throughline. And he and Ernie will have to do chores, like picking peas and scooping dog poop. Then, he breaks the model truck that’s one of the only things Grandma still has of his deceased uncle. Next, there’s no Internet, so the questions he keeps track of in his notebook (over 400 so far) will have to go un-Googled. Make room in your heart for this cathartic novel.Įleven-year-old Brooklynite Genie has “worry issues,” so when he and his older brother, Ernie, are sent to Virginia to spend a month with their estranged grandparents while their parents “try to figure it all out,” he goes into overdrive.įirst, he discovers that Grandpop is blind. Half-Jewish, half-Christian Ellie is cued as White. The text places readers in Ellie’s shoes, showing how she is attacked in many spaces-including by strangers on public transit-while clearly asserting that it’s other people who need to change. Fipps’ verse is skillful and rooted in emotional reality. She also makes friends with her new neighbor, whose Mexican American family can empathize with being judged on appearances. As a self-proclaimed poet, Ellie has a strong command of words, and she learns how and when to use them to defend herself. Thankfully, Ellie has support in compassionate educators, tried-and-true friends, her beloved pug, and her more considerate psychiatrist father, who finds Ellie a therapist to work through her pent-up feelings. The worst, though, is her mother, with her endless stream of derogatory comments, obsessive monitoring of Ellie’s food intake, and preoccupation with bariatric surgery (which Ellie knows is unsafe). She maneuvers through life following unspoken “Fat Girl Rules,” chief among them, “Make yourself small.” Ellie dreads the start of sixth grade, partially because her best friend just moved away, but mainly because classmates bully her at every turn. A girl seeks acceptance rather than judgment for her size.Įleven-year-old Texan Ellie loves to swim in her backyard pool even though a cannonball during her fifth birthday party earned her the nickname “Splash” and endless jokes about whales.

Starfish lisa fipps book review