Star Fish by Lis Fipps

 Ellie is a big girl.  When she was five she did a cannon ball in a swimming pool, and won for herself the nick name of Splash.  She is teased mercilessly at school but, even worse, her own mother is always saying cutting things about her weight. She believes that only her pschologist dad really loves her unconditionally, that is, until he sets her up with counseling.  At first she hates it, but eventually the couselor gets her to awknowledge the way people hurt her and gives her ways to setting boundries and regaining a sense of self-worth.

This was an interesting book for me to read.  Those who know me know that I, too, was an overweight child and teen.  I found some of Ellie's experiences (which were loosely based on the author's experiences) familiar, but others I did not.  I was teased, but not teased constantly, and not by my family. The thing that was a little unsettling to me about the book is that is was focused on how Ellie looked.  Her mother and her brother were embarrassed by her appearance, and her dad was worried about her emotional state, but nobody talked about the health hazards of obesity. Obesity is a complicating factor in most kinds of serious illness--diabeties, heart disease, cancer etc. It is really easy for obese people to lose mobility and quality of life earlier than their smaller counterparts. In my own journey to a healthy weight, there was a time when I had to accept myself where I was at, and only then was I able to make permanent improvements to my health habits. But I did make improvements. I kept hoping that would happen in Ellie's story, but it never did. (2021, 244 p.)