MG Book Review: Taking up Space by Alyson Gerber

A fictional primer on disordered eating that packs an emotional wallop, for middle school readers. (Pub date 5/18/21)
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Alyson Gerber is a word magician who is able to inhabit her characters and spring them from the confines of the page in all of their awkward glory. Likeable and vulnerable, MC Sarah Weber is a middle school basketball star whose body has just begun to grow and change when a perfect storm of offhand comments and unfortunate behavior from the adults around her cause her to believe that restricting “bad” foods—and basically starving herself—will make her a better basketball player and a more likeable and successful human being. Add in extreme friend drama, first crushes, a fraught co-ed costume party, a tone-deaf basketball coach, a mother with disordered eating, a dad who is great but not around enough, and a Top Chef Junior-like competition at school, and Sarah has her hands full. The emotional roller coaster eventually gets the brakes from Sarah’s BF Ryan and a sensible and cute boy named Benny (both wonderful and emotionally literate characters)—as they use different tactics to get help for Sarah and reintroduce her to the joy of healthy eating. The Top Chef-style competition provides an exciting framework for the story, and the energetic basketball scenes punctuate a great deal of mature introspection by Sarah. I am not ashamed to admit that this book brought me to tears more than once, and I enjoyed it very much. I like how Gerber uses events to bring closure to the story while realistically leaving Sarah still working on her food challenges at the end.
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Any book that alerts kids to the warning signs of disordered eating at an early age is a good thing; TAKING UP SPACE just does it exceptionally well. Kudos to Alyson Gerber for her ongoing #ownvoices work. (I highly recommend Focused and Braced, also by Gerber)