Top Heavy, by Rhonda DeChambeau

For Esme, the single greatest obstacle in her life is her own body.  She loves to dance, truly coming alive when her body is in motion, but her breasts get in the way.  She can no longer do ballet and when she does interpretative dance, she is always conscious of them.  The other girls in her class make fun of her, so she works extra hard to be an even better dancer to draw attention away.

And it isn't just in dance.  On the street, men leer at her, women look at her like she's a slut.  She crouches over, trying to make herself look small.  She even looked into breast reduction surgery.

But the solution isn't surgical. It is about building self-esteem.  With help from her family and he friends, Esme comes to love herself and to stand up straight and tall. In the face of bullying and a brief sexual assault, she learns to allow herself to be proud and angry.  To use space.  Ultimately, she learns to accept her body and herself.

While this verse novel starts off slow and repeats itself a lot, the pace gradually builds up and as Esme builds self-confidence, the verses become more moving.  Clever typography on some of the better poems captures the dancing movement that brings Esme join adding a delightful dimension to the story.  In the end, an inspirational story for anyone struggling with a body that doesn't look or perform as we wish it did.