Dumplin'
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5.0 • 1 Rating
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- $12.99
Publisher Description
Willowdean Dickson (Dumplin', to her mum) has always been at home in her own skin. Her thoughts on having the ultimate bikini body? Really, the criteria is simple. Do you have a body? Put a swimsuit on it.
But life as Willlow knows it is about to change, and when this happens she suffers an unaccustomed, and unwelcome, attack of self-doubt. In an effort to take back her confidence, she enters into the local Miss Teen Blue Bonner beauty pageant.
With starry Texas nights, red candy suckers, Dolly Parton songs and a wildly unforgettable heroine – Dumplin' is guaranteed to steal your heart. And send you out to buy that bikini!
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
Given everything that’s wrong and dark in the world these days, it’s a true delight to read a book like Dumplin’. Julie Murphy’s story follows a Texan “fat-girl” named WIllowdean Dickson, who rallies a group of misfits to enter the Miss Teen Blue Bonnet beauty pageant and contends with her complicated feelings for her mother, her best friend and a handsome coworker named Bo. We fell in love with Murphy’s smart, sensitive, Dolly Parton–loving heroine. This is the kind of novel we wish had been around when we were teens: a funny, honest and intelligent takedown of bullies, bigotry and body-shaming and an empowering celebration of female bonds.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
About the only thing Clover City has going for it is its beauty pageant, the oldest in Texas. It's run by Willowdean Dickson's mother a former winner who has a hard time with the reality that Willowdean, a self-described "fat girl," will never be a beauty queen. Willowdean is okay with her size, mostly, but with 10th grade ending and her best friend considering having sex with her boyfriend, Willowdean feels like she is being left on the wrong side of the experience divide. An unexpected kiss with Bo, her handsome fast-food restaurant coworker, is thrilling, but she's also horrified at the idea of him touching her anywhere there is extra flesh. And that very reaction horrifies her, too; she thought she was at peace with herself. Murphy (Side Effects May Vary) successfully makes every piece of the story Dolly Parton superfans, first love, best-friend problems, an unlikely group of pageant entrants, female solidarity, self-acceptance, and Willowdean's complicated relationship with the mother who nicknamed her "Dumplin' " count, weaving them together to create a harmonious, humorous, and thought-provoking whole. Ages 13 up.
