Best Fiction for YA-Dumplin by Julie Murphy

Murphy, Julie. (2015). Dumplin'. New York. HarperCollins. 

Willowdean “Dumplin” Dickson is a Texan, daughter of the Miss Teen Beauty Pageant’s coordinator, and overweight.  She has best friend issues, boy issues, mommy issues but she decides to honor her aunt by entering the pageant. Dumplin is a great character. Many of the decisions she makes and the feelings she has are honest and realistic.  From having a skinny beautiful best friend to body image, I felt like her inner monologue is something teens in all weight classes can relate to.  Will had this wall of confidence but she was insecure and once again, a lot of us are like this.  She didn’t take crap from the bully, she didn’t take crap from the hot guy, she didn’t take crap from her mom.  Even though her weight could have easily made her an introvert or the extreme-the extremely extroverted trying to get people to ignore her weight, she was neither of those things.-I thought she was an awesome heroine There are many girls and women who think they are fat when they are not and I think these girls and women can relate to Dumplin.  She doesn’t want the boy to touch her back fat, she’s envious of her “skinny” friend, she doesn’t think she’s good enough to date an attractive boy. She also has honest conversations with her mother about her weight. Anyone who has a passive aggressive mother knows what I’m talking about.  Initially she bites her tongue but she slowly expresses her feelings toward her mom.