Willowdean is a smart, funny fat girl living in pageant land in the south. The poor child works at the fast food joint and is also in mourning for her 500 pound aunt, who died a few months ago. To top it off, her mother calls her "Dumplin'" and is obsessed with the local pageant she won a million years ago and now runs. Willowdean's voice is one I liked: real, questioning, honest, and funny. She is currently facing change and challenge in just about every aspect of her world. At school there are "mean girl" problems, bullies, and misunderstandings with her best friend El. In other areas of her social world, she's becoming friends with other unpopular girls, but why? Two boys like her, but the one she really wants is handsome and makes her feel disgusting when she used to feel okay about herself as she was. And her mother, who has never accepted her as a fat person, is making her insane. Julie Murphy actually delves fairly deeply into the life of the fat girl, trying to love herself as she is, in the face of rotten attitudes all around her. The soul-searching Willowdean does about her relationships and her body made this book thoughtful and very easy to relate to.
Willowdean's voice is one I liked: real, questioning, honest, and funny. She is currently facing change and challenge in just about every aspect of her world. At school there are "mean girl" problems, bullies, and misunderstandings with her best friend El. In other areas of her social world, she's becoming friends with other unpopular girls, but why? Two boys like her, but the one she really wants is handsome and makes her feel disgusting when she used to feel okay about herself as she was. And her mother, who has never accepted her as a fat person, is making her insane.
Julie Murphy actually delves fairly deeply into the life of the fat girl, trying to love herself as she is, in the face of rotten attitudes all around her. The soul-searching Willowdean does about her relationships and her body made this book thoughtful and very easy to relate to.