Dumplin'

Don't we all love a good coming-of-age story?

Dumplin' by Julie Murphy will be a huge hit among high school students. It's the story of small-town and Dolly Parton fan, Willowdean. Willowdean's mom is a former beauty pageant queen, still holding on to her glory days. Willowdean, however, is completely uninterested in THE social event of the year. It could be due to her typical teen angst, her budding interests in a new hot guy, or the fact that Willowdean just doesn't look like a bikini-wearing beauty queen.

Comfortable in herself, she begins to doubt herself when Bo, the cute guy she works with, shows signs of mutual interest. So what does she do? Signs up for the beauty pageant!

Dumplin' has a great cast of relatable characters that students will love. I loved this book so much that I gave it to my sister to read. She read it in one sitting, then we talked about the characters like they were real-life people we knew!

I highly recommend this engaging novel for high school English classes.