Now a popular Netflix feature film, starring Jennifer Aniston, Danielle Macdonald, and Dove Cameron, as well as a soundtrack from Dolly Parton!
The #1 New York Times bestseller and feel-good YA of the year—about Willowdean Dixon, the fearless, funny, and totally unforgettable heroine who takes on her small town’s beauty pageant.
Self-proclaimed fat girl Willowdean Dickson (dubbed “Dumplin’” by her former beauty queen mom) has always been at home in her own skin. Her thoughts on having the ultimate bikini body? Put a bikini on your body.
With her all-American beauty best friend, Ellen, by her side, things have always worked . . . until Will takes a job at Harpy’s, the local fast-food joint. There she meets Private School Bo, a hot former jock. Will isn’t surprised to find herself attracted to Bo. But she is surprised when he seems to like her back.
Instead of finding new heights of self-assurance in her relationship with Bo, Will starts to doubt herself. So she sets out to take back her confidence by doing the most horrifying thing she can imagine: entering the Miss Clover City beauty pageant—along with several other unlikely candidates—to show the world that she deserves to be up there as much as any girl does.
Along the way, she’ll shock the hell out of Clover City—and maybe herself most of all.
Julie Murphy lives in North Texas with her husband, who loves her, and her cats, who tolerate her. When Julie isn’t writing, she can be found watching movies so bad they're good, hunting for the perfect slice of cheese pizza, or planning her next great travel adventure. She is the author of the middle grade novels Dear Sweet Pea and Camp Sylvania as well as the young adult novels Ramona Blue, Side Effects May Vary, the Faith series, Pumpkin,Puddin’, and Dumplin’ (now a Netflix original film). You can visit Julie at imjuliemurphy.com.
This summer’s Openly YA tour, starring author David Levithan, Bill Konigsberg, Adam Silvera, and Will Walton, is chock full of amazing. So much so that it got us thinking about other inspired lineups we’d love to see! Too good to be true? Of course! But a girl can dream, can’t she?
Every month feels like the best month ever for YA releases, but this time I really, seriously mean it: the sheer saturation of must-reads about to hit shelves is nigh overwhelming. Turn off your phone and climb into your fully-stocked blanket fort. It’s time to read.
This week’s new releases are full of inspiration: from Sherlock Holmes to Snow White, Romeo & Juliet to Cinderella, and in a class by herself, Miss Dolly Parton. We’ve got magical realism, horror, a gender-swapped Moriarty, and new books by the authors of old favorites like Conversion, Side Effects May Vary, and This Song Will Save Your Life. Here are […]
We know, we know. You’re so over love triangles and instalove. But YA is about so much more than romance. From a song that changes everything to reclaiming your confidence (and that tiara!) to coming back from the brink of death, these nine awesome YA reads are about teens grasping for something more and finding […]
Author Julie Murphy dedicates her newest novel Dumplin’ to “all the fat bottomed girls,” and one would presume that the top gal on that list would be the book’s own full-figured protagonist, Willowdean Dickson. The first time Willowdean—known to her friends as Will and to her former pageant queen mom as Dumplin’—meets her crush Bo […]
