Dumplin’ by Julie Murphy is a story of a plump (I’m being politically correct here but let’s just say she’s fat) teenage girl name Willowdean who lives in a fictitious town called Clover City in the USA (state of Texas). Nothing much happens in this town except for the town’s beauty pageant event. Willowdean’s mum was a former beauty queen of this pageant and is part of the organising committee in every event. You get the idea. For Willowdean to gain confidence and foothold in this world, she enters the Miss Teen Blue Bonnet beauty pageant – her one defiant to her mother. This story is so predictable – you know the rest. Does she win the boy and the contest? No spoiler here – you have to read it and spend hours of precious time to find out although it won’t take you long because it’s actually a page-turner.

Apparently, it’s also a movie from Netflix (I don’t have Netflix). I tried checking if my library has the DVD (yes I still have a DVD player) but alas no so I won’t be able to let you know if the movie is even better than the book. Enjoy if you decide to read it.