Dumplin' and Puddin'--"All of the best things in my life have started with a Dolly Parton song"

Titles: Dumplin' and Puddin'

Author: Julie Murphy


LGBTQ+ Representation: Minor characters are drag queens in m/m relationship. Supporting character is a lesbian; another supporting character comes out as asexual.

What each book is about (in 75 words or fewer):

Dumplin'--Willowdean has always felt confident in her plus-size body but experiences some insecurity when the cute private school jock, Bo, becomes attracted to her. Will can't understand why Bo likes her. In order to regain her confidence, Will (and a group of other girls) decides to enter the Miss Clover City beauty pageant, which is run by her former-beauty-queen mother. Will is determined to prove that beauty comes in all sizes.

Puddin'--In order to please her parents, Millie goes to fat camp every summer. But this summer, she is determined to stick up for herself and attend journalism camp instead. Meanwhile, Callie is the mean-girl dance team member, next in line for captain, with the hot boyfriend. When Millie and Callie end up having to work together at Millie's uncle's gym, they form a surprising friendship.


What I think: I decided to review these books together for a couple of reasons. First of all, they are companion novels, written by the fabulous Julie Murphy. Each book can stand alone, but many of the same characters appear in both stories. Second, many of the same topics and themes are addressed in both stories making them easy to write about together. Finally, Dumplin' the movie premiered on Netflix months ago. I still haven't seen it since I have no one who is willing to loan me their Netflix password 😉, but I have obviously read the book. Everyone on my Facebook and Twitter who raved about the movie got this reply from me:

Dumplin' is a great YA book; I highly recommend it. The companion book, Puddin,' is EVEN BETTER than Dumplin.' Seriously, read them both. 

Most of my friends responded by telling me they didn't even know that Dumplin' was a book first, which makes me sad. I enjoyed Dumplin,' but I LOVED Puddin' so much I don't even know if I could write about one without mentioning the other.

"All of the best things in my life have started with a Dolly Parton song" (Dumplin,' pg. 1): 

Willowdean is obsessed with Dolly Parton, something that she got from her aunt Lucy, who lived with Will and her mother, Rosie, up until Lucy's recent death. Parton herself provided songs for the soundtrack of Dumplin', and Parton's Imagination Library alone makes her a hero!

Besides, even the most die-hard anti-country music people I know really enjoy many of Parton's catchiest songs.

Therefore, in honor of the great Dolly Parton, I am writing about these books a little differently than normal. So, without further ado:

Jen Reads the Rainbow Presents: 

A Dozen Dolly Quotes Pageant!

Jen, the Emcee: Good evening, theydies and gentlethems! Tonight we will are presenting a pageant to highlight the beauty of words. Please give me your attention while I highlight ONE DOZEN of Dolly Parton's most iconic quotes and write how the main characters (Will, Millie, and/or Callie) would relate/respond/react to each quote.

1. "I tried every diet in the book. I tried some that weren't in the book. I tried eating the book. It tasted better than most of the diets."

Will and Millie are both overweight, and both have mothers who are desperate for their daughters to fit in by losing weight and therefore "become" beautiful. Will's mom can (mostly) fit into her old pageant gowns, while Millie's mom is constantly dieting along with her daughter. Will insists (and projects to the world) how confident she is with her body no matter what; Millie tries desperately to please her mother while rocking her own style.

2.  "It's a good thing I was a girl, or I'd have been a drag queen!"

Drag Queens are not something that the girls, with their conventional small town Texas upbringing, have ever seen before. But one day, Willowdean is searching through her deceased aunt's email account and discovers an invitation to Dolly Parton Night at The Hideaway. Soon, she and her unlikely beauty pageant contestants are headed off to a gay bar to watch the drag show.

Later, the couple who own the bar (one of whom was in the drag show) are willing to help the girls learn to walk like beauty queens, stand tall, and show the world their confidence. This is a pivotal moment in the book as it helps Will learn more respect for beauty queens of all types. Walking across the stage in spiked heels? Definitely not for the weak! Will also feels more connected to her late Aunt Lucy after this experience.

3.  "You'll never do a whole lot unless you're brave enough to try."

In Dumplin,' Willowdean becomes a (somewhat reluctant) role model for the girls in her class that do not fit society's standards for beauty. In Puddin,' Millie (also reluctantly) stands up to her mother and Callie lets go of some of her icy exterior to make some real girl friends. None of the three make perfect decisions; in fact, there were times that all three of them did things that made me say "UGH STOP." However, even in their worst character moments, all three show bravery.

4.  "I don't like to be like everybody else. I've often made the statement that I'd never stoop so low to be fashionable. That's the easiest thing in the world to do."

Millie has an extremely cutesy style of dressing and accessorizing. She enjoys quilting, crafting, and sewing. Will's is not fashionable by conventional "skinny girl" standards either. Callie is quite conventionally stylish . . . but who would Dolly appreciate the most?

5.  "Always be true to yourself, what you believe, and where you came from. . . you'll need those roots sooner or later."

Family, roots, and connections to their small town are something that all three girls have in common. Will's mother is a former beauty pageant queen who has run the pageant for years and takes it very seriously. Callie's "legacy" is to be on the dance team like her mother. But pleasing her family, especially pleasing her mother, is something that Millie relates to the most.

Millie is happy, cheerful, and genuinely kind, but she has a very strong desire to please her mother which stops her from being her best self. It takes her friendship with Callie to help her grow out of the mother-pleasing mold into a woman who is willing to do whatever it takes to be successful and happy.

6.  "I often get myself in love trouble because I'm so passionate; I love so much and so deep."

In addition to being genuinely kind, Millie is extremely passionate about her future goals. Even though she knows she is not the "ideal body type" for a news anchor, she is determined to realize her dreams. Callie is willing to step all over anybody to achieve her goals, but when thwarted to due some destructive impulsive actions of her own, learns to be less selfish and, maybe, make some new friends. Callie and Millie are quite the odd couple indeed, but they are just what each other needs to grow. Passionate is a good word to describe both of them.

7.  "If you don't like the road you're walking, start paving another one!" 

Millie would crochet this on all of her blankets and craft projects. Will would agree with this but be much more subtle about it than Millie. Callie would roll her eyes but would privately find solace in it when she is forced to "pave another road" for herself.

8.  "I'm not going to limit myself just because people won't accept the fact that I can do something else."

Definitely all three characters can relate to this one: Will when she first enters the pageant; Callie when she breaks into [spoiler deleted]; Millie and Callie when they make a late-night drive to [spoiler deleted]. All three girls work to push the limits of what people think they can be.

9. "Find out who you are and do it on purpose." 

For someone who is supposed to be so confident in herself, Will thinks about what others think almost all the time. Her character is an example of "showing, not telling." Will tells everyone over and over again how confident she is, but shows her insecurities by not believing a boy could genuinely like her and resenting the "perfect" girls in the pageant. I think Will also believes that she is "better" than Ellen with her perfect boyfriend and feels "sorry" for Millie, who is so overweight she has to wear "stretchy" clothes. Will is humbled a bit by the end of the book: she develops respect Millie, Ellen, her mother, and the pageant.

10.   "Yeah I flirt--I'm not blind and I'm not dead.  I love to flirt, and I've never met a man I didn't like."

All three of the girls have some kind of romance throughout the stories. Will's growing relationship with Bo both delighted and frustrated me. I was delighted because I was rooting for her: I am kind of a sappy romantic and I wanted them to have their happy ending. I was also frustrated because of Will's low self-esteem. She could not believe that Bo could ever like someone who was "fat" like her and that just broke my heart.

Callie's boyfriend dumps her when she is not the "perfect girlfriend" anymore, and Callie's reaction is right out of a Teen Movie. When Callie does attract a nice guy, the relationship is rocky because she is not quite sure how to behave.

Millie attracts her perfect, smart, studious boyfriend, who patiently tells her that she needs to stick up for herself with her mother. Millie never doubts that she is beautiful to him. It's sweet.

11.  "A great smile is an asset, but a good heart is pure gold."

Of the three girls, Millie has the purest heart, but all of them learn lessons about love and friendship. Will and her best friend Ellen have a falling-out in Dumplin' but learn how to grow together as friends as a result. Millie is determined to help Callie get some real friends and hosts a slumber party for the girls (which starts out as almost a cosmic disaster). Yes, the beauty pageant may have judged smiles, but the friendship is the real gold in the story.

12.  "I just love people who are bold enough to get out there and do what they do and do it without fear."

From Will's POV in Dumplin,' Callie is villainous, a mean girl intent on "stealing" Ellen's friendship from Will. And indeed,  Callie's impulsive, revenge-seeking nature makes her a difficult character to like, especially how she will do anything to achieve her goals, no matter who she has to destroy on the way. However, I found myself admiring Callie's determination and spunk. She definitely embodies the "do it on purpose" part of the quote; nothing is passive about her. Frankly, I wish I had more Callie in me! We could all use more Callies on our sides.


Jen, the Emcee: And there you have it, theydies and gentlethems! ONE DOZEN of Dolly Parton's most iconic quotes. Which one should take the prize? That, dear audience, is your decision. But first, visit these sites to read all of our featured Dolly quotes and more. Turquoise quotes from Inspiringquotes.us, purple from Wide Open Country, and pink  from Mental Floss.

My final takeaway (in 75 words or fewer): As I wrote earlier, I liked both books, but I liked Puddin' much better. However, I don't think I would have appreciated Millie's character as much if I had not read Dumplin' first. So my advice is to read both books, Dumplin' and then Puddin.'  You won't be disappointed. Plus, I didn't even mention the rest of the pageant girls, especially the amazing Hannah.


Memorable quotes/passages from Dumplin':

• "All my life I've had a body worth commenting on and if living in my skin has taught me anything it's that if it's not your body, it's not yours to comment on. Fat. Skinny. Short. Tall. It doesn't matter" (pg. 33). 
• "You don't always have to win a pageant to wear a crown" (pg. 67).
• "The pageant and football pull this little town out of itself and into something more. Because when those stadium lights are on  or when that curtain parts, we are the best versions of ourselves" (pg. 103).
• "I guess sometimes the perfection we perceive in others is made up of a whole bunch of tiny imperfections, because some days the damn dress just won't zip" (pg. 369).

Memorable quotes/passages from Puddin':

• "I'm hungry for any type of advice that will move me from Crush Corner to Boyfriend Boardwalk. (Surely I'm not the only person who imagines life in terms of board games like Monopoly or Candy Land)" (pg. 27).
• "Oh I've totally had crushes . . . And I think I want to be in a relationship one day. I just don't know what that will look like for me yet. I guess what it comes down to is that I don't experience sexual attraction and I really don't have any interest in sex. At least not right now. I think if I knew someone really well and was attracted to them in other ways, that might change" (pg. 102).
• "Being the fat girl my whole life has never been easy, but it gave me a way thicker skin than you'll ever have. So I know that life sucks, but I just basically gave you a buffet of friends out there, and all you did was show everyone why they shouldn't even waste their time" (pg. 204).
• "I don't need a church to be a Christian. And I don't have to be thin to be a pretty person. Or a good person" (pg. 259).

Other reviews: Dumplin': Los Angeles Review of Books and Kirkus Reviews

Puddin': Utopia State of Mind and Breeny's Books


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This book is available here: https://library.greensboro-nc.gov/

Learn more about the Rainbow Book List here: http://www.ala.org/rt/glbtrt