The Blue Dress - by Rebecca Morrison (Hardcover)

About the Book

Book Synopsis

For fans of Jasmine Warga and Starfish, an Iranian American girl navigates complicated relationships with her mother, her best friend, and her body image in this unflinching and ultimately uplifting middle-grade debut.

Sometimes Yasmin feels like her body isn't hers. And it's not just because puberty has mounted a full-on alien invasion, or that emigrating from Iran a year-and-a-half ago has meant one change after another. It's also because her mother constantly pushes her to lose weight, like sewing Yasmin a beautiful blue dress for Persian New Year that is too tight on purpose.

At school, it doesn't help that Yasmin's best friend, Carmen, is petite and close to her own mother, or that popular-girl Zoe always has a mean comment to spare. Yasmin is sure her crush, Jack, won't ever like her the way she is, either.

With the pressure to fit in closing in on all sides, Yasmin starts taking desperate measures. But if being thin is supposed to make her happier, then why does losing weight feel like losing parts of herself, too?

From debut author Rebecca Morrison comes The Blue Dress, a heart-rending, funny, and hopeful book inspired by her own life, relatable to anyone who has ever needed to break away from someone else's vision of how they should look in order to embrace their true self.

Review Quotes

"[Morrison] honestly examines disordered eating resulting from peer and familial pressures in graphic detail, pulling from her own relationships with her mother and body image. She also thoughtfully develops Yasmin's and Carmen's backgrounds, cultivating an understanding of each girl's immigration experiences. A raw and vulnerable exploration of widely relevant and resonant themes." --Kirkus Reviews

"Honest first-person prose lucidly centers Yasmin's anxieties as she struggles to accept the impact of her mindset on her relationships and herself. Throughout, Morrison smartly and bravely explores inherited trauma by revealing the roots of Maman's anti-fat rhetoric, crystallizing in an uplifting, recovery-focused novel that empowers readers to be themselves." --Publishers Weekly

"Morrison provides a delicate depiction of the disordered eating habits Yasmin develops as a coping mechanism . . . Yasmin's internal dialogue reflects the tumult of a vicious cycle that has Yasmin hoping for acceptance from others and then being met with a rejection that only makes her more desperate . . . The ending prioritizes Yasmin's health and happiness, as hard conversations and a friend's bravery allow what truly matters about Yasmin, who she is within, to shine on the outside." --BCCB

"The topic of eating disorders is handled with care and in a nonjudgmental way . . . Encouragingly, the adults around Yasmin not only listen but also see her eating disorder, step up, and help--or in her -mother's case, finally recognize their own need for change. -Morrison's writing style keeps readers engaged and -wondering what will -happen next. A timely and powerful story of immigration, puberty, and healthy food and body habits for tweens. Highly -recommended for -purchase." --School Library Journal

"A successful intervention helps Yasmin break more than one unhealthy cycle and begin loving herself for exactly who she is." --Booklist

About the Author