Spirit Animal will not appear in future printings of Julie Murphys DUMPLIN

Spirit Animal will not appear in future printings of Julie Murphys DUMPLIN

Last year, people were very excited about Julie Murphys Dumplin. It is one of the books that, by word of mouth, I figured I would want to read sometime. Heres the synopsis:

Dubbed �Dumplin�� by her former beauty queen mom, Willowdean 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 Teen Blue Bonnet Pageant�along with several other unlikely candidates�to show the world that she deserves to be up there as much as any twiggy girl does. Along the way, she�ll shock the hell out of Clover City�and maybe herself most of all.

Last week, Jeanne, who I follow on Twitter, wrote that she was reading the book and had gotten to the page with "spirit animal" on it. The line is "Oh my God," says El. "I think you might be my spirit animal." It is at the bottom of page 361:

Some twitter conversations began. Today, Julie Murphy says, at her Tumblr page, that shes talked with her editor and the phrase will not be in future printings of the book. I wrote about "spirit animal" in 2014 when I saw it on Buzzfeed--and in Neal Shustermans Unwind series. Murphys use is one that is easy enough to revise. Same was true with taking "totem pole" out of Out of Darkness. But Shusterman... hed have to do a lot of rewriting... Plus, that series is loaded with problems.

Thanks, Julie Murphy and Alessandra Balzer (shes Murphys editor), for hearing and responding to the concerns. Julie has, with her Tumblr post, been very public about the change. I trust that Alessandra Balzer will carry this understanding with her to future projects and that she, too, will initiative conversations about appropriation with her editor peers. I wonder, for example, if she knows who edited One Little Two Little Three Little Children... 

Julie Murphys decision is another model for those who have learned that something in their book(s) is problematic. Change is possible, as Julie Murphy learned.

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