Margie Kelly Breaks the Dress Code
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- $6.99
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- $6.99
Publisher Description
A timely and thought-provoking novel about one girl's fight against gender inequality at her middle school and the lessons about her own privilege she learns along the way.
Margie Kelly's perfect skirt was dress coded on her very first day of middle school. Upset and embarrassed, Margie spends the whole day wearing oversized gym shorts. So much for starting sixth grade with confidence!
But when Margie realizes that the dress code is only applied to the female students and not the boys, Margie gets mad. Really mad.
The dress code is keeping girls stuck in detention all day and away from learning. The boys act like they own the school. And the teachers turn a blind eye to the hypocrisies taking place in the halls, classrooms, and clubs. Something has to change! And Margie knows just how to do it. She'll plan a school-wide protest with her best friend, Daniela, and fellow classmates Jamiya and Gloria.
But as Margie moves forward with her plans, she comes to realize some hard truths about herself. Will Margie recognize her own privilege and make meaningful change for all students?
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
A sixth grader's battle for justice is the topic of this thought-provoking feminist novel featuring a determined heroine living in suburban Austin, Tex. Margie Kelly, assumed white, has a rough initiation to middle school—she gets dress coded first thing for wearing a skirt that's slightly too short, then fares poorly at quiz bowl team tryouts, ending up as alternate while her best friend Daniela, who is Mexican American, lands a regular spot. Humiliated and angry, Margie becomes aware of how the school treats binary genders differently: the dress code applies only to girls, and only three girls make the quiz bowl team. Following the footsteps of her activist mother, who died before Margie was two, the girl organizes a protest march to change the dress code. She realizes too late that she isn't taking everybody's needs into consideration—particularly "the dress code challenges for girls of color or queer girls or nonbinary people." Told in a sympathetic first-person voice and featuring an ethnically inclusive cast, Farr's (Pavi Sharma's Guide to Going Home) relatable story shows the pitfalls of failing to consider intersectional representation. Ages 8–12.
