"The Boy in the Dress" by David Walliams

I was actually disappointed with "The Boy in the Dress" by David Walliams.  It wasn't as funny as I was expecting.  Even though it has an "accept others" philosophy, it only applies to religion and cross-dressing: Dennis' best friend is a Sikh and other male characters in the book wear dresses.  But Dennis is not gay; he has a crush on Lisa, the girl who gets him to wear the dresses.  There is also a hint of peer pressure because, although he loves looking at fashion magazines, Dennis is not actually interested in wearing dresses until Lisa convinces him to do it.  She also gets him to put on makeup and high heels.  She convinces him to go to school as a girl.

The thing I most disliked about this book was the anti-fat thread running through it.  Dennis' dad is fat and so is one of the boys at school.  In fact, every time the schoolboy, Mac, is mentioned, there is also a food reference.  Not all fat people eat constantly and I took offense to this depiction.  In this book, it's okay for boys to dress up in girl's clothing but god forbid they be fat.

This book is also very British.  When I first read that the main character loves football and wearing dresses, I thought they meant American football.  No, they mean British football, which is American soccer.  There are also other British cultural terms and -isms that North American children might not know.

It only took me a few hours to read it and I'm sorry I bought it.

Read on,
Paula