How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #1
She guessed she had noticed when she had stripped off her T-shirt that her breasts seemed to be pointing out—maybe. But she had convinced herself that wasn’t true. Dicey shrugged. There wasn’t much she could do about getting a bosom, but she didn’t have to like it. (1.28)
It’s safe to say that Dicey is not the target market for a training bra. But jokes aside, this reluctance shows something more going on inside Dicey. It's not that she doesn't want to get a bosom, so to speak. It's that she doesn't like what that symbolizes—growing up, maturing, letting go.
Quote #2
The only class she couldn’t think in was home ec, because there you had to do things. Stupid things, Dicey reported to James. They were starting with sewing, buttons first […] But Dicey had much better things to do. She had her own routine. (1.191)
Dicey rejects traditional "girly" things, like sewing, because she’d much rather do "boy" things like building a boat or learning mechanical drawing, a class that isn’t offered to girls. Does that seem fair to you?
Quote #3
Dicey tucked the shirt in at the waist of her cutoffs. Looking down, she saw that her bosom pushed the front of the shirt out a little. She quickly pulled it out again, so it would hang loose. (2.166)
This moment (among others) sets Dicey apart from other girls her age, and other YA heroines, too. Take Margaret from Judy Blume’s Are You There, God? It’s Me, Margaret, for example: she can’t wait to get her period and boobs, while Dicey's here hoping she can hold on to her childhood a little longer.