SOLVED. Society where girls are wrapped and have their bones broken to remain small. [s]

[Rainbowheart]

Hi guys,

I believe this is a British children's novel. It's about a society where the women of the community would bind and wrap the bodies of little girls and break their bones so that they would remain small. They needed to be small to perform a task. I think they were tunneling underground for something precious. Once they hit puberty, the girls would stop tunneling and get married. Late in the book, the MC figures out that the Mothers/Sisters (female leaders) of the community were doing even more dangerous things to get girls as small as possible. Something about a potion in addition to the body wrapping and binding. I believe some girls died.

Flipped through this book about 2 years ago but can't remember the title. It seemed somewhat new. I think it had a blue or gray cover. Definitely children's or early YA, the main character was just about to hit puberty, although she hadn't yet.

Thanks mucho for any help!

[Rachel Adiyah]

This probably won't help, but it seems to be inspired by the historical Chinese practice of foot binding, where females whose families did not need them to work would up their marriage potential by applying thick bandages to their feet beginning around age five and slowly break the bones until the foot could be flipped over in the middle so that it appeared to be half its size. Because this would severely hinder the woman's walking and movement and required constant maintenance by a special servant, it was only practiced by those who could afford to marry into a family where the women didn't need to do anything.

[Rainbowheart]

Thanks, Rachel. I did think of foot binding, although in this book, the binding was done for practical purposes. The girls needed to be small to tunnel underground. I keep thinking of The City of Ember, but that's obviously not the right one. It just had a similar feel to me.

[Amy]

a single stone by meg mckinley?

[El]

A Single Stone for Amy's suggestion

[Rainbowheart]

That is it! Thanks so much, Amy. :)