Second place in the Walter Williams Major Work Award, Dregs is her first young adult novel, and Bumgarner tackles the tough issues of bullies, steroids, and what it takes to push a teenager to bring a gun to school. The book has already received attention from other notable award committees, including the American Library Association and the Gateway Readers Award.

Slipping, her second novel, received Missouri Writers' Guild Best Fiction 2005, runner-up.