Judy Blume

Judy Blume

 (Author Study)

“Are you there God, it’s me Margaret”

            For my author study I chose Judy Blume.  I have such a strong recollection of her books growing up I thought it would be interesting to read then since I have forgotten the stories over the past twenty years.

I began with the book “Are you there God its me Margaret”.  This was an endearing story of a 12 year old girl who moves to a new town and faces the struggles of fitting in, having crushes and puberty.  There is much humor in the book as well.  Like when she set up a girl group talk to discuss cute boys, measuring of their breast/bra sizes and most importantly if they had started their period yet.  There is also Margaret’s deep personal relationship with God, and how she questions if its normal to talk out loud to him as often as she does.  While a big part of this book is all of the growing pains a young girl experiences, it is also about Margaret’s search religiously.  She is said to of been half Jewish, half catholic, she is trying to find out where she belongs.

            When I researched why the author wrote this book I found that she felt like she knew Margaret, that she had experience the same adolescence.  The only exception was Judy didn’t have the same connection with God growing up as Margaret did. She gave Margaret the kind of relationship she wished she had.  This was an authentic book for Judy; one that she felt gave her, her loyal readers.

“Blubber”

            Linda Fischer, a chubby 5^th grader in Mrs. Minish’s class gains a nickname after doing a report on whales and explaining their “blubber” helps keep them warm.  Wendy, the character that dishes out more than her fair share of humiliating words and actions is just a spiteful girl who you wish would get hers in the end. Jill is a character who doesn’t necessarily want to be involved in the teasing, yet fears retribution and wants acceptance, so she participates in the cruelty.   

            Jill acts as the narrator of this book.  While it would seem that this book would be solely about Linda, it is actually about how all of these characters are connected.  While Linda never would stand up to Wendy, Jill eventually finds her voice and lashes out.  Subsequently ending the teasing, but putting right back where she began in the pecking order. Her mother warned her that the tables could easily be turned and she would be the one being picked on.  Jill was not a necessarily a character you felt sympathy for, however you did at times understand that she was just trying go with it.  Throughout the book you often find yourself saying if Linda would just take up for herself more Wendy would find someone else to pick on.  My heart broke for Linda as she is forced to eat chocolate covered ants and undress in the girl’s bathroom and countless other moments in the book.  Readers didn’t get the ending of justice or vindication for Linda.

            When I read up on why Judy Blume wrote this book I was surprised at the answer.  Judy said that this book was inspired by what happened in her son Randy’s fifth grade classroom.  She was appalled at what took place and how the adults never seemed to see anything or were in the room when it happened.  She wanted a book that didn’t sugar coat what type of cruelty was taking place in classrooms all over the country. She said that there is curse words in the book because there are curse words used in the classroom by these kids.  What I thought was very interesting was that it was said that in some areas this book is issued to new teachers to help understand classroom dynamics. I thought that was a wonderful idea.  Not everyone was impacted by bullying growing up, and some adults don’t think they should be in tune with what is happening socially with their students.  This book may give them a perspective that will potentially help some student in their class one day.

Super Fudge:

            Super fudge is the sequels to tales of a fourth grade nothing.  In this installment Peter is faced with all kinds of changes to his family.  His mother is pregnant and has a baby girl Tamara (tootsie), they move to Princeton and his little brother Farley (Fudge) is still driving him bonkers.  Although Peter is relieved that the baby is nothing like fudge, he is upset with all the attention she gets.  Peter and Fudge make new friends, even if Peter is less than thrilled that Fudge will be attending the same school.  Peter and Fudge navigate through their new (temporary) life; they hit a few bumps along the way but come out ready to return to their old life. There are so many small details, like how Peter develops a crush on a local girl Joann, and gets made fun of by his friends (who have not began liking girls yet).  His best friend Jimmy comes to visit where he makes fast friends with Alex, Peter’s new friend.  Fudge has his own drama, including making a stink in his new kindergarten class. When the teacher refuses to call him Fudge and he gets made fun of for his real name “Farley”, he acts out.  Eventually Fudge is moved to a classroom where the teacher doesn’t have a problem calling him by his nickname. 

            As I said earlier Judy wrote this book as a follow up to tales of a fourth grade nothing.  It took seven years before she began writing, mostly because she didn’t have any ideas of what to write.  She said that the idea of them having another baby and moving away for the year came out of the blue.  Once she had that part she was able to write the rest.  She got the original idea for the series from a newspaper article about a young boy who swallowed his pet turtle. Now years later there are five books in the series.