I’m thinking of having a book club where we read books from our childhood. Young adult novels. Discuss the book as usual but also discuss what we remember and why the book was chosen. I’m starting to go back to some I remember. Last week I read “Blubber” by Judy Blume.
I’m not sure if I have the original, I found this at the dollar store. This version has a bland cover, I guess that’s what I get for $1.25. I remember the cove4 being green with a girl on it.
The book is about bullying. I don’t remember that being so bad when I was a kid. It was awful, straight up bullying. The girls are mean. I absolutely remember bullying when I was a kid. I was a target at times, when I wasn’t I sat quietly and maybe laughed a little. I didn’t stick up for the bullied kids, I was too scared. Not proud of that but that was me.
This was a Judy Blume book that bridged the gap between “Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing”, talking about childhood antics and “Are You There God, It’s Me Margaret?” – which talks about puberty.
What I did remember is that the protagonist, Jill, was a skinny kid who had weird eating habits. I remember her wishing she had worn her heavy sweater for weigh in day at school. I was not a fat kid but I was a little chubby. I guess I had body issues back then. Also, do they weigh kids in school now? What about hearing and vision tests? Do kids get those red pills to show where your teeth had plaque? Was it weird that they did that or is it good?
I also remembered that Jill’s dad was a tax attorney. My nerdy 9 year old brain was intrigued by this occupation and I asked my dad, an accountant, what this profession was. While other kids were aspiring to be astronauts or professional athletes I wanted to work with numbers. I did it! In your face, classmates who haven’t been to the moon or don’t have a national title. Is that bullying?
As I was reading the book last week I remembered most of the plot. (Obligatory spoiler alert) Jill suddenly becomes the girl that the lass bullies. I. The end she tries to put the popular girl in her place and befriends the new girl. This is around the age that kids shift friendships as the develop mentally and physically.
I was interested in the character of Jill’s mom. She seemed to have depression, probably undiagnosed at that time. She smoked, which was unhealthy but still common back then. I would love to read more about her and I wonder what inspired Judy Blume to write her that way. Actually she may have talked about it, I forget.
At the end of the version I read, Judy Blume talks about the story and the inspiration behind it. It was based on a story from one of her kids. Queen Judy (she is book royalty) discussed the bullying- again , something that didn’t register for me as much as a kid.
I was surprised at how differently this book hit me. I didn’t like it as much as I did as a kid. I really hated the bullying and had a hard time being sympathetic to Jill. The book was good but my feelings about the characters changed and it made me uncomfortable.
Any good children’s book recommendations?
Introverted runner and other stuff 