When I was in elementary and middle school there were all sorts of kids. Tall and short, fat and skinny, outgoing and shy, nice and mean and more others than can be counted. But when you're in those years there are traits and attributes that make a difference and those that don't. Being mean makes you powerful but secretly hated (though never challenged) and being fat makes you a target. Thus it has always been and thus it remains. It isn't fair, but it's life. Judy Blume tackles both sides of the coin - mean kid and fat kid - in the oft-censored YA book Blubber.
Jill is in fifth grade. She attends an intermediate school with only fifth and sixth graders. Unusual, but it places her nicely for either older grade school readers or early middle schoolers. Jill is part of the "popular" group. Sort of. Wendy is the definitive leader of that group and Jill is currently on the inside. Her best friend is Tracy, who is not in the same class and as such not quite as susceptible to the pressures of that particular in-crowd. We enter Jill's story in the fall, when thoughts are on school work and Halloween.
Of course we have one more character. Her name is Linda Fisher. Linda is a little overweight. Not a lot, there are other kids in the class that are really heavy. But Linda isn't funny or a boy or any of the things that make it a little easier to be a "fat kid". She's rather weak and unassuming and makes a fatal error which ends up leaving her fifth grade year in tatters - she does an oral report on whales. Oh yes, you can spot it a mile away, can't you? Wendy and Jill pick up on the word "blubber" from that report and it becomes Linda's new name. Linda turns into sport - fodder for the mean kids. They taunt and torture her as only mean kids can. The book plays out as the year progresses and the situation gets more and more out of hand.
Blubber is not a fun book. It isn't a nice book. It isn't a pretty book with a happy ending. But it's a very real book and a very real look at just how hard it can be to find oneself on the social "outside" and how tempting it can be to do awful things to remain on the inside. Written very much at a medium fifth grade level, Blubber is accessible to a lot of kids - probably from third grade up. The chapters are short, the print is big and the vocabulary is simple. This is an easy reader book for most kids in the target age group. This makes it accessible to most kids, which is both a blessing and a curse. A blessing for the kids who get to read it, a curse because it adds additional fuel to the fire of the censors. There are a couple of very mild swear words in Blubber, each and every one used in a proper context and with the proper admonitions that these are "bad" words. No matter, the challenges still almost always begin with "foul language" as a reason to remove the book from libraries. As usual, that is nothing but a red herring. Following up is the real crux of the matter - the mean kids do horrible things and don't get punished. Hate to break it to you, Mr. Censy Censorson, but that's the way it is in the real world. Every kid out there knows it and every adult who attempts to ban the book on that basis proves to the children of the world that adults are hopeless and clueless. As usual, Judy Blume has her finger on the pulse of her audience, not caring to cater to their parents. That's why kids love her books and some adults can't seem to stop themselves from turning into self-righteous prigs over the material. Perhaps they just can't admit that kids can be cruel. Perhaps they are afraid that reading about bullies creates bullies. Perhaps they are so out of touch with the world of children that they need to spend some time in a middle school for immersion therapy. Which would undoubtedly be followed by immediate treatment for PTSD. It ain't easy being a kid - kids know it and so does Judy Blume. Some adults seem to have forgotten.
It takes courage for an author to present a topic so bluntly as does Blume in Blubber. Jill is not a hero - she's a bully. She taunts Linda to curry favor with the popular crowd. She leads quite a bit of the rather extreme antics (like pulling up Linda's skirt and showing her underpants) and has plenty of bile to spew over this child who in reality has done nothing to her at all. I didn't like Jill. My daughter didn't like Jill. Our "protagonist" is a whiny, unrepentant brat. We weren't sad when the tables turned on her. When she finally stands up against Wendy it isn't for the sake of Linda, it's because she wants to get her own way. She does learn a lesson about being a follower and the discomfort that can create, but she never expresses a word of regret over her treatment of her classmate.
Linda isn't a whole lot better. She does nothing to deserve the treatment she gets, but she does little if anything to end it, either. She's rather haughty, she tells no one what's happening and never once does she stand up for herself except to struggle in the moment. She's a perpetual victim. That doesn't make what happens to her acceptable, but we didn't like her, either. Even after a section where we get to know her better outside the classroom she simply is not a kid I liked and mininocket felt the same.
So why is the book any good? Nobody is all nice, nobody gets what they really deserve in the end and meanness is portrayed throughout. But it's good because every kid who reads this book is going to recognize some, if not all, of the people in it. They're also going to see parts of themselves. It won't be comfortable, but it will be an experience in self-discovery. Figuring out what kind of person you are, and what kind of person you want to be, means making a lot of choices. From how you act to who you choose to make and keep as friends. Books like Blubber remind kids that they do have control over their own actions and that they don't want to be Wendy or Jill or Linda. Both Jill and Linda have good qualities - they just aren't the ones that rule their actions. A few different choices would make them very different people. I want my children to read about the world as it is and understand that they do have choices and they can change who they are by changing how they act. They also get the chance to see how poor choices on small levels can make a person very unlikable. Like all good books, Blubber will make your child think. To remove, challenge, censor or ban any book that encourages thoughtful consideration of actions, choices and social dynamics within a realistic framework is not only short-sighted but foolish. Raising responsible, kind and moral adults means accepting the mistakes every child makes along the way and finding some way to help them learn from those experiences. Judy Blume will make your child squirm if she sees herself here, and maybe she'll think twice before being a Jill or a Wendy the next time. We need to let her help us foster and encourage those young consciences, for someday we will count on those self-same consciences to lead our world. I recommend the book highly for kids and their parents. A discussion afterwards will make the experience all the more valuable.
This is an obscenely late entry into the Banned Books Write Off. Though the Write Off has ended, books continue to be challenged every day. Thanks to pestyside for helping us remember that and fight censorship every year.
Blubber is a good name for her, the note from Wendy says about Linda. Jill crumples it up and leaves it on the corner of her desk. She doesn't want to...More at HotBookSale
Blubber is a good name for her, the note from Wendy says about Linda. Jill crumples it up and leaves it on the corner of her desk. She doesn t want to...More at Buy.com Marketplaces
Epinions.com periodically updates pricing and product information from third-party sources, so some information may be slightly out-of-date. You should confirm all information before relying on it.
- Add to My Yahoo!: 
- Add to Google Homepage: 
© 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc.