Blubber

Blubber

Hardcover - USA - 1st edition.

Author Judy Blume Published 1974-??-?? Type Fiction Genre Comedy Themes Bullying, Childhood, Friendship Age Group Children

Blubber is a children's book written by Judy Blume and published in 1974. The book focuses primarily on bullying and friendship among children around the age of 10 and was inspired by grade school bullying witnessed by her daughter. Due to the nature of the book, it is frequently challenged in libraries around the USA.

The book follows Jill Brenner as she makes her way through the fifth grade. She and her friends do all the ordinary stuff that girls do, but, unbeknownst to their parents, they also spend time each school day severely bullying a soft-spoken girl named Linda because she looks different.

Personal

Own?	No.
Read?	Yes.
Finished	Late 1980s.

I read Blubber with my class, I believe in fifth grade. Wanting to revisit more children's books so I'd have a better understanding of them for my daughters, I read it again and was surprised at how much I remembered.

Review

Overall:

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— This section contains spoilers! —

Good

• The book doesn't pull any punches when it comes to the topic of bullying. The victim of the bullying, Linda, is frequently teased, berated, and attacked for making mistakes, trying to defend herself, or even just minding her own business. The kids bully her because of her looks, body size, mannerisms, anything that seems out of the ordinary, even though she isn't really that unusual. The worst bully, Wendy, is popular and pretty which causes other kids to follow her lead because they admire her. Authority figures who could help rarely pay attention enough to know what is going on and are eager to believe the lies of the more charismatic bullies because they don't want to believe their favorite students could be so cruel. And Linda doesn't just have one bad experience and then everyone learns a lesson and becomes nice, she is tormented over and over again, and it keeps getting more sadistic. The bullies don't think they're being all that bad, and even think Linda deserves to be bullied because she doesn't defend herself enough and they justify their bullying by blaming the bad things in their own lives on her. Those kids who were bullied in school know that everything Blume writes is described accurately.
• Parental smoking is brought up and Jill keeps trying to get her mom to quit.
• I like how Blume has the parents not care so much that their children use minor swearing while also making them aware that not everyone approves of such language, so they need to learn how to change their speech habits depending on who they're around. There is mild swearing in the book, but it's not inappropriate for the age group.
• It was a bit shocking to read that the school was conducting group weigh-ins of the students and administrators were telling the kids to adjust their weight to fit within a strict height-weight ratio, even to the point of telling ten-year-olds to diet or bulk up. It's important to remember that this inappropriate behavior was still commonplace not that long ago.

Ugly

• Nothing.

Media

Covers

The popularity of the book has led to it being released in many different languages across many different reprints. Some of the covers depict bullying, which is pretty accurate, while others simply have smiling girls on the cover, which is pretty deceptive (although, that may be the point). Most recent reprints have a cartoon whale which really doesn't do the book justice.

• 

  Hardcover - USA - 1974 - 1st edition
  
  A collage mostly focusing on Jill and Tracy. Doesn't really get the point across.

• 

  Mass Market - USA - 1978
  
  Girls mocking another student for not looking like them. Right on the nose.

• 

  Mass Market - UK - 1981
  
  Look just a couple of friends. Nothing cruel to see here.

• 

  Paperback - USA - 1986
  
  This is the book I read as a child. It's pretty clear that bullying is going on, but Linda doesn't look out of the ordinary.

• 

  Paperback - USA - 2016
  
  Most modern releases just have a whale. Completely meaningless.

Representation

Strong female character?	Pass	Jill, although cruel at first, eventually learns an important lesson about bullying.
Bechdel test?	Pass	Many different girls speak to each other all the time.
Strong person of color character?	Fail	Tracy Wu is Chinese-American, but is a minor character. A racial slur is used against her.
Queer character?	Fail	There are no queer characters.

Due to the nature of the book, it has a lot of fat-shaming and various other forms of bullying.

Links