Blubber

Blubber

Hardcover - USA - 1st edition.

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

Blubber is a children's book written by Judy Blume and published in 1974. The book focuses primarily on bullying and the social dynamics of children around the age of 10 and was inspired by bullying witnessed by Blume's 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 severely bully a soft-spoken girl named Linda because she looks different.

In an interview about the book, Blume mentioned part of why she wrote the characters so varied was to allow so many different types of children to relate to the various characters. Some readers will identify themselves as the victim and hopefully gain the confidence to defend themselves, others will see themselves as the primary bully and hopefully realize how cruel they are being, some will see themselves as the character who always does whatever the popular kid does and hopefully learn some individuality, others will see themselves as the kid who finds the bullying rather unsettling and hopefully summon the courage to speak out against it, and so forth.

Personal

Own?	No.
Read?	Yes. Paperback / Audiobook read by Halley Fiffer.
Finished	Late 1980s / 2024-03-23.

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

Review

Overall:

— 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. Those authority figures who could help rarely pay attention enough to know what is going on and are too 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, meanwhile, justify their actions to the point where they think Linda deserves to be bullied because she doesn't defend herself enough and blame all 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 openly telling the kids to adjust their eating habits in order to fit within a strict height-weight ratio, even to the point of telling ten-year-olds to go on a diet or bulk up. It's important to remember that this inappropriate behavior was still commonplace not that long ago.
• The book does a great job at showing the social dynamics that exists with children even in elementary school.

Bad

• Sadly, Linda never gets to have a good time in the book and Wendy never has to pay for her misdeeds. Even though this accurately describes the lives of bullies and their victims in reality, I prefer my fiction to have happy endings.
• A fair amount of the story doesn't pertain to the main plot. For example, Jill's fact-spouting younger brother and health-conscious grandmother both could have been cut out and nothing would be missed.

Ugly

• Nothing.

Media

Covers

The popularity of the book has led to it being reprinted many different times and translated to many different languages. 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 doesn't do the book justice at all.

• 

  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
  
  Just a couple of friends. Nothing cruel to see here. Keep moving.

• 

  Paperback - USA - 1986
  
  This is the cover I had as a child. It's pretty clear that bullying is going on, but Linda looks like a perfectly normal girl.

• 

  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 about a variety of topics.
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