Blubber (1974)

i can be ambivalent about a lot of children's books but the ones i like, i like a lot. this is brilliant fiction and quite chilling, actually in the what it shows us of humanity. if you haven't read it since you were a kid, pick it up again. ( )

Before Lindsey Lohan tried to fit into the "in" crowd in Mean Girls, there was Jill in Judy Blume's story about the viciousness of 5th grade children, Blubber. Blume has a way of depicting the reality of school life - a reality that needs to be out there and talked about. In the case of Blubber, the protagonist, Jill, tries to fit in with the popular girls by picking on Linda, a slightly overweight girl in their class. Really horrible, mean things are done to Linda and there is not much of a happy ending, but it is a realistic portrayal of life in the Tween years. Challenged for: depicting children as evil and cruel without being punished for bad deeds; sexual references; profanity. ( )

I really enjoyed reading this book because I feel that Judy Blume did a great job of creating a fun story that also incorporated an important topic among young children, bullying. The story is about a young girl named Jill whose friends decide to start calling a girl in their class, "Blubber." At first the nickname seemed harmless. When the teasing continues, it does become a big deal. When Jill decides to stand up for the girl being bullied, her friend Wendy redirects her attention to bullying Jill. Jill learns that Wendy wasn’t a good friend and learns how wrong it was to tease and call someone Blubber. I would use this book as a mentor text for narrative writing. This could be a good way to start a writing prompt about a time when you felt bullied or saw bullying. I also think this is a great mentor text when talking about writing a theme into your pieces. Often times, the author is trying to teach us something in their writing. We would talk about how to write things with an inteded lesson you want the reader to learn. ( )

I think the novel had an excellent moral and was very eye opening. It makes a point about bullying in a very effective way by telling the story of experience from every point of view: the bully, the bystander, and the bullied.

It's all fun to call Linda "blubber" .. Then Jill feels the wrath of what it is like to be bullied.