I’ve been thinking Thursday: Blubber

I think any girl in my age range probably grew up reading Judy Blume. It’s almost de rigueur. I read just about everything she ever wrote. As I get older I find myself drawn to other childhood authors for rereading. But…road trip. Audio book copy of Blubber.

If you haven’t read Blubber , it’s the tales of a year of school, fifth grade, from the point of view of one girl. She starts off on the popular side. Picks on the class designatee with the popular girls. Then finds herself on the other side of the coin by the end of the year.

There was an interesting Q&A at the end with the author. Blume talked about how she got the idea for this book when her daughter would come home from middle school and tell her what was going on in her class. She is careful to explain how her daughter was a quiet observer like Rochelle. (Sure, sure. LOL)

I was not a Rochelle. I would have liked to have been. But unfortunately, I got picked on. I always had just one or two friends, they were never in my class, and I was teased mercilessly all through junior high. I was blubber.

But here’s what I wonder. My child comes home and tell me about his or her class putting a student on trial after teasing said student for months. I choose to

A: Contact the school

B: Contact the abused student’s parents so they can get involved

C: Write a YA novel about it

And Blume picked C. So that poor student is immortalized forever. You can change the names. But at the end of the day when a fellow classmates mom write a book detailing things that happened to you, you know it’s about you.

I am all on board to write what you know. But it feels icky to use the abuse of a child as plot line.

And I am super glad I homeschool my child. LOL