blubber. judy blume. (203)

june 17th is blumesday!  i wrote about it last year, it's a play on bloomsday which honors james joyce's ulysses.  blumesday is set on the birthday of judy blume.  i decided to celebrate it this year, with a quick rereading of blubber.

i remember reading blubber as a kid, but other than remembering it was about a fat kid and that i learned that the fat of a whale is called blubber from it, i didn't recall much else.

rereading it as an adult, i am surprised that it is not required reading for schools especially with the recent fight against bullying.  blubber is told from the perspective of a fifth-grader, jill.  jill is part of the "in crowd" though kids normally don't get that label until jr. high.  she is follows, what thanks to mean girls we know term as the queen bee, wendy and bullies a fat girl named linda.  linda had the misfortune to give a report on whales, in which she had to explain what blubber is. the kids, being cruel like they truly can be, start calling her blubber.  wendy is a real regina george, i mean the bullying shocked me.  not only did they force linda to kiss a boy on the cheek, but they also made her pull up her skirt and show her underwear!  in today's world, such actions would have resulted in a suspension and a sexual harassment lawsuit.  jill is there being a bully, though linda has never done anything mean to her.  jill did demonstrate some regret when she discussed with her mom how to deal with kids making fun of you.  her mom tells her to laugh it off, but also warns her that one day she could be the one that is teased.

then one day, the bullying goes too far.  the students lock linda in a closet.  (before i go on i must share that i was surprised how their lunch hour was ran.  rather then have lunch in cafeteria, the kids were left in the classrooms with an adult patrolling the hallways and sneaking her head in.  did schools really run like this?  this is outrageous!  again if this happened today, a lawsuit would definitely occur due to lack of supervision). they decided to put linda on trial for telling on jill and tracy, however, jill realized she was sick of wendy bossing her around, she stood up to the queen bee.  though jill was winning in the self-esteem department, she totally lost socially.

the next day, wendy and lisa become bff and begin to bully jill.  they call her baby, and pull the same things they did on linda (minus the skirt lifting and kissing.)  jill then pulled a cady, and makes wendy's number two, carolina jealous of wendy and linda's new found friendship.  this little tiff then results in all of the girls making new best friends and they all move on.  it appears as though nothing is truly resolved, but it's just like the mean girls' ending, each girl friends a new group of friends and life goes on, which is exactly how it is in life.  

having been a fifth-grader once in my life and a female and having queen bee tendencies, i can say that this is how life is in elementary school.  i mean i was never a bully, though i did get my 6th grade class to stop talking to my best friend because she once didn't invite me over to play at her house. (there are more details that somewhat justify my actions).  but we females, unfortunately, hate each other guts one day and then are bffs the next.  i would like to say at some point women grow out of it, but i have seen thirty/fortysomethings fight like the girls in this story.  sad, i know.

as i mentioned before it is a great book for kids to read.  blume shared at the end of this edition, how the story was based on an incident that occurred in her daughter's class.  she wrote it in hopes that kids will not keep their bullying a secret.  this is a book every kid should read, though i warn there is foul language in it.  jill calls her teacher a bitch (something i thought was mature for a fifth grader).  jill also used another cuss word though she explained that her parents let her cuss.  

i also have to give kudos to blume for having great maudie, such a health food nut.  i noticed blume being up on the health food treat in the fudge books, and her being from portland this all makes sense, but really these books are like thirtysomeodd years old.  but yay great maudie for being into wheat mush and juices!

back to the book, if you read it as a kid, give it a reread.  and if you have kids and need a talking point for bullying, use this book!

the hundred dresses. eleanor estes. (134)

"the hundred dresses" has been on my to-read list ever since i saw it as book clutch on etsy.  i didn't buy the book clutch but thought it was super cute.  

(adorbs, right? but i couldn't afford or justify paying $175 for it.)

grandma bea bought me "the hundred dresses" a kid.  i owned a copy just like the library book.  i wouldn't call it one of my all time favorites but i do remember loving the fact that the little girl in the story drew a hundred dresses.

"the hundred dresses" is told from the perspective of maddie.  the story is about a girl, wanda, maddie's classmate, who was teased by the other girls for being different.  wanda was poor and polish.  as the book explained, she had a "funny" polish last name.  maddie's best friend, peggy was the one that started the teasing.  the teasing began one day when another girl had a new dress which everyone admired.  wanda then shared how she had one hundred dresses.  since she was obviously poor, peggy turned it into a sort of game, asking wanda every day about her hundred dresses and having a laugh at her expense.  maddie knew that it was wrong and felt guilty but sadly didn't stop it.  maddie was also worried that peggy would make fun of her for being poor and having a different last name.   

one day, wanda doesn't show up at school and maddie begins to feel guilty.  also, there was a drawing contest at school and the winner's drawings would be posted in the class, all the kids were excited to see who won.  when they went to their classroom, they saw one hundred dresses all drawn by wanda.  peggy and maddie realized she did have one hundred dresses!  however, wanda was not there to see that she won.  their teacher than read a note from wanda's father explaining that they had moved to get away from the racial discrimination and prejudices they had experienced.

maddie and peggy realized what they had done wrong and wrote a letter to wanda letting her know she had won.  wanda than wrote back and said all the girls could keep her drawings.  she gave two special ones to maddie and peggy which they then realized were drawings of themselves! 

rereading "the hundred dresses" as an adult, i realized there were some things that went over my head as a kid.  for example, as a kid, i didn't realize how racist and classist the girls were when they picked on wanda.  this was something that i never noticed as a kid probably because a) i wasn't sure what it meant to be polish and b) as a kid you never really notice race or class (i for one didn't).

being a mutt (my maternal family is mixed), i was raised without a strong racial identity.  i look filipino but grew up eating mexican and singaporean food, and only speaking english.  as a result, i never have felt loyalty to a specific race or ethnicity nor did i ever feel i had to stick to my race.  and i do want to clarify that i do  have racial prejudices and make horrible racial comments and jokes but unlike the girls of "the hundred dresses", i never allowed race be a factor when choosing friends.

random digression there is a story that my mom used to share about me when i was a kid.  we were at a family party and a kid that was not related to us came up to my cousin nalin (who is part black) and told us that we couldn't be cousins because we weren't the same race.  according to my mom, i then told the kid that we were cousins and that in some way everyone in the whole world was related and it didn't matter.  i have always been accepting of other cultures, if i like you it doesn't matter your race.  in high school our clique was diverse, we used to say we were the real international friendship club (there was an actual one on campus).

now the issue of class is different.  i never considered our family rich but other kids thought we were because i had nikes and wore guess.  i actually had someone tell me that in 6th grade.  what this girl didnt realize is that my family wasn't rich, but my aunt and my grandparents helped my mom out.  if it was just our mom, i would not have sported those clothes.  and maybe it's because we never really went without that i never noticed a thing like class.  but i don't remember judging other kids based on wealth.  looking back if anything all of my friends' families had more money than mine, so i am glad they weren't prejudice against me.

due to this, the reasons for the girls' teasing wanda went over my elementary school head.  however, as an adult, i fully understood.  and without sounding like a product of 90's politicial correctness, i am not accusing the kids of maliciously being racist and classist but noting the racist and classist undertones of their teasing.  at the end of the day, kids are kids and when they tease it is due to the unknown versus actually founded class/racial prejudices.

though i did enjoy the book and believe that it is important for kids to read it, so they can realize how their teasing harms others.   especially with anti-bullying movement in schools right now, "the hundred dresses" should be require reading.  however, i did not love this book because of the ending.  it seemed to be too soft on maddie and peggy, i understand that they recognized the error of their ways and decided to right the wrong they had made but it broke my heart when they realized that wanda had drawn the dresses for them.  the reason it broke my heart was because even though peggy and maddie teased her, wanda still wanted to be their friend.  it is so sad how wanda just wanted to be liked by her bullies, which i realize is how it is in real life. it's a sad fact of life. furthermore, it also seems unfair that the victim has to be the bigger person and forgive their bully when the bully doesnt have that type of compassion (they wouldn't be a bully if they did).  as i write this, i have realized, the ending is realistic, it was the best solution for the situation.  if it ended with wanda getting revenge, she would then be the bully.  so i guess it is a great book!

the hundred dresses is also listed as part of flavorpill's 50 books every parent should read post.  and yes i am on a mission to read those too!