amy falls down. jincy willet. (294)

i saw amy falls down on lena dunham's instagram.  i figured since she was reading it, i should check it out.

i have to admit that after the premise, an author, amy, has an falls down in her backyard which then started a series of events that resulted in her career getting its second wind.  in all honesty, i was kind of iffy once i actually read the premise, and figured i would not enjoy it. it seemed like something that an actual writer (which lena is) would love, but the layman like me, would be bored.

however, i was surprised by how much i enjoyed this book.  it didn't change my life, but it was enjoyable.  

as the title explained, amy gallup, fell down one day in her backyard and hit her head on her birdbath.  instead of calling for help or going to the hospital, she decided to instead stay home and be interviewed by a local paper since she had it scheduled.

quick digression, there was a delightful explanation about how amy once didn't call for help while drowning as a child because she was so concern about her word choice.  i appreciated her need to best express herself even during an emergency.  

another time word choice was brought up was about how reviews are written and words like compelling are meaningless.  she also mentioned how difficult it is to review a book that you like, which i totally agree with, books i hate are always easier to write about.  

so the interview, amy remembered nothing about it but she came off as eccentric and had bunch of great quotes.  my favorite was "feelings are not news" which spun by the other reporter was true.  i always had an issue with oprah because i once watched when she had a family with a schizophrenic daughter that had been diagnosed at a young age, "how does it feel to deal with the disease?" i always saw it as insensitive of her and this book made me realized that its because it demonstrated how she was unable to empathize with them.  when we read the news, we need just facts, anyone should be able to understand how that person felt during the crisis or disaster.

i have to add that this book is filled with little gems like this about the book industry, writing, even why we read.  as demonstrated in amy's first panel, amy demonstrated the silliness in people wanting to know the writing rituals of. authors.  i attend a lot of author readings and this question always comes up and always bores me, i mean because it's usually the same kind of answer or super specific to the author.  also i loved how she addressed the whole, "how do authors' ideas come to them" at the convention.  i recently attended a judy blume talk and she had this question asked in various forms and each time, she was like i don't know, they just come to me.  

back to the interview, so it created a lot of buzz about amy going out which thankfully got her living and writing again.  as we learn throughout the novel, she married her best friend, max, who was gay, to stop him from being drafted.  they were happy, but he died from AIDS.  after a bad and rushed second marriage and divorce, amy became a recluse and stopped writing.  so this accident was a blessing because it got her to live again.regrettably, she wasted a lot of years but thankfully found herself again. 

an enjoyable novel, and if you are an avid reader or a writer, a work you should definitely check out.  i have to add that    i also loved reading about her stories and wish i could really read them. 

then again, maybe i won't. judy blume. (289)

growing up, i loved judy blume.  my mom for some reason, maybe the cover with the boy with the binoculars made her suspicious, decided to read then again, maybe i won't.  when she was done, i was told i couldn't read it.  i assumed it had something to do with puberty or sex (though i had no idea what was truly involved with the later), but listened to my mom and never read it . . . until now!

then again, maybe i won't told the story of tony, a extremely sensitive little

boy, i mean he got stomach pains when he saw his friend do something morally wrong.  his dad striked it rich when he sold an electronic cartridge and tony and his family moved on up like the jeffersons.  however, tony learned the truth behind mo' money, mo' problems.

the person that makes it difficult was tony's mom.  by the way, reading all of these books, i wonder what kind of relationship blume and with her mother.  all of her mother's are overbearing and worry too much, especially about what others will think of them.  this was the case with tony's mom, she tried to hard to fit in and doesn't realize that just because you have money, it doesn't make your moral.  this was demonstrated by tony's neighbor, joel.  his mother, impressed by the joel's family, thinks joel is an angel, but that kid is a klepto and gets drunk!!  what a bad egg!

but what upset me the most was how her mom gave grandma the boot in the kitchen because of that maid! it broken my heart to see the mom have no backbone and for the grandma to lock herself in the room.  i wish that storyline had a happier ending but it never got resolved.

i have to add, i kept on waiting for the other shoe to drop.  tony's family was spending that dough but luckily it still continued to come in!

so what was my mom all stressed about me reading?  well, tony is going through puberty and so there is talk about masturbation and wet dreams.  however, i am pretty sure all of that would have gone over my head (see:  deenie).  tony is also a total perv and spies on joel's sister, lisa, while she undresses, which also never really got resolved either.  other than he realized he should stop doing it!

i have to add, there was a scene in which tony gets a hard-on while demonstrating a math problem at school and hides it with his book.  as i read that, it sounded familiar but it's kind of a common thing for boys to do.  i feel like the same thing may have happened to a friend in high school and he shared his story with me.

all in all, a good read for boys.  i told my mom maybe she should have my little brother read it.  she said she should read it to know what he is going through. lol

deenie. judy blume. (286)

i remember my friend chandra telling me to read deenie once on instagram, i told her i never read it, but i was wrong.  i had read deenie, just forgot what it was called.  i remember a story about a girl having to wear a brace, when i reread blubber, i thought the brace happened in that, but wrong again.  and to be completely honest, all i remember other than the brace was the making out in the laundry room with the brace on (what a pervy kid!)

so deenie was the story of a beautiful girl, deenie, that had scoliosis and had to wear a brace.  and i must say she was a better kid then i because she handled it very well.  there were some breakdowns but for the most part, she just dealt with it.  though that whole undershirt thing was weird.  but a great lesson for kids about having to deal with a handicap and also to be accepting of those with one as well.

i have to add that while deenie was a heat kid, her mother was the worse!  poor thing! i can not imagine having a mother like that.  it was horrible how the mom tried to blame the dad's family for her disease.  also all of the crying by the mom was too much, get a grip, lady! it was also sad how much pride she took in deenie's good looks.  i am glad helen stood up to her at the end, a mom should not live vicariously through their kids, but rather support their talents.  luckily, deenie and helen were more sensible then their mother.

okay, so now to the juicy stuff! so you know how people are always trying to ban books because of the sex stuff in them.  and one argument is that that stuff probably goes over the kid's head, well i am proof of that, because all of the talk about masturbation and sexual intercross went right over my head! as kid, i was turned on by the kissing, and had no idea what else was going on.  i probably assumed her special spot was on her stomach. lol. 

quick digression, at her talk, judy blume discussed how someone once thought her special spot was her elbow!

but yeah, deenie masturbating went over my head in elementary school.  though i have to add what wonderful advice for adolescence about masturbation.  it's normal!  i mean i didn't start until i was in high school, but saw nothing wrong with it and never felt guilty about it.  (i have mentioned this before.)

i will have to say that this is a must read for every girl and kudos to blume and deenie on the positive view of female masturbation! 

otherwise known as the sheila the great. judy blume. (285)

i remember reading otherwise known as sheila the great as a kid because i was excited that character from the fudge series had her own book!  however, all i remember from the novel is mouse's little sister, betsey, and the box she dragged around as a pet.  i have no idea why that stuck with me, but my love for marcel the shell and his "dog" makes sense.

otherwise known as sheila the great told the story of sheila tubman's summer in tarrytown.  and to be honest, as an adult, sheila is a total brat! i think as an child, i would have been annoyed by her as well.  blume must have written to her as a foil for the reader, so that they could see sheila's flaws and not make the same errors.  i mean those slam book descriptions are pretty on point.

sheila was a liar, she lies to cover up what she was scared of and couldn't do. i mean, mouse, saw through it and was still her friend.  i for one was getting annoyed by it yet, this is how kids are.  

things that annoyed me about sheila:

-how she destroyed bobby's models

-how she wasted all those materials for the camp paper

-how she didn't want to try anything in swim lessons (i would have shot myself if i was her swim coach)

-her lying about everything 

as i write this list, blume had to have written this to show kids how not to act.  sheila is definitely not lovable like margaret!  or peter!  so i guess this is a good book, if your child needs to

stop lying or overcome a fear.

iggie's house. judy blume. (284)

after seeing judy blume last tuesday for her book, in the unlikely event, i decided to reread all of our books.  and since june 17, is blumes day (though i might be the only one keeping it going), i decided to check out whatever was at the library that i didn't recall reading as a kid or needed to reread because i forgot what it was about.  i decided to read them in chronological order based on publishing date.

the first then was iggie's house.  i remember owning a copy of the book as a kid but i never finished it.  i remember the cover had a white girl with a family if black kids sitting on a porch.  on this cover, in front of a home, is the sign stating "go back where you belong! we don't want your kind around here"!this cover, let me know from the beginning that it would be about racism specifically based on housing policies.  

iggie's house was told from the perspective of winnie.  her best friend, iggie just moved to tokyo, and though she was sad about this, she was excited to meet the new family that moved in.  to everyone's surprise, the new family is negro or as winnie points out they call themselves black.  i did appreciate how blume took the time to explain via winnie that people should be defined as seen fit.  when making up her petition, she noted how her teacher used "negro", mrs. landon "colored", but the garbers, called themselves black.  due to their skin tone, one neighbor, mrs. landon, tried to get them to move out.  winnie knows this is not right and as the novel unfolds winne learns that the world is not always black and white when it comes to race.

winnie was a great character in they she doesn't discriminate, and tried to make friends with the gerber regardless of their skin color.  for kids growing up in the seventies, this is an important lesson considering that the decade before blacks and whites were still segregated.  however, it was disheartening to see her parents not stand up out right for the garbers.  her father was a little more forward thinking then her mom, but no one out right said racism was wrong.  the same went for her teacher, though it is true, we shouldn't like a specific race because we pity them it just as bad as  discrimination, but i wish he would have given a less PC answer.  but i guess it just goes to show that that is how it was then, people knew racism was wrong but no one really did anything to truly stop it. so, i shouldn't be that harsh on blume for not writing a more progressive adult character.  she was probably being true to her experience.  these people grew up in segregated america, so it would be hard to teach them new tricks.

furthermore, winnie demonstrated that any social change does come via the new generation.  and had we need to

make sure to teach her children to be accepting and tolerant of everyone.

here's go you, rachel robinson. judy blume (207)

i picked up here's to you, rachel robinson, on blumesday.  my friend chandra said she was going to reread it in honor of blumesday.  i didn't recall the book so when i stumbled upon it at the library, i decided to check it out.

i don't remember reading here's to you, rachel robinson, but i did remember reading its predecessor, just as long as we're together.  as i was reading and came across the vietnamese friend and jeremy dragon, i thought it sounded familiar so googled and discovered here's to you is a sequel.  i also learned thanks to wikipedia that the title is a reference to "mrs. robinson" by simon and garfunkle, so now every time i read the title, i think of that song.

here's to you, rachel robinson is the story of rachel robinson, a smart, straight-a student, with a troublemaker for a brother.  the story opens with the rachel stressing out about her brother, charles, returning home.  he was sent away for school but was kicked out.  rachel was super stressed out about his return, which made me think that maybe he secretly sexually abused her.  i know that sounds outrageous but she was seriously freaking about his charles' return.  thankfully, charles' abuse of the family did not involve sexual abuse, instead he bullied his sisters by constantly making fun of them and was extremely disrespectful to their parents.  he also smoked pot, drank (i think) and may have been sexually active.  rachel did have an asshole for a brother but she seemed to be a little too sensitive about it.  i would be like sucks do be him screwing up his life versus worrying about him.  i know i am so loving, but he obviously did not want to help himself so why bother?

since it is a blume book, it does discussed the difficulties of growing up.  rachel, was super smart and involved and school, and as result felt overwhelm by her activities.  though i hate to seem like too much of a school geek, but i was super involved in school but never felt overwhelmed by all of my activities.  i was able to do everything and still get A's.  so i didn't really see what her issue was.  she should have taken that course for the credit, she would have managed, she was a genius according to her brother.

rachel's no new friends issue of just as long as we're together reared its ugly head in this story.  she was still jealous of stephanie and allison's closeness.  it's tough feeling like you are losing your best friend,  an issue all girls have and drake too.  

also rachel ended up kissing jeremy dragon which was super exciting but seemed a little random to me.  but i mean maybe rachel is a hottie.  sorry but lets be honest, rarely does the hot guy go for the school geek.

i also have to add that rachel thinking her night out with paul was a date was sad.  she is smart girl, shouldn't she know better?  and boo to blume sad for

having rachel's sleazy cousin ended up with him.  i loved that rachel dropped the baby bomb on them. lol

oh and in the end, charles started to grow up and got his act together.

all in all, an enjoyable read.  not the best of blume, but still a good story.  and hopefully girls take away the lesson about assertiveness, alot of rachel's problems stemmed from the fact that she didn't speak up for herself.

the pain and the great one. judy blume (204)

i picked up the pain and the great one because of blumesday and ended up reading it with my little friends, avery and audrina.  as a kid, i used to love this story because it totally reminded me of my little sister and i. jill was the pain one and i, of course, the great one.  as a kid, i enjoyed appreciated the lesson about siblings and jealousy.   it's a cute little story with an important lesson about sibling rivalry, that we really have nothing to be jealous of, our parents love us all equally.  i especially love how they both want to do things without their sibling but realize that they reason they have fun is because their siblings is there with them.

i will add that after i read this with the girls, i had them write a letter to their older brother about why he is so great.  we also discussed how we should be nice to our siblings and not be jealous of them.

(sorry this post is short, but nothing too short or deep to discuss.)

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!

tales of a fourth grade nothing. superfudge. judy blume (157-158)

i recently purchased a superfudge tee from out of print, which inspired me to revisit judy blume's beloved classics.

since superfudge is a sequel to tales of a fourth grade nothing, my revisit had to start there.

in tales of a fourth grade nothing, we are introduce to peter hatcher and his family, which includes his mom, dad and of course his little brother, two-year-old terror, fudge.  before i go on i have to share that as a kid, fudge's antics were a little annoying, you felt bad for peter (his poor poster board for school!), but fudge was so crazy you couldn't help but like him.  however, as an adult, all i could think of was how did the hatchers end up with such a horrible child!  peter is well-mannered and caring kid.  fudge, on the other hand, is the type of kid i give dirty looks to when i see them misbehaving.  i also silently judge the parent for being a horrible and ignorant person for raising a indecent little monster that will contribute to the world's ultimate demise because only stupid people are breeding (harvey danger reference).  if i was in that movie theater with fudge, would have definitely demanded my money back!  but i mean fudge did have his moments, i thought it was adorable how he wanted to be a bird when he grew up and it was kind of funny how he would only eat if served like a dog.

here are some of my favorite parts. i loved when father poured fudge's dinner on his head, i viewed it bad parenting but didn't stop it from being hilarious.  the story of the birthday party was too much, all i can say is that kids are a mess.  also peter was right about the fat kid not needing a second helping of cake!  the story of the commercial totally reminded me of the full house episode when stephanie steals the commercial from dj.

the one thing that i couldn't believe was the ending!  how did fudge swallow a turtle?!?!? i mean i didn't believe until the x-ray showed it!  i kept on thinking, why are they getting an ambulance there is no way he could have swallowed a turtle, but fudge did.  but i mean it was the perfect ending to the book, peter gets a new dog that he names turtle and fudge lives!  btw kudos to judy blume for starting and ending the book with pet turtles!

*tales of a fourth grade nothing was part of flavorpill's 50 books every parent should read to their kids.

i learned via the dedication, a lot fans asked judy blume for a sequel so she made one, superfudge.

she also did a great job of referring tales of a fourth grade nothing in this one!  

in this book, the hatchers have a new edition to the family, baby tootsie (i loved how peter pointed how his siblings candy inspired names).  when peter found about the baby being on the way, he freaked out! but i mean if you had fudge as a sibling you would too!  aside from the baby, some new changes are that father decided to quit work and write a book and mom decided to go back to work (way to go mom!  she also wanted to study art history, double way to go mom!) and the whole family moves to jersey!

of course fudge is fudge, craziness follows them to jersey.  again i was outraged by some of things fudge did like playing hide-n-seek with tooties.  it freaked me out to imagine him carrying an infant and hiding her in closets!  and of course him kicking his first kinder teacher and calling her rat face though she was totally uptight but still

he should respect his elders!

but fudge did have some great moments.  i could not get over how cute he was about the santa letter writing and then of course telling peter he only pretended for their parents.  also the story of the visiting author and the picture was hilarious.  and fudge's use of big vocabulary words was great too!

i also loved the new people they met in jersey, well except that annoying kid daniel.  i really liked alex but primarily because of his halloween painting!! loved that he was jimmy's dad's painting anita's anger.  how clever! i might have to steal that costume idea from him!  i also liked mrs. muldour and her worm cookies!

and i have to add there were so many things in the book that adult me appreciated.  i got the charm of their jersey home esp the bathtub thought peter hated it.  also their use of the garden and growing organic!  i also liked how the parents were honest with fudge about where babies come from.  

all in all, two wonderful books that have stood the test of time.  i loved them just as much as fourth/fifth grade me loved them!!  can't wait to pick up fudge-a-mania on my next library trip!

are you there god? it's me, margaret. judy blume.

thanks to a flavorpill post, i learned that june 17 is blumesday, a day to honor author judy blume.  it's a play on june 16 which is bloomsday, a day to celebrate author james joyce; his work "ulysses" is set on june 16, 1904.  

since i loved reading judy blume books as a preteen (we didn't have the term "tween" back than), i decided to read "are you there god? it's me, margaret" to celebrate blumesday.  (and the copy in the photo is my original copy that i read when i was a preteen!)

as hopefully you all know from your own reading, "are you there god? it's me, margaret" is about a girl in sixth grade, margaret, and her journey through the tougher parts of being a girl: shopping for a first bra, waiting to get a period because everyone else already has theirs, discovering how catty girlfriends can be, and realizing the cute guy in class is not necessarily the best guy.  though, margaret has one other issue which is where the title comes from, a lack of religious identity.  margaret's father is jewish and his mother is catholic since their parents did not approve of their marriage, they decided to raise margaret without a religion and let her chose when she is older.  regardless of the absence of religion growing up, margaret still turns to god to help cope with the stress of growing up.

i think i read this book when i was in sixth grade, which would be prefect because it was the same age as margaret.  i believe it was sixth because i didn't have my period yet (i started in 7th).  as a result, i had to asked my mom and aunt about the whole sanitary napkin belt that maraget discussed.  they told me about the belts they had to use but thankfully i didn't have to worry about all that because my sanitary napkins would come (and still do) with adhesive so they would stick to my undies.   i mean tampon commercials demonstrate all the things you can do thanks to tampons, imagine all the things you couldn't do thanks to that belt.

and i am glad i read this book pre-period because sixth grader me needed the life lessons blume gave in this book.  blume gives such a honest portrayal of growing up that this should be required preteen girl reading.  i must admit that i when i read this book as a preteen, i dwelled on the parts about making your boobs grow (my breast came in high school, i can admit that i did "i must, i must, i must, increase my bust" a handful of times) and periods but i got that the girls were being catty for no reason and that the hot boy was a jerk, but i didn't take those stories to heart like i should have.  but i mean i was still young, life would see to it that i learned those lessons.  and in retrospect, it's sad because as a preteen you learn these lessons, but people don't really change.  at thirty, i still see women being catty and in all my years of existence, i have only met one hot guy who was actually nice.  i take back my earlier statement about this being required preteen girl reading, it should be required female reading!

a big portion of the book that went over my head was the religious part.  i got why  margaret didn't have a religon but i didn't really get it.  for one thing, judaism was an abstract idea for me then, i didn't met a jewish person until i was in college. i knew catholics so knew how their church went but didn't really get all of the parts about margaret's temple experience.  i did understand the importance of marrying within one's religion, but have never felt the pressure to do so. my family members have married all religons and ethnicities so i never felt the need to marry a specific kind of person.  for example, my grandfather was chinese-arabian and a muslim (he was really strict about the pork eating) and my grandmother is mexian-filipino who was raised catholic but converted to mormonism.  our family is one big melting pot (which i love) so if i married a jew or a catholic, no one would have an issue.  as a result, i probably was able to understand what was going on in but didn't really identify with margaret.

as an adult, looking back i that blume presents important points about spirituality versus organized religions for preteens.  even though margaret does not have a religion, she still has a relationship with god.  this provides two importance lessons.  first that ones relationship with god can and should  be personal and defined by onself.  growing up mormon, i believed that there was only one correct way (as instructed by the church) to worship god but as i grew up i realized that what is important is one's faith in god versus the rituals of organized religion).  the second lesson is one of tolerance, every time margaret goes to experience a new religion she speaks to god as a being that watches over all things and not restricted to one religion.  margaret is right in addressing the same god each time because essentially the jewish, catholic and christian god are the same god.  this is an important point to make so kids will not be prejudices against others due to their religion because at the heart of it all, judeo-christian faiths believe in the same god.

i am glad that i reread "are you there god? it's me, margaret" because it reminded me of what a wonderful author judy blume is.  i will have to reread some of her other books i read as a kid.