Superfudge
Encyclopedia
Superfudge is a children's
Children's literature
Children's literature is for readers and listeners up to about age twelve; it is often defined in four different ways: books written by children, books written for children, books chosen by children, or books chosen for children. It is often illustrated. The term is used in senses which sometimes...
novel
Novel
A novel is a book of long narrative in literary prose. The genre has historical roots both in the fields of the medieval and early modern romance and in the tradition of the novella. The latter supplied the present generic term in the late 18th century....
by Judy Blume
Judy Blume
Judy Blume is an American author. She has written many novels for children and young adults which have exceeded sales of 80 million and been translated into 31 languages...
, published in 1980
1980 in literature
The year 1980 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-Events:*Marguerite Yourcenar becomes the first woman to be elected to the Académie française....
. It is the sequel
Sequel
A sequel is a narrative, documental, or other work of literature, film, theatre, or music that continues the story of or expands upon issues presented in some previous work...
to Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing
Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing
Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing is a children's novel written by Judy Blume in 1972. It is the first of the "Fudge books". It was followed by Superfudge, Fudge-A-Mania and, most recently, Double Fudge...
.
Plot
The story is about four-year-old Fudge whose family has given him an increased vocabulary. Due to that fact, he knows where babies come from and plans to be a birdBird
Birds are feathered, winged, bipedal, endothermic , egg-laying, vertebrate animals. Around 10,000 living species and 188 families makes them the most speciose class of tetrapod vertebrates. They inhabit ecosystems across the globe, from the Arctic to the Antarctic. Extant birds range in size from...
when he grows up. According to his older brother, Peter, he is the biggest pain ever invented, but is loved all the same.
Peter thinks about running away from home. His mother, Anne, is pregnant, and Fudge annoys him to no end. He worries that the baby will be like a carbon copy
Carbon copy
Carbon copying, abbreviated cc or c.c., is the technique of using carbon paper to produce one or more copies simultaneously during the creation of paper documents...
of Fudge, but when Anne gives birth to a girl they name Tamara Roxanne, who soon comes to be called "Tootsie," he finds that his fears are unfounded. Fudge, however, becomes jealous of all the attention she is getting and acts out.
Fudge's father (Warren) decides to take a leave of absence from his advertising agency job to write a book, and Anne decides to go to school to take art history courses, so they announce that they are moving to Princeton, New Jersey
Princeton, New Jersey
Princeton is a community located in Mercer County, New Jersey, United States. It is best known as the location of Princeton University, which has been sited in the community since 1756...
for a year. Peter is less-than-thrilled at the idea, and when he learns that Fudge has been enrolled at the same school he will be attending, he feels even worse. His best friend, Jimmy Fargo, however, tries to see the bright side; Peter will be far away from his nemesis, Sheila Tubman, and he promises that he will visit him in Princeton.
Princeton proves boring for Peter until he meets a local boy named Alex Santo. Discovering that they will be in the same class at school, they become friends. Fudge makes a new friend of his own, a self-proclaimed bird expert named Daniel Manheim, who is Jewish.
At school, Peter (who is 11 years old at the start of the book) is in sixth grade, while Fudge is in kindergarten at the same elementary school. Fudge resents his assigned teacher because she refers to him by his legal name, Farley (the teacher disapproved of the nickname "Fudge") and acts out by climbing to the top of the cabinetry in his classroom and refusing to budge; Fudge is eventually moved to the other class, whose teacher accepts the nickname.
Over the course of the following year, Peter and Fudge each experience their own highs and lows:
- Fudge gets a myna bird he names Uncle Feather and then decides that he wants to be one when he grows up.
- Peter develops a crush on a local girl named Joanne McFadden.
- Jimmy comes to visit Peter, but when he and Alex meet and become fast friends, Peter can't help feeling left out and resentful.
- Fudge receives a new bike for Christmas, then tells Peter a shocking secret.
- Fudge meets his favorite author, Brian Tumkin, and causes an awkward moment for Peter at a school assembly.
- After Fudge plays a practical joke on Peter, he refuses to bring him to a picnic he is having with Alex. Afterwards, Fudge goes missing and Peter thinks he is to blame, until he and Daniel are found at a local deli.
At the end of their time in Princeton, Warren and Anne talk about moving back to New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
. Although Peter has gotten accustomed to life there, he looks forward to going back to his "normal" life in the big city.
The timeframe for this story is presumably 1978, as the book talks a lot about Superman, which was the year the film debuted. Peter says how he had seen it when he was still in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
, but it had not yet played in Princeton, so the friends he made there have not yet seen it. Jimmy Fargo claims to have already seen it twice; to which the second time he saw it was better. The story also mentions a coming of age event for Peter. Fudge pours ice down Peter's shirt in the onscreen shot of Superman kissing Lois Lane, and Joanne sits with him and offers him napkins to dry off the cold water. Jimmy and Alex have not yet gotten into girl-boy relationships and tease him for it. Fudge is also inspired by the film, believing it may be possible he was born on Krypton and can become like Superman.
Later (post-2003) reprints contain edits to the book, including a different Christmas list for Peter, references to record players replaced with CDs, MP3 Players and tapes, and making Anne only allergic to tree nuts instead of all kinds (resulting in her unable to eat peanut butter
Peanut butter
Peanut butter is a food paste made primarily from ground dry roasted peanuts, popular in North America, Netherlands, United Kingdom, and parts of Asia, particularly the Philippines and Indonesia. It is mainly used as a sandwich spread, sometimes in combination as in the peanut butter and jelly...
in the original). Fudge also mentions at one part that he likes to watch The Muppet Show
The Muppet Show
The Muppet Show is a British television programme produced by American puppeteer Jim Henson and featuring Muppets. After two pilot episodes were produced in 1974 and 1975, the show premiered on 5 September 1976 and five series were produced until 15 March 1981, lasting 120 episodes...
, Sesame Street
Sesame Street
Sesame Street has undergone significant changes in its history. According to writer Michael Davis, by the mid-1970s the show had become "an American institution". The cast and crew expanded during this time, including the hiring of women in the crew and additional minorities in the cast. The...
, and The Electric Company
The Electric Company
The Electric Company is an educational American children's television series that was produced by the Children's Television Workshop for PBS in the United States. PBS broadcast 780 episodes over the course of its six seasons from October 25, 1971 to April 15, 1977...
. This was edited so he says that he likes to watch Nickelodeon
Nickelodeon (TV channel)
Nickelodeon, often simply called Nick and originally named Pinwheel, is an American children's channel owned by MTV Networks, a subsidiary of Viacom International. The channel is primarily aimed at children ages 7–17, with the exception of their weekday morning program block aimed at preschoolers...
and Cartoon Network
Cartoon Network
Cartoon Network is a name of television channels worldwide created by Turner Broadcasting which used to primarily show animated programming. The channel began broadcasting on October 1, 1992 in the United States....
.
Television
A television show based on Superfudge and Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing entitled FudgeFudge (TV series)
Fudge is an American children's television series produced by Amblin Entertainment in association with MTE, based on a series of Judy Blume books about a young boy nicknamed Fudge. The series ran for two seasons , with 24 episodes following a telefilm adaptation of Blume's novel Fudge-A-Mania,...
ran from 1995-1997.