Superfudge

Superfudge

Author	Judy Blume
Language	English
Genre	Children's novel
Publisher	E. P. Dutton
Publication date	1980
Publication place	United States
Media type	Print (Hardback & Paperback)
Pages	192 pp
ISBN	ISBN 0-525-40522-4
Preceded by	Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing
Followed by	Fudge-A-Mania

Superfudge is a book by Judy Blume, published in 1980. It is the sequel to Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing. The story is about a boy named Fudge who knows a lot of big words, but doesn't know where babies come from, never heard of a stork, but plans to be a bird when he grows up. According to his older brother, Peter, Fudge is the biggest and oldest pain ever invented.

Plot summary

Lately, life in the Hatcher household makes pre-teen Peter Hatcher thinks about running away. He is far from overjoyed at the turn the family fortunes are taking. His mother is pregnant, and Fudge is as annoying as ever. Peter worries that the baby will be like a carbon copy of Fudge, but when Tamara Roxanne Hatcher (a.k.a. "Tootsie") is born, she doesn't turn out to be so bad. But it's Fudge who now dislikes her, feeling jealous of all the attention.

Then they threaten to move away to Princeton, New Jersey for a year to get their mom an education in art history. Their father is taking a leave of absence, from his job on the advertising agency to write a book on the history of advertising. Peter also learns that Fudge will be starting kindergarten too young (Children usually go to kindergarten when they are 5 or 6), and they will wind up going to the same school. Peter is upset over it and feels like running away. But his friend Jimmy Fargo promises he'll come and visit, and he won't miss Sheila Tubman.

When they get there, Peter is not too thrilled about living in Princeton at first, until he meets a new friend, Alex Santo. They instantly begin doing things together, such as digging up worms for a neighbor, go to the same class, see the movie Superman, and go trick-or-treating together. Peter also develops a mild crush on a girl named Joanne McFadden, and Fudge makes a new friend named Daniel, who is a bird expert. Alex also becomes good friends with Jimmy Fargo. Fudge also gets his own pet, a myna bird he names "Uncle Feather" who loves to talk a lot. Uncle Feather's favorite phrase is, "Bonjour , stupid!"

The holiday season approaches, and Fudge goes around talking about Santa Claus and wanting a big red bicycle for Christmas. Peter thinks it's stupid that Fudge still believes in Santa. Fudge gets the bike for Christmas, and then reveals a shocking secret to Peter that night.

Tootsie turns a year old, and Fudge finally gets to ride his bike to kindergarten, but gets into an accident when he knocks down a pile of bikes on the bike rack. The day gets better when he gets to meet his favorite author, Brian Tumkin, which results in a rather hilarious assembly. But one Saturday morning in May, Fudge gets Peter up early making him think it's a school day, and because he's so mad at him, Peter does not let Fudge go with Alex and him on a picnic to the lake. When they get back, Fudge is missing, and so is Daniel. His parents are worried, and Peter begins to feel that he is to blame. Luckily, they find out that Fudge and Daniel merely went to the deli and bakery near the highway (and even bought brownies for his mother). They punish them (despite Fudge and Daniel's objections), and then that evening, the parents talk about moving back to New York City. Peter thinks it's a good idea, as his life will return back to normal.

Trivia

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 Superman when he was still in New York City, but it had not yet played in Princeton, so the friends Peter made in New Jersey have not yet seen it. Jimmy Fargo claims to have already seen the film 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 Lois Lane kissing Superman, and a girl in his class sits with him and offers him napkins to dry off the cold water. Peter's male friends 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 and tapes, and making Peter's mother only allergic to tree nuts instead of all kinds of nuts (resulting in her unable to eat peanut butter in the original). Fudge also mentions at one part that he likes to watch The Muppet Show, Sesame Street and The Electric Company. This was edited so Fudge says that he likes to watch Nickelodeon and Cartoon Network.

New Characters

Main article: Superfudge Series Characters

Television

A television show based on Superfudge and Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing entitled Fudge ran from 1995-1997.

References

• In the Scrubs episode My Sacrificial Clam J. D. introduces one of his patients to this novel, and states that Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing changed his world.

• In the Family Guy episode "The Fat Guy Strangler", Brian finds George W. Bush hiding in a tree house after Hurricane Katrina. Brian tries to get Bush to come down, but Bush stubbornly exclaims, "I'm reading Superfudge!"

• In the Reno 911! Season 5 season premiere episode, the Sheriff's Dept. is seen trying to negotiate a suicide attemptee down from a bridge who claims the last book he read was Superfudge. Deputy Junior also mentions the book Tales Of A Fourth Grade Nothing during this exchange.

• In an episode of That '70s Show the character Fez, claims to have an intense love for Superfudge and he also claims that he reads it once a month, even though that 70's show takes place before the book was published