Synopsis of Then Again Maybe I Wont by Judy Blume
Usa kids all needed SOMEBODY to give u.s.a. the lowdown on periods and boners dorsum in the '80s, and Judy Blume tended to be a chip more reliable than that weird kid on the bus. This one's kinda the boy version of "Are You There God...", demystifying for pre-adolescent readers that unfamiliar new stain in their undy-dundypants. Tin you imagine being Judy Blume'due south child? You lot'd take been the most well-informed kid on the playground. I bet parents never let their kids go to sleepovers at the Blumes, though.
I think I was about x years onetime when I read this book (one of a Judy Blume box set); I suspect my female parent has nonetheless to recover from my ensuing questions: "Mommy, the volume I'm reading has a boy in it who keeps saying that 'it went up'. Why would he exist embarrassed if his ZIPPER went upwards? Was it written incorrect?" After my mother's commendable (and surprisingly unflappable)explanation, I had some serious thinkin' to do...I mean, I grew upwardly without brothers, and then the nitty-gritty of the workings of male person beefcake was an absolute mystery to me, at least upward to that point. I wonder just how many of usa (at least those of usa who came-of-age in the 70s and early-80s) learned life's...business organization...from Judy Blume? To think, she went from Tales of a Fourth Grade Naught and Super-Fudge to Deenie and Forever! Subversive!
Yet another highly enjoyable Judy Blume book! In this 1, Tony's family become wealthy and move to a new neighborhood. At that place's some good aspects to this of class, but Tony's mother is desperate to impress the neighbors, to earn their approval and acceptance. This happens quite frequently, and, on a smaller scale, I have observed many people falling into this manner of thinking/living, so it was like shooting fish in a barrel to capeesh Tony's honest take on the situation. This is quite a frank volume, exploring puberty, anxiety, appearances being deceptive etc. Unfortunately this is the final of the Judy Blume books that I had fix aside -- I promise to detect more before long as they have been a lot of fun!
So Again, Maybe I Won't is actually one of the few Judy Blume novels from the 1970s that I did non read every bit a teenager (in the early 1980s). Aye, I did in fact remember signing Then Once again, Perhaps I Won't out of our school library, just then returned it mostly unread considering at that time of my life (from about 1980 to 1984) I was just not all that interested in reading a novel for pleasure (and in fact any novel) that did not have a teenaged girl but instead a teenaged boy as a primary protagonist (equally I was personally at that time finding the boys in my grade annoyingly young and tedious and could therefore also non imagine finding And then Again, Peradventure I Won't either all that relatable or readable, since Tony Miglione, the main protagonist, indeed is a xiii year former teenaged boy). In fact, I never did terminate upwardly reading Now while I certainly have despised on an emotional and personal level how Tony's mother is portrayed by Judy Bluish equally being rather a typical and increasingly arrogant urban social climber in many ways, considering that in reality there sadly are and always accept been many individuals exhibiting these types of character traits, Carmella Miglione's change and devolution in And indeed, the just part of
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August 20, 2021One of my favorite Judy Blume novels, and that'due south saying a lot.
The former-smelling used 1973 paperback copy I read has this catchphrase written beyond the height of the front end encompass: When I was growing up, Judy Blume was regarded equally a very edgy author for middle-school-level readers. Schools and libraries banned some of her books, or kept them behind the checkout desk. Amidst those books, And so Once more, Maybe I Won't was known to be the virtually dangerous. My parents wouldn't take wanted me reading it when I was a kid, then I didn't. Merely it wasn't but because I knew my parents wouldn't approve—it was also the full general tone of Blume'southward books. I call back a lot of youth-focused books in that era were based in the real earth and featured protagonists in urban settings (specially New York or New Jersey); in families that were in some way dysfunctional; enduring problems at school and navigating adolescence; dealing with form and race issues. I was growing up in a rural, agricultural modest boondocks in the Midwest, function of a loving family, and stories similar these seemed to have nothing to practice with me. Somehow my literary imagination didn't extend to putting myself into these settings. I didn't intendance for the slightly gritty, urban realism. Perchance that's one reason I tended to choose fantasy stories for my childhood reading. Narnia, Prydain, and Middle-Globe were a lot more than appealing to me than a present-day lower-middle-form neighborhood in New Jersey. And so Again follows this genre of youth fiction from that era. Tony, the protagonist, and his family unit (non a terribly dysfunctional or broken family, though with enough of room for improvement) move from their working form neighborhood in Jersey Metropolis to an upper-class expanse of Long Isle after his dad becomes recognized every bit a genius and has all the money the family could perchance want, forever. Tony befriends the male child next door, who looks perfect on the surface just is actually a existent jerk with the ancestry of some serious issues. Tony has his own problems, figuring out how to bargain with his family and with his own adolescent development. Reading this for the first fourth dimension as an developed, I don't peculiarly beloved it. The prose style is fine, only (to me) a piddling bland. Even though Blume tackles some tough problems in a helpful, open fashion, I'chiliad very uncomfortable with the aforementioned things that led to the volume's risky reputation years ago. Tony floats through life, wrestling internally with questions about himself and others around him, but he gets well-nigh no true wisdom or guidance. He's on his own. Because no one can assist him, there's no one to tell him that some of his actions are completely wrong. He attends a church youth grouping, but it doesn't seem to have anything to practice with spiritual guidance. The local pastor feels distant and uninvolved, fifty-fifty though he can surely tell that Tony and his family demand help. Tony's dad seems similar a proficient man, just he doesn't know how to be meaningfully involved in his son'south life; and his mother is distracted by their new wealth. The one person who might exist able to assist Tony is his grandmother—merely she can't speak, considering she lost her larynx to cancer. I found it really disturbing to accept a character in forced silence. It's interesting picking up a book whose title I heard so often in my childhood. For me, this is a case where the book would never have passed my standards for youth literature, and the years and cultural changes betwixt its original publication and at present have non rendered it more endearing or helpful. The funny, touching story of a boy with problems.
Wow. Who wouldn't desire to read that?
Then again, mayhap I shouldn't reread all the Judy Blume books from my youth.
I read this for a real-world book lodge; it took nigh ii hours to breeze through. Strangely, it was published in 1971 when I would have been twelve years onetime, just like the boy in the story, merely I never heard of information technology and so and was merely vaguely aware of the writer's name until now. It struck me equally a strange book. The prose was pretty juvenile, with short and simple sentences. Is it intended for 'tweens? I don't know, it seems a nice "I gauge I'm not a freak after all" message might be adept about so, but I didn't really accept any problems adjusting to early adolescence (at present, mid- and late-teens with rebellion, generalized maladjustment and hair-trigger emotions: that was trouble). But at about twelve I think I was reading stuff similar Christopher Johns' kid'south scifi Tripod Trilogy (expected to be a movie in 2012!) and stuff like Old Yeller and My Side of the Mount. Not introspective stuff. My rating is based on the purely hypothetical question of whether I would hand this to a kid. Yeah, I would -- boy or girl, but probably a bit younger than the ages of those in the book. By the time kids are going through those changes, the privacy instinct is going to kick in pretty hard and they'll have a tough fourth dimension asking questions about what they've read. I figure become this to them a fleck before that hits and talk to them about the freaky stuff afterward.
This was one of the few Judy Blume books I didn't read when I was younger. I estimate information technology always seemed like a boy'southward book to me just a friend was going on and on nearly reading it when she was younger and I felt similar I was missing out so I got if from the library. Wasn't at that place an Later School Special near the volume also? I know I'm dating myself but I think Leif Garret was in it and he just always seemed similar bad news-maybe that was why I stayed away from the book back then likewise. The book is kind of like "Are You There God? It'due south me Margaret" for boys. Tony, the main graphic symbol, is going through puberty and starts spying on the girl adjacent door. He even asks for binoculars for Christmas so he can scout her. It'south weird to read the volume and run into how information technology's no big deal that'southward he watching the girl next door undress. He even tells the psychologist he's seeing for anxiety nearly it and he doesn't fifty-fifty react! Today the kid would be in a handling program for juvenille sex offenders only in the book it's no big deal. Information technology was fun to go back and read a book like this, fifty-fifty if it'south kind of warped! It makes me want to read some of my favorite Judy Blume books!
I know I keep gushing about Judy Blume but once again she proves to be 1 of the best young adult novelists ever. I loved that this story--told from the POV of the male lead Tony--is just a strong a reflection of the juinior loftier years as "Are There God---It's Me Margaret." The story is a simple one--a poor Italian kid'south family becomes successful and moves from Bailiwick of jersey City to a toney neighborhood and exactly how this changes the entire mores of the each person. It's almost being the new kid in school, figuring out puberty and esuxal urges, about class struggle and even about "the whiting" one'south racial groundwork. I really did care for Tony and sympathize his concerns and confusions every bit his family unit adjusted to their new wealth and surroundings in means that seemed to go confronting their nature. I loved the character of his homesick grandmother--unable to melt since information technology would seem unseemly, the perky and annoying Corky who just wants Tony to similar her, the high terminate Hoober family who cause all the concerns and joy in the story. A near perfect volume and one I would read again.
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Source: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/480359.Then_Again_Maybe_I_Won_t
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