Jill wants to be popular, but it's kind of tough when her best friend is in the other fifth grade class. It's important to be friends with Wendy, the class know-it-all and ring leader, because if you're on her bad side fifth grade can be pretty tough. Unfortunately for Linda she is not on Wendy's good side. Linda is a little heavy, and when she gives a report on whale blubber she is just asking for a nickname to formulate. At least that is what Jill thinks, because she is the one who starts to get everyone calling Linda Blubber. This is the story of Blubber.
Fifth grade is rough, I remember it well. I think I was probably the Linda of my class, so reading this book was kind of painful for me. I found it a little hard to sympathize with Jill because she reminded me of other people that picked on nerds in elementary school. Still, Jill does become sympathetic as she learns what it's like to get picked on throughout the book. And she can be kind of funny sometimes; "My father doesn't have to worry about wrinkles so he never has to wear anything on his head. I'll be like him when I grow up" (19). I can imagine saying something like that when I was in the fifth grade.
This book says a lot about getting picked on and picking on people, but there is also a pretty clear message about weight issues. Fifth grade is about the time most girls start obsessing with their weight, at least I think that was how it worked in my school. Jill eats and eats and never gains any weight even though her school nurse says she needs to. Linda diets and diets and can't lose a pound. The story is a chance for girls to realize that everyone around them is struggling with weight, and I think it tries to argue for acceptance as well. I think it could do a little more of that though.
This book earned a B. I read this for the Shelf Discovery Challenge.
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