Freckle Juice

Author: Judy Blume

Publishing:  Yearling

Number of Pages: 48 pages

Genre:   Realistic Fiction

Reading Level:  Ages 9-12

Summary:   This story is about a boy names Andrew Marcus.  Andrew is jealous of a kid in his class named Nicky Lane because he has a lot of freckles.  He says that he wants freckles because then his mom won’t be able to tell if his neck and face are dirty, so Andrew starts making some attempts to get freckles.  One day a new girl comes named Sharon who fools Andrew into buying a “freckle juice” recipe for fifty cents.  Since Andrew wants freckles so bad he agrees to buy it from her.  After school Andrew runs home to make it, but after drinking it he gets very sick.  When Andrew’s mother comes home she notices how sick he looks and puts him to bed and gives him some medicine so he can get better.  Andrew is really embarrassed so he does not want to go back to school but his mother makes him.  Before Andrew goes to class though he gets a blue magic marker and draws some dots on his face to show that he actually did get some freckles, but everyone sees what he has done and end up laughing at him.  Andrew’s teacher gives him a bottle of “Magic Freckle Remover” so he can get rid of what he drew on his face.  Later Nicky asks his teacher for some of the freckle remover because he hates his freckles.  But the teacher explains that Andrew did not look good with freckles but that he does.  Later Sharon tells Nicky how to get rid of his freckles.

My Reaction to the Book:  I thought that this book was kind of an odd one; I remember liking it when I was younger but now I just think its kind of funny.

Potential Problems:  There is lying in this book as Sharon sells her recipes to people, ones that don’t really work.  Also it shows people who aren’t happy with how they look and they try to change themselves, which isn’t a very good example.

Recommendations:  I don’t think I would ever really recommend this book to anyone, I just don’t really think that it is worth reading.