51 pages • 1 hour read
Judy BlumeBlubber
Fiction | Novel | Middle Grade | Published in 1974A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Chapters 17-19Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 17 Summary: “What’s with her?”
The next morning, Tracy has a large project that is too big to carry on the bus, so Tracy’s mom drives Tracy and Jill to school. Jill is relieved to not have to face Wendy on the bus. She resolves to simply ignore Wendy.
In class, Jill notices that Linda has taken her spot. Wendy tells Jill that her new desk is over where Linda used to sit. Jill calls Linda Blubber and asks why she moved the desks. Wendy defends Linda, telling Jill not to call her names. Wendy calls Jill a new name: B.B. Jill isn’t sure what B.B. stands for, but the rest of the class laughs. Jill complains to Mrs. Minish, who tells her to take the empty space next to Donna. Donna whispers about not wanting to sit next to B.B.
In gym class, Bruce and Linda are team captains. Linda picks Wendy first. Jill gets picked last. Everyone on Bruce’s team moans when Jill ends up on their team. At lunch, Jill finds out that B.B. stands for Baby Brenner. Wendy pins a note to Jill’s desk that talks about how Jill needs to change her diapers. Jill remembers her mother’s advice and tries to laugh it off, but the kids in her class just mock her more. Wendy tells the class that Jill has to eat mushy foods like peanut butter because “Baby Brenner can’t chew big people’s food yet” (162).
Throughout the day, Wendy, Caroline, Donna, and Linda continue to bully Jill, holding their noses around her, shoving her into the sink in the bathroom, pushing her into the water fountain, and writing rude things on the blackboard. This causes Jill to begin biting her nails again.
At home, Jill lashes out at Great Maudie and Kenny before going to her room. She writes Mrs. Sandmeier a letter complaining about Great Maudie’s food and the treatment she’s gotten from school.
Mom brings home Chinese food for dinner. Jill asks what she’ll eat. Mom says Jill needs to learn to eat the same food as everyone else. Jill notes that egg rolls and chow mein aren’t even real Chinese food and says to ask Tracy. Kenny says Tracy is American. Jill says she’s Chinese American. Jill bites her nails. Dad asks if she forgot their deal. Jill doesn’t answer. She can’t bring herself to eat, not even the bread and cheese Mom puts out for her. Jill leaves the table and goes to her room.
Mom comes to comfort Jill, asking if she wants to talk. Jill explains that everyone dislikes her and that she tried to laugh it off, but it didn’t work. Mom tells her, “It’s rough to be on the other side, isn’t it?” (168)
Chapter 18 Summary: “Never mind spitting.”
After spending all Saturday helping her family clean the house, Jill doesn’t start her math homework until late Sunday night. It takes her over an hour, but Dad checks it and tells her it’s perfect. Jill is proud. Jill feels a little better facing school on Monday after talking with Mom. Still, she resolves not to wear a skirt, so no one can pull it up and show her underwear.
While they walk to the bus stop, Jill tells Tracy that she’ll spit if anyone tries to make her kiss Bruce because that’s what he said he’d do. Tracy says to go straight for biting and tells how a woman bit another woman’s finger off. When they get to their bus stop, the kids who usually have a different bus stop are there. Wendy, Caroline, Donna, Linda, and several boys from Mrs. Minish’s class wait for Jill. Tracy asks what they’re doing. Wendy plows into Jill, knocking her to the ground and making her spill her things.
Wendy grabs Jill’s math book and starts playing catch with it with the other kids. Jill tries to get her book back but can’t reach it when they throw it. When Irwin catches the book, Jill kicks him as hard as she can, thinking he’ll drop it. Instead, he kicks her back and throws the book into the street. Jill holds back tears as she gathers her book. Tracy helps Jill get her lunch together because someone pulled it apart. The bus driver scolds Jill for taking too long. When she sits down, Jill sees Wendy and Linda sharing a seat with Caroline seated behind them.
In school, Jill cannot find the math homework that she’d stashed in her book. She tries to convince Mrs. Minish that she did it. Mrs. Minish says Jill can hand it in tomorrow. Wendy smiles at Jill.
In the Girl’s Room, Wendy blocks the toilets until Jill says, “I am Baby Brenner. I’m not toilet trained yet. That’s why I stink” (173). Jill refuses. Wendy says she’ll have to check Jill’s diapers then. Caroline, Donna, and Linda all back up Wendy. Wendy orders Caroline to grab Jill’s arms. Jill turns her attention toward Caroline and asks if she always does what Wendy tells her, accusing Caroline of not having a mind of her own. Caroline defends herself, but Jill keeps on, saying Wendy doesn’t even like her anymore. Wendy tells Jill to shut up. Caroline says Wendy “does too like me” (174). Jill asks why Wendy is always hanging out with Linda then, pointing out how they sat together on the bus. Jill wonders aloud if Caroline will be Wendy’s partner for the class trip. Caroline asks Wendy directly if they’re partners. Linda puts her arm around Wendy and says that she and Wendy are partners. Hurt, Caroline leaves the bathroom. Donna follows her. Wendy snaps at Linda for answering for her. Jill goes into a stall, shaking, and waits for everyone to leave before she comes out.
By lunch, the dynamic has shifted. Caroline and Donna eat lunch together. Wendy invites a girl named Laurie to sit with her. Linda eats alone. Jill pulls out her sandwich but doesn’t want to eat alone again. She looks around and decides to ask Rochelle if they can eat together. Rochelle agrees. She also has a peanut butter sandwich.
Chapter 19 Summary: “Put your money where your mouth is.”
On the bus to school the next morning, Irwin calls Jill some names. Jill says, “The same to you” (177), causing everyone to laugh. That afternoon, the school gathers to watch the sixth graders put on a Thanksgiving play. Back in class, while Mrs. Minish talks to another teacher in the hallway, Robby puts pins in his fingers. Jill challenges him, saying anyone can do it. Robby bets her a quarter she can’t. Jill carefully puts the pins in her fingers. Mrs. Minish returns and tells Jill to take a seat. Robby passes her a quarter.
At lunch, Wendy and Laurie sit together again. Jill can tell they’ll be good friends soon. Donna and Caroline sit together again too. Jill is happy that she doesn’t switch best friends all the time as they do. She sits with Rochelle again. They agree to be partners for the class trip.
Jill has been good about not biting her nails again, so that night, while her dad tucks her in, Jill asks if their deal is still on. There is still a month until Christmas, so Dad agrees.
On the bus home the next day, Jill and some other kids play keep-away with Robby’s hat. The sixth graders teach them “a song about the girls in France” (180). When Jill and Tracy get off the bus, they check the mail and find stamp approvals from the company. Jill invites Tracy over so they can work on their stamp albums. Kenny greets Jill at the front door with a fact about the longest earthworm in the world. Jill responds that his mother must be proud.
Chapters 17-19 Analysis
In Chapter 17, everything changes for Jill as she finds herself on the other side of the bullying. By standing up to Wendy, Jill has put a target on her own back, effectively saving Linda from further bullying.
In chapters 17 and 18, there are many parallels between Jill’s treatment and Linda’s. Wendy makes fun of Linda’s lunch because Linda has cupcakes and she’s heavier, then because Linda is on a diet. When Wendy turns her attention to Jill, she makes fun of Jill’s lunch because she always eats peanut butter. This food motif helps communicate how Wendy’s cruelty is not limited to certain people but is applied to whoever she’s decided to focus on. Another parallel occurs in the bathroom. While Linda is forced to call herself a “smelly whale,” Wendy and her group try to force Jill to call herself a baby. When Jill puts up resistance, Wendy tries the same thing they did to Linda, ordering Caroline to hold Jill’s hands so Wendy can pull Jill’s pants down. This is a direct parallel to Linda’s first encounter with Wendy, Caroline, and Jill in the bathroom, as Caroline holds Linda’s hands and Jill and Wendy strip Linda.
The unfolding of these parallels fulfills the foreshadowing in Chapter 7 when Jill’s mom warns her not to be too sure she’ll never end up in the same position as Linda. When the bullying against Jill begins, Jill does her best to heed her mother’s advice and laugh it off, but the effort is futile. With Wendy directing vitriol toward Jill, the rest of the class follow suit. At the beginning of Chapter 18, Jill begins to seek other ways out after observing how Caroline sits behind Wendy and Linda, with Linda taking Caroline’s usual place. After seeing how fragile the class social dynamic was during the trial, Jill uses this to her advantage to cause conflict within Wendy’s group. By redirecting Wendy and Caroline’s attention to their strained friendship, neither one focuses their aggression toward Jill anymore.
The final chapter illustrates the inevitability of the bullying and games the kids play with each other but shows them more spread out. Irwin calls Jill names, and she turns them right back at him. Robby puts pins in his hand, so Jill challenges him and does the same. On the bus, Robby is the victim of keep-away, and the sixth graders sing a new chant about girls in France. While previously the pins, name-calling, chants, and games of keep-away were concentrated on just Linda or Jill, they’re now less focused and less cruel, spread across the body of students. This dispersion of the bullying shows how the kids will always find ways to act out, but their cruelty toward one another is less present when everyone makes fun of everyone. In the end, Jill learns how to handle whatever is directed her way through redirection and taking things less seriously.
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