Judy Blume On Blubber
According to Judy Blume in a short essay published in a recent reprint of the novel, the plot of Blubber was inspired by a very similar real-life incident involving her daughter's 5th grade class, in which one girl was singled out for torment by the class leader, who led her classmates in bullying her. "My daughter was the shy, quiet girl in the class, the observer, like Rochelle," Blume wrote. "She was upset by what was going on, but she didn't know what to do about it. She was scared. Like many other kids in that class, she worried she could wind up the next victim of the bullying." Blume also explained that she wrote Blubber to encourage children who see bullying taking place, as well as the bullies' victims themselves, to tell someone they trust rather than keep it to themselves.
Read more about this topic: Blubber (novel)