Misplaced Pages

Freckle Juice: Difference between revisions

Article snapshot taken from Wikipedia with creative commons attribution-sharealike license. Give it a read and then ask your questions in the chat. We can research this topic together.
Browse history interactively← Previous editNext edit →Content deleted Content addedVisualWikitext
Revision as of 00:32, 8 December 2012 editBattyBot (talk | contribs)Bots1,934,080 edits changed {{cleanup}} to {{cleanup-book}} & general fixes using AWB (8759)← Previous edit Revision as of 17:07, 21 December 2012 edit undoDeerlover567 (talk | contribs)789 edits SummaryNext edit →
Line 29: Line 29:


== Summary == == Summary ==
A young boy named Andrew Marcus yearns for ] so as to avoid having to wash his face and out of admiration for their appearance. Knowing of Andrew's desires for freckles and his envy for those dotting the face of classmate Nicky Lane, a manipulative schoolmate named Sharon sells a recipe for a strange remedy known as "Freckle Juice" guaranteed to grant Andrew's wish. After concocting the complex, strange beverage that proves to be ineffective and sickening, Andrew is infuriated with Sharon's scam and plots revenge against her, dotting his face with blue marker spots. Albeit nobody is fooled, his teacher Miss Kelly gives him a cure by granting him a removal supplement called the "Magic Freckle Remover," through which Nicky Lane later winds up expressing his hatred for his own freckles by requesting to use the removal system himself. At the end of the day, Andrew overhears a conversation between Nicky and Sharon in which she promises to sell him a recipe for a concoction designed to remove his freckles, implying that the cycle will repeat again somehow.
Andrew's dream is to have freckles. He envies Nicky Lane because Nicky has numerous freckles all over his face, ears, and neck. Andrew feels as if he is at a disadvantage because he only had two ] on his fingers. Once, Andew tried counting all of Nicky's freckles, but when he got to eighty-six, Miss Kelly, Andrew's teacher, told him to pay attention. He wants to have his own so his mother will not be able to tell if his neck and face are dirty and he would not have to wash them. He makes many attempts to acquire freckles. Andrew thinks that freckles are really neat.

After asking Nicky how he got his freckles, and getting the expected answer ("you get born with them"), a girl in his class named Sharon, who often fools him by using sneaky tricks, tells him he can get freckles by drinking a concoction that she claims she used to get freckles. At first, Andrew does not believe her. Sharon then tells Andrew to look closely and Andrew observes that Sharon has six freckles on her nose. She gives him the recipe for "Freckle Juice" for fifty cents. He thinks it is ridiculous that he has to use five weeks worth of allowance for a recipe, but he is dying to get freckles. After school, he runs home to make the recipe which calls for several disgusting ingredients (some of which he did not have and had to use substitutes). He ends up drinking it, after which he gets very sick. His mother comes home, notices how sick he looks, and puts him to bed immediately. She gives him ] to get better. That night he has a nightmare about being bullied by a monster which looks like a gigantic Sharon, who forces him to drink quarts of Freckle Juice, but only makes the monster gain freckles. Because he still feels queasy, Andrew stays home from school the following morning, but gradually recovers that afternoon. The following day he is healthy enough to go to school, but must think of a way to convince Sharon he got freckles.

Before he goes to school, Andrew tried to find a brown marker but could not find one so he used a blue marker to draw several little dots on his face. He believes this will make him look like he got freckles, which would prove Sharon wrong. He realises that her recipe was only a joke to fool him. He is angry and frustrated because he was the victim of a prank. Unfortunately, everybody, including Sharon, sees through this idea and ends up laughing at him.

Miss Kelly gives Andrew her secret formula for removing freckles. It seems to be a powerful lemony soap that cleanses magic marker stains. Ironically, Nicky Lane, the boy he envied because of his real freckles, asks her if he could use the secret formula as well because he hates them. Miss Kelly explains freckles did not look good on Andrew, but are fine on Nicky and that she hopes the "secret formula" will never be used again. Later, Sharon whispers to Nicky about this recipe for a concoction that can get rid of his freckles. Andrew takes pleasure when Sharon makes a big frog face at him.


== Reviews == == Reviews ==

Revision as of 17:07, 21 December 2012

This article lacks context for non-readers of the book. Please help improve this article. (March 2010)
Freckle Juice
1st edition
AuthorJudy Blume
IllustratorSonia O. Lisker
LanguageEnglish
GenreChildren
PublisherFour Winds Press
Publication date1971
Publication placeUnited States
Media typePrint
Pages47 pp
ISBN0-440-42813-0
OCLC16245047
LC ClassMLCS 2006/13892 (P)

Freckle Juice (ISBN 0-440-42813-0) is a 1971 children's book by Judy Blume. This short story is about Andrew Marcus, a second grade student, who wants to look like Nicky Lane.

Summary

A young boy named Andrew Marcus yearns for freckles so as to avoid having to wash his face and out of admiration for their appearance. Knowing of Andrew's desires for freckles and his envy for those dotting the face of classmate Nicky Lane, a manipulative schoolmate named Sharon sells a recipe for a strange remedy known as "Freckle Juice" guaranteed to grant Andrew's wish. After concocting the complex, strange beverage that proves to be ineffective and sickening, Andrew is infuriated with Sharon's scam and plots revenge against her, dotting his face with blue marker spots. Albeit nobody is fooled, his teacher Miss Kelly gives him a cure by granting him a removal supplement called the "Magic Freckle Remover," through which Nicky Lane later winds up expressing his hatred for his own freckles by requesting to use the removal system himself. At the end of the day, Andrew overhears a conversation between Nicky and Sharon in which she promises to sell him a recipe for a concoction designed to remove his freckles, implying that the cycle will repeat again somehow.

Reviews

"This convincing small boy adventure proceeds smoothly to a satisfying conclusion. The conniving little girl, understanding teacher, and feckless, freckleless boy are amusingly depicted in the impish black-and-white illustrations and in the story which is especially suited for reading aloud to second-and third-graders." - Library Journal.

"Spontaneous humor, sure to appeal to the youngest reader. The amusing sketches and the well-spaced type make an inviting volume." - The Horn Book

References

Works by Judy Blume
Fudge series
Novels
Non-fiction and others
Adaptations
Categories: