Freckle Juice Book

Considering that most children's literature (or episodes in children's novels) dealing with freckles generally have as a main theme how to get rid of the latter (such as for example in L.M. Montgomery's Anne of Avonlea, Anne Shirley mistaking a bottle of red dye for the lotion that is supposed to bleach the freckles on her nose and thereby staining it brightly scarlet), I guess it is indeed rather funny that in Freckle Juice, the exact opposite does in fact occur and that author Judy Blume has Albert purchasing a "secret recipe" from his classmate Shannon that is not supposed to make his own freckles disappear but is in fact supposed to allow Albert to have his face grow freckles just like his classmate Nicki (whose face and neck are literally covered with them and of whose freckles Andrew is intensely envious).

However, as humorous and yes as ironic as the premise for Freckle Juice is, personally, I have also found (and even though Freckle Juice is clearly meant for early readers) the book more like an outline of a story than a complete and finished tale, with in particular not enough slightly below the surface details and considerations to make Freckle Juice all that interesting and with a bit of thought provocation (and yes, also with some parts that really do not make all that much common sense either, for I cannot really understand why after consuming Shannon's freckle juice did NOT give him his desired freckles, Albert would then try to use a blue marker to paint artificial freckles on his face, as even he should know that freckles never appear as blue in colour, in particular considering how Albert has been continuously observing and counting Nicki's freckles whilst sitting behind him in class).

And really, I have found Judy Blume's general portrait of Albert as he appears in Freckle Juice for the most part overly exaggeratedly clueless (and even for someone only in grade two) to simply and naively (not to mention immediately) believe Shannon that drinking the concoction that her recipe engenders would cause actual freckles to appear on his skin and I would have at least wanted and expected a bit more personal doubt depicted on Albert's part by Judy Blume before he decides to ingest the so-called freckle juice he has mixed (but then again, perhaps the author also wants to demonstrate with Freckle Juice the inherent power and seduction of the often quoted and global belief that any medicine or tincture that smells and tastes really and utterly vile must surely and likely therefore work wonders).

Furthermore and for me, even more importantly, I do tend to think that Judy Blume ends her Freckle Juice rather annoyingly abruptly and that indeed, in my opinion, there really should have been at least some repercussions and consequences for Shannon (for the main instigator and in my opinion the main pusher of "freckle juice"), who seems to emerge frustratingly smelling absolutely like roses (which I for one find totally and majorly annoying and problematic since her unhealthy and uselessly disgusting recipe did make Albert seriously ill to his stomach and now might well do the same to Nicki who wants Shannon's so called "freckle juice" for the exact opposite as Albert, who wants to get rid of his freckles and indeed, I also really do not understand why the in all other ways generally so positive and observant homeroom teacher does not seem to recognise and notice Shannon's role in all of this and punish her).