Unable to accept or explain his family's newly acquired wealth, his growing interest in sex, and a friend's shoplifting habit, a thirteen-year-old finds the pains in his stomach getting worse and worse.
...maybe that's the trouble. Maybe kids don't always want you to give them everything."
What can I say? I've been in the mood for Judy Blume and revisiting my childhood.
This book is more clearly dated, especially from a class-distinction POV; nowadays even 'posh' people don't look twice at owning a truck. But I doubt very much that anything important has changed: Judy Blume nails what it means to be a confused teen with more questions than answers and no good place to ask them, and she so clearly illustrates that kids don't care about money; at least not until their parents have taught them to.
Then Again, Maybe I Won't is Blume's only YA book told from the POV of a boy and in typical Blume style she doesn't pull any punches. Tony is a boy going through puberty with all potential for embarrassment that comes with it. As a teen myself, I read it because it was scandalous, of course, but after reading it I also remember thinking "huh - girls aren't the only ones that got screwed". It was a nicely equalising thought.
I'm guessing recent editions of this book have been updated to remove most of the anachronisms. If so, I'd recommend it to anybody's teen - but only because I'd probably have no chance of getting them to read the "old fashioned" original.
Reading updates
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Started reading
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13 January, 2017:
Finished reading
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13 January, 2017:
Reviewed