| Starring Sally J. Freedman as Herself | |
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1st paperback edition (Dell) |
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| Author(s) | Judy Blume |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Genre(s) | Young adult novel |
| Publisher | Bradbury |
| Publication date | 1978 |
| Media type | Print (Paperback) |
| Pages | 298 pp |
| ISBN | 0-87888-113-1 |
| OCLC Number | 2951936 |
| LC Classification | PZ7.B6265 St |
Starring Sally J. Freedman as Herself is a 1977 young adult novel by Judy Blume. The story is set in 1947 and follows the imaginative 10-year-old Sally, who likes to make up stories in her head, when her family moves from New Jersey to Miami Beach. While not as controversial as some of her other novels, Blume does manage to address the following themes of late 1940s life in America: racism, anti-Semitism and sibling rivalry. This novel is her most autobiographical, with many parallels between Blume's own life and that of Sally.
Contents |
Sally J. Freedman is moving from New Jersey to Miami, Florida with her brother and their mother and grandmother at the end of World War II. This is because of her brother Douglas's health, for he caught nephritis from staying in wet clothes in the cold. The novel first touches on racism when, on the train to Florida, Sally meets a black woman traveling with her young son about Sally's age and her infant daughter whom Sally gets to hold. The next day, Sally goes back to visit the black family and discovers that laws requiring racial segregation in the 1940s in the Southern United States force the family to move to another car on the train. Sally is infuriated and does not understand why her mother is not upset as well. Before Sally can be admitted to her new school, she must undergo a physical examination in which the school nurse discovers nits (head louse eggs) in Sally's hair. The school nurse tries to calm Sally's mother, who is insulted and taking the news personally, by saying, "Look Mrs. Freedman, don't take this personally. You've been traveling, she could have picked them up anywhere."
In her new school, she meets new friends, the first being Barbara, who teaches Sally all about the new school. Later, she meets Andrea, a sixth grader, and Shelby, a girl in a different class than Sally. She has a difficult first day at school, but after a while, she begins to make more friends. There, she meets Peter Hornstein, a so called 'Latin Lover', who seem to like Sally, but Peter ignores Sally when Jackie, a new girl, arrives at the school. It troubles Sally that Peter is going after a different girl, and she begins to like Peter back.
A central part in the story is when Sally meets a man named Mr. Zavodsky, who lives in her building in Miami. He offers Andrea and her candy. Sally refuses the candy even though Andrea accepts it, which makes Sally upset. Sally, who is Jewish, notices that Mr. Zavodsky looks similar to Adolf Hitler and comes to believe (because of her active imagination) that he is actually Hitler, in disguise and retiring in Miami.
Another important plotline is when Sally finds out that her father, who had just turned 42, was exactly the same age as his two brothers had been when they died. Sally, who is superstitious, is worried that her father may die in his 42nd year, because of the well-known superstition 'all bad things happen in threes'.
Sally writes (but never mails) a lot of letters to Mr. Zavodsky, always saying she will get him someday. She spies on him, secretly listens to their phone conversations on a party line. She worries at one point Mr. Zavodsky killed her friend Shelby, and she believes the rock candy he offers is actually poison. In the end, Mr. Zavodsky dies of a heart attack.
In the one year Sally spends at Miami, she learns how babies are made, attends but loses a contest, drinks whisky, kisses Peter at their teacher's wedding, and in the end, strengthens her relationship with her family members.
At the very end, Sally and her family return to New Jersey.
This historical novel focuses on a young adolescent growing up in the post-World War II United States. Other themes include sibling rivalry, making friends, bigotry and antisemitism.
Numerous references are made to technology and cultural events in post-World War II America such as party telephone lines and rotary phones, train travel instead of plane travel, and rationing.
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