41 pages • 1 hour read
Judy BlumeTales of a Fourth Grade Nothing
Fiction | Novel | Middle Grade | Published in 1972A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Chapter 2Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 2 Summary: “Mr. and Mrs. Juicy-O”
Peter’s father is excited because Mr. and Mrs. Yarby, clients who own the large Juicy-O beverage company, are visiting New York. He invites them to stay in the Hatcher apartment instead of a hotel because “He thought they’d be more comfortable” (8), although Peter’s mother disagrees. Nonetheless, she moves Fudge’s crib into Peter’s room to prepare the nursery as a guest room.
Mrs. Hatcher cooks and cleans extensively in preparation for the Yarby’s visit. Ever mischievous, Fudge eats two flowers from the centerpiece set for dinner in the living room, which upsets his mother and necessitates a call to the pediatrician. Mrs. Yarby fusses over Fudge and gives him a windup train. She gives Peter a picture dictionary that is a duplicate of a book he used at age four; nonetheless; he thanks her politely. Fudge embarrasses Mrs. Yarby when he shows her Peter’s worn-out copy of the same book.
Fudge reappears at the dinner table and holds Dribble under the nose of Mrs. Yarby, an excitable woman who dislikes reptiles. Mr. Yarby calls Peter’s father “HATCHER!” (17), which makes Peter uncomfortable, and demands that the turtle be removed. The Yarbys, a childless couple, expound on the importance of teaching manners to children. The dinner concludes when Fudge escapes his crib and scares Mrs. Yarby by wearing a realistic gorilla mask from Peter’s most recent Halloween costume.
The next morning, Fudge awakens Peter by having Dribble crawl on his arm. Peter is angry that the toddler touched his pet “and smacked Fudge on his backside. Hard” (19). During breakfast, the Yarbys announce that they are leaving for a hotel. Mrs. Yarby realizes that Fudge has decorated her suitcase with Mrs. Hatcher’s supermarket trading stamps. Mrs. Hatcher spends a half hour peeling the stamps from the suitcase.
The following week, Mr. Hatcher discards all the Juicy-O cans from the kitchen, and Mrs. Hatcher regrets that he lost such a crucial client. Mr. Hatcher himself is not troubled, as Juicy-O was not selling well in stores. Peter and his father agree that the drink tastes unpleasant.
Chapter 2 Analysis
The Yarbys’ visit introduces Peter to the sometimes unpleasant political and social intrigue involved in business transactions. It is clear that Mr. Hatcher invites the couple to stay at the family home rather than a hotel because they are important clients—the owners of the Juicy-O beverage factory. While Peter is not sufficiently sophisticated to appreciate the full implications of the relationship between a lucrative client and a service provider such as his father, he intuits some level of disrespect when Mr. Yarby refers to his father as “Hatcher” as opposed to “Warren.”
Social proprieties more aligned with an earlier era are again depicted when Mrs. Hatcher spends the entire day preparing a dinner party for her houseguests, replete with a floral centerpiece. Fudge ingests some of the flowers, and this requires a phone consultation with the pediatrician. The toddler’s ensuing antics—displaying a copy of the book given to Peter by Mrs. Yarby, frightening her by wearing a gorilla mask, and horrifying her by bringing Dribble into the room—further support of Peter’s contention that the child is problematic. For their part, the Yarbys behave sanctimoniously and without humor. Mr. Yarby demands that the turtle and the mask be removed immediately to prevent further upset to his wife. The pair lecture the Hatchers on the importance of teaching manners to children, although they are without children themselves. They are stereotypically inflexible adults unaccustomed to the unexpected events involved in life with young children, and their sins are compounded by the expectation that everyone drink Juicy-O with dinner.
Peter continues to try to win praise and attention by demonstrating his maturity and discretion. He expresses gratitude when the guests give him a book that he mastered five years earlier, and he takes the paper off “very carefully in case my mother wanted to save it” (14) and to demonstrate his careful nature to Mrs. Yarby. However, he feels that his efforts go unnoticed. The boy reaches his breaking point when Fudge awakens him by having Dribble crawl up his arm. Peter no longer represses his resentment and smacks Fudge on the backside. The reader can imagine that this smack is retribution for a host of mishaps on Fudge’s part.
The mention of the green supermarket stamps that Fudge pastes on Mrs. Yarby’s suitcase is reminiscent of mid-century shopping habits. Grocery stores rewarded frequent customers by dispensing stamps at the cash register in proportion to the price of their purchases. The customers pasted the stamps into coupon books and redeemed them for various household items such as electric mixers. The fact that Mrs. Hatcher collects green stamps speaks to the family’s middle-class economic status. Wealthy customers would have foregone stamp collecting and paid for their appliances outright.
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By Judy Blume
