Freckle Juice by Judy Blume, illustrated by Sonia O. Lisker- Fiction/Freebie/Chapter Book

“Freckle Juice” is a short fictional chapter book about a little boy named Andrew Marcus. Andrew desperately wants freckles like his classmate, Nicky's. Andrew thinks that if he has freckles, his mom would not know if his neck was dirty, so he would not have to wash in the morning and be late for school. A mean girl in his class named Sharon overhears that Andrew wants freckles. She tells him she has a recipe for freckle juice, and she will sell it to him for fifty cents. Andrew buys the recipe from her, and he drinks the freckle juice. The freckle juice, of course, does not work. It is made up of random items such as grape juice, ketchup, salt, pepper, onion, lemon juice, mustard, etc. Andrew does not get any freckles, but instead he gets a very bad stomachache. He feels so sick that he has to stay home from school for a day. When he feels better, he still does not want to go to school because then Sharon will make fun of him and see that he has no freckles. He decides to draw freckles on his face with a marker, but he only has a blue marker. Everyone laughed at his blue “freckles” and his teacher helped him remove the blue specks from his face. The book ends with Nicky, the boy with lots of freckles, saying that he wants to get rid of his freckles. The tricky girl, Sharon, tells Nicky she has a secret recipe for removing freckles. One can imagine that Sharon will play a similar trick on Nicky.
This book is a chapter book, but it is still short and has lots of pictures, making it a great “first” chapter book for students. The book is also great for anyone who has freckles, because they can see that some people desperately want freckles, so they will feel great about their own freckles! This book is silly and fun for kids, and I remember loving it as a child. I still enjoy reading this book today. Kids can relate to the book because they probably all have something that they would like to change about their appearance, just like Andrew and Nicky. They can learn from the book that most people look good just the way they were made, and it is better to stay who you are instead of trying to change. This is one of those books that I think both genders and almost any age group would enjoy, so I would definitely put it in my classroom library!