Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing

infobox Book |
name = Tales Of A Fourth Grade Nothing


image_caption = The cover for the 2003 re-issue.
author = Judy Blume
country = United States
language = English
translator =
cover_artist =
genre = Children's novel
publisher = Dutton
release_date = 1972
media_type = Print (Hardback & Paperback)
pages = 120 pp
isbn = ISBN 0-525-40720-0
preceded_by = Otherwise Known as Sheila the Great
followed_by = Superfudge "Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing" is a novel written by Judy Blume in 1972 with interior illustrations by Roy Doty. It is the first of the "Fudge books." It was followed by "Superfudge", "Fudge-A-Mania", and most recently "Double Fudge". Though "Otherwise Known as Sheila the Great" features many of the same characters as "Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing", it does not fit exactly in the continuity of the Fudge books because it only focuses on Peter’s classmate, Sheila.

Originally, the book featured illustrations by Roy Doty, but the 2002 reprint of the book edited out all the pictures.

The story focuses on a fourth-grader named Peter Warren Hatcher and his annoying brother Farley Drexel, and Peter's pet turtle. Farley hates the sound of his legal name, and prefers Fudge for any and all occasions. Chapters 4 and 7 also focus on Jimmy Fargo and Sheila Tubman, Peter's classmates.

Plot

Peter wins a turtle at Jimmy Fargo's birthday party. He names the turtle Dribble. Peter introduces his family and the concepts of Fudge and his habits. When Peter's father's business clients stay at their apartment for the night, Fudge annoys them culminating in decorating their suitcase with green stamps, prompting them to remove the account from the company. Then Fudge decides not to eat and later adds pretending he is the family dog and wanting to eat on the floor. A week later, Dad's patience is broken and he dumps a bowl of cornflakes over Fudge's head, leading to Fudge's new favorite phrase, "Eat it or wear it!".

While being watched by Sheila Tubman on the playground in Central Park, Fudge jumps off the jungle gym, thinking he can fly, crashing to the ground and swallowing his top two front teeth in the process, and Peter gives Fudge a new nickname, Fang, which is not amusing to his mother. Peter is recruited by her to supervise Fudge's third birthday party, which ends up with some amusing and disastrous moments. Then his mother takes the kids to some errands. First she takes Fudge to the dentist to check on how his teeth are progressing again after the accident. Then Fudge throws a temper tantrum in a shoe store, since he wants to buy loafers like Peter is getting instead of saddle shoes. His mother reaches her breaking point when Fudge smears his mashed potatoes on the wall of a restaurant and dumps a plate of peas over his head, as well as popping his balloon.

In January, Peter, Jimmy and Sheila are grouped for a class project which they are constantly arguing over, but Peter then finds out Fudge has made the situation more difficult by scribbling on the poster part of their project work. Then Peter finds out Fudge has been spanked by his mother, who finds out about what Fudge did to the poster. Then when the project is finally finished, Fudge cuts off his hair (as he fancies himself a certified barber), and the next day Peter gets a lock for his door. Two months later his mom finds out about her sister's first baby, so she visits them in Boston. Peter's dad takes him and Fudge into work where they are trying to get Fudge to star in an advertisement on television. Everything goes wrong the next day when Fudge is taken to the movie theater and purposely makes himself almost lost. Then his father cooks a rather nasty-tasting mushroom omelet, which Fudge enjoys but then throws a tantrum when his father throws it away.

The last straw is when Peter gets home from school to check Dribble, and discovers him missing. First he asks his mother, and then Fudge, who would not answer until Peter yanks pots out of his hand. The answer results in hospitalization because it was that he had swallowed Peter's pet turtle. It turns out to be dead when the doctors got it out of Fudge, so Peter's father gets Peter a dog to apologize about only giving attention to Fudge and not caring about the swallowed turtle. Peter names the dog Turtle "to remind him."

Characters