Superfudge

When parents share that a new baby is on the way, the child who is already in the family often feels two things at once. Part of him is curious and even proud, but another part feels a quiet worry: will there still be enough love and attention for me? Psychologists call this the first stir of sibling rivalry, and it is completely normal. A young mind cannot yet picture how a family stretches to hold one more person, so the unknown feels like a threat. This is why big news — a baby, a move, a change — can land as exciting and scary in the very same breath. Understanding that mix helps you read Peter honestly, because his grumbling hides a real fear.

Visual AidA big sister and the new baby

A skilled reader watches not just what a character says, but how he reacts — the eye-roll, the stomp, the sudden silence. Judy Blume rarely stops to announce that Peter feels jealous or left out; instead she shows his behavior and trusts you to work out the feeling underneath. This is called making an inference: you gather small clues and add them to what you already know about people. Because Peter meets big news with complaints rather than cheers, you can reason that the news has unsettled him, even though he never uses that word. Reading a reaction closely turns a plain scene into a window on the heart, and it trains you to notice the same quiet signals in the real people you know.

Some struggles happen out in the open — a fight, a race, a storm. Others happen entirely inside a person’s head, and writers call this internal conflict: a battle between two feelings that both belong to the same character. Peter wants to be a good big brother, yet he also resents sharing his parents, and those two wishes pull hard against each other. Blume builds much of the book on this quiet tension, because a child adjusting to a new sibling truly does feel torn. When you notice a character arguing with himself, you have found the story’s real engine: outer events matter less than the choice he must make between his own competing feelings. Learning to name that inner tug makes you a sharper, more patient reader.

Every family meets moments that change its shape — a new baby, a move, a job that shifts everyone’s routine. What makes these moments hard is not that they are bad, but that they arrive whether or not each person feels ready. Peter did not vote on a new sibling, so at first the change feels like something done to him rather than with him. Psychologists find that children handle big changes far better when adults let them ask questions, share worries, and keep some small comforts the same. The change itself is rarely the whole problem; the feeling of having no say is. The moral pressure first appears as Peter Hatcher returns — a little older, in the sixth grade.