Judy Moody Gets Famous

Judy Moody Gets Famous by Megan McDonald

By critically acclaimed children’s author, Megan McDonald is the master behind the hit book series Judy Moody. Judy Moody hit the shelves in 2010 and has been very successful and popular among the tween audience. Judy Moody a young third grader with attitude shares her home and school life in this hilarious and fun filled series. In the second book in the series, Judy Moody Gets Famous, Judy is instantly jealous of the fame fellow classmate Jessica Finch gets when she makes the front page of the newspaper, as well as her parents and brother. Everyone seems to be famous except for her. Determined to find fame for herself, Judy steals broken dolls from the hospital, cleans and fixes them then mails them back when she finds out the news has scooped up her good deed story.

      Although slightly different from the rest of the stories, it doesn’t seek fame in the celebrity sense of the word, Judy feels like all the attention should be on her. Jealous of a classmate and even parents and brother who all have claims to fame, Judy is moody and desparately wants to be famous. The point that’s trying to be made is not so much the fame (in the celebrity sense) is what we’re after, we’re all stuck on the idea of being the center of attention. Is this a good message to be sending to children, while the author does an excellent job of portraying what young children go through and relating back to the reader’s lives, we’re stuck on the idea of ‘Me, Me, Me’ and this is something we need to  change.