Freckle Juice

“Andrew stood up in a hurry. His reading group giggled. Especially Sharon. He couldn’t stand that Sharon. She thought she knew everything.”

Andrew is so distracted counting Nicky’s freckles that he forgets to move into his reading group, which also includes Sharon, the antagonist of the story. This quote establishes that Andrew doesn’t like Sharon and that Sharon thinks she knows it all. His dislike will only increase in the story after Sharon, pretending to have a recipe for freckle juice, connives him out of five weeks’ allowance.

“‘I was wondering about your freckles,’ Andrew said.

‘Oh yeah? What about them?’

Andrew felt pretty stupid. ‘Well, how did you get them?’”

Andrew may be genuinely curious, but he’s also rude. Drawing attention to Nicky’s freckles—even though he doesn’t know that Nicky hates his freckles—is impolite, even if unintentionally so. Here Blume creates a true-to-life childhood moment. Children are often uncensored, and they stare, point, and ask questions about physical attributes that differ from their own.

“I have a secret recipe for freckle juice.”

Although Andrew and Sharon don’t get along, Sharon offers to “help” Andrew by selling him her secret family recipe for freckle juice. Sharon overhears Andrew asking Nicky about how he got his freckles, and she uses the opportunity to try to make some money off of his insecurity. Sharon is smart, and she knows how to play on Andrew’s desire for freckles. She has an answer for every question he asks, and she is determined to make a sale.

“Andrew didn’t believe Sharon for a minute. Not one minute!”

When Sharon first tells Andrew about the freckle juice, he dismisses her claims. Although he is outwardly dubious, he wonders if there might be some truth to her story. Andrew doesn’t want to be fooled, but he is so desperate for freckles that he is willing to try something unusual and suspicious like freckle juice if there’s even a chance it could work.

“That night Andrew had trouble sleeping. He kept thinking about freckle juice.”

This is the first time in the book that Andrew’s freckle obsession affects his sleep. In this case, he can’t sleep because he can’t stop thinking about freckle juice. He wonders if his family doesn’t have freckles because they don’t have the recipe. Wide awake and unable to shut his brain off during his sleeping hours, Andrew will be tired and frazzled when he faces Sharon the next day.

“First he’d look at it, and if it didn’t seem any good, he just wouldn’t pay.”

Andrew is willing to try the freckle juice, but he has a plan to make sure Sharon doesn’t swindle him. Blume includes this to demonstrate that Andrew isn’t necessarily gullible: he has a lot of distrust for Sharon, but he thinks he can control the situation if he can just look at the recipe before paying.

“I’m not going to show it to you until you pay.”

Unfortunately for Andrew, Sharon is smart. She knows that if Andrew sees the fake recipe before paying, he won’t buy it. So she develops her own plan to control the situation: she won’t let him see it before he pays. When the two reach an impasse, Andrew is ultimately the one who caves in and pays for the recipe before looking at it. He is so eager for freckles that he puts aside any suspicions and takes the risk.

“After tomorrow I won’t have any trouble paying attention.”

When Miss Kelly confiscates the note and asks Andrew to please pay attention in the future instead of passing notes, he assures her that he won’t have any more trouble. Andrew truly believes that if the freckle juice works and he gets freckles, all of his problems—including those that affect his class performance—will be taken care of. Miss Kelly may not understand Andrew’s obsession with freckles, but she just wants him to do his best in class.

“He made up his mind not to read it until he got home. He didn’t want to waste any time getting there.”

Andrew makes another big mistake by not looking at the recipe before leaving school. He is so eager to give the freckle juice a try that any idea of checking to make sure the recipe is legitimate leaves him. If Andrew had looked at the recipe as soon as he got it back from Miss Kelly, he probably could have confronted Sharon. He might not have gotten his money back, but he could have at least gotten the truth about whether it was fake and saved himself a lot of trouble down the road.

“It didn’t sound like much of a secret recipe.”

When Andrew finally opens up the secret freckle juice recipe, he is disappointed to see that it comprises everyday grocery items. Momentary doubt flickers in Andrew, but he wills himself to be optimistic anyway. He wonders if the secret of freckle juice is mixing lots of everyday ingredients to create something special.

“Well, he’d paid fifty cents. He might as well find out.”

Even with his doubts about the legitimacy of the recipe, Andrew moves full steam ahead with his plan. Nothing will stop him from trying the recipe, even though it is highly suspicious. Andrew might be operating more on pride here than good sense because he already paid for the recipe and is determined to get his money’s worth.

“Andrew held his nose, tilted his head back and gulped down Sharon’s secret recipe for freckle juice.”

Although the freckle juice smells foul and tastes terrible, Andrew’s resolve is stronger than ever. Propelled forward by his desire to get freckles and his determination to not let his 50 cents go to waste, Andrew drinks the freckle juice concoction and hopes for the best. He passes the point of no return and can’t undo anything that happens next.

“I always thought you were more sensible, Andrew! I just can’t believe it.”

When Mrs. Marcus comes home and finds that Andrew has disobeyed her and done something very risky in the kitchen, she is appalled. Andrew may have trouble focusing and behaving in school, but this behavior is out of character for him at home. This shows that his mother sees a different side of him at home compared to at school, and she is disappointed that he made such an irresponsible decision.

“He hated Sharon. She’d done it on purpose. Just to get his fifty cents!”

Although Andrew had his suspicions about Sharon and the freckle juice recipe, he pushed down his doubts to convince himself to try the strange recipe. When he looks in the mirror after getting sick, he finally accepts the ugly truth: Sharon tricked him to get his money, and he fell for her lies. Andrew is overwhelmed with anger and begins plotting his revenge against Sharon.

“He had terrible dreams. A big green monster made him drink two quarts of freckle juice, three times a day. Every time he drank it, the monster got freckles but Andrew didn’t.” 

Once again, Andrew’s sleep is affected by his freckle quest. In this case, he’s sick and miserable and tormented by nightmares. In his dreams, he has to repeatedly drink large volumes of the vile concoction, only to have the coveted freckles end up on the monster. In one respect, the nightmare is true: he still won’t end up with freckles.

“He only looked in the mirror once—no freckles!”

Andrew tries to be hopeful that the freckle juice might work throughout the entire process. After he gets sick, he still dares to hope that something might have happened while he was sleeping. When he looks in the mirror the day after drinking the freckle juice and finds that he still has no freckles, he accepts defeat and knows that he will never have freckles of his own.

“[Andrew] took out the magic marker and decorated his whole face and neck with blue dots.”

Determined not to let Sharon see him without freckles, Andrew decides to create his own. He looks for a brown marker but can only find a blue one. He covers his entire face in a show of defiance, and when he comes to class, he doesn’t care about the giggles and stares. He just wants to show Sharon that he isn’t bothered by her lies and that he will have freckles with or without her fake recipe.

“He sat in class all day with his blue freckles.”

Andrew’s final attempt to have freckles is a testament to how badly he wants them. If Sharon’s freckle juice doesn’t work, he will make his own freckles, even if they look ridiculous and people laugh at him. Andrew hoped that freckles would solve all of his problems, but his new blue freckles seem to cause even more trouble than before.

“How would you like to use my secret formula for removing freckles?”

Instead of getting angry with Andrew for creating such a disturbance with his blue freckles, Miss Kelly takes a different approach and offers to help Andrew remove them. Miss Kelly understands now that having freckles is very important to Andrew, and she wants to spare him the humiliation of having to admit that his blue freckles are fake. Instead, she offers him a plain bar of soap and a chance to wash his face so she can praise his appearance, just the way he is.

“Ha! Miss Kelly knew. She knew all the time. She knew his freckles weren’t really freckles. But she didn’t tell.”

Even at his young age, Andrew comes to understand the immeasurable value of a compassionate and understanding teacher. He’s a little in awe of the fact that Miss Kelly knew his freckles were fake and played along all day. As much as Andrew will remember Miss Kelly’s “magic freckle remover,” he likely will also hang on the memory of her kindness and compassion.

“I hate my freckles. I hate every single one of them!”

When Nicky asks to use the freckle remover, Andrew is stunned. He has spent so much time admiring Nicky’s freckles that he never stopped to wonder if Nicky liked them. Just as Andrew envied Nicky’s freckles, Nicky might have envied Andrew’s lack of freckles. Blume uses this moment to remind the reader that everyone has something they are insecure about.

“Andrew didn’t look good with freckles. But you look wonderful!”

Miss Kelly uses Nicky’s question to teach a lesson: she wants Andrew to know that he is handsome without freckles, and she tells Nicky that his freckles make him unique. Miss Kelly might be strict, but she cares for her students and wants to teach them that it is important to feel comfortable in their own skin. Everyone is special, and no one is perfect. Self-love is critical, and Miss Kelly understands this.

“The secret recipe for removing freckles has been in my family for years. That’s how come none of us have any.”

Unlike Miss Kelly, who offers her “secret formula” for free, Sharon jumps at the chance to make money off of Nicky as she did with Andrew. She isn’t fazed by Miss Kelly’s heartwarming speech but detects another person who harbors a deep insecurity that she can exploit for her own benefit. The world is full of Miss Kellys who seek to encourage, and the world is also full of Sharons who seek to profit.