If we had known growing up and being a teenager would be so confusing, all of us would probably want to stay babies forever. Unfortunately, it isn't possible to stay in "Never-Never Land" for the rest of our lives. We have to face the challenges and confusion that life throws our way. .
Luckily, we have authors that write novels about the very issues we will be confronted with during our adolescent years. John Gough notes in School Librarian that, "Judy Blume is concerned to describe characters surviving, finding themselves, growing in understanding, coming to terms with life." (School Librarian) She is best known for her novels about middle-class children, which discuss problems of young people from their point of view and in their own language. Published by Bradbury Press, Inc., Blume wrote Then Again, Maybe I Won't in 1971. This novel adds to Blume's extensive collection of literature for young adults. In Then Again, Maybe I Won't, Blume asks herself what it would be like to be a twelve-year-old boy. Tony Miglione's father suddenly becomes a successful, rich businessman. The family moves from a working-class neighborhood into a well-to-do Long Island suburb. Tony faces moral problems: his mother's acquiescence to snobbish neighbors; his brother's choice of money over career; the self-imposed "exile" of his grandmother, who is supplanted by a hired cook; and his knowledge that Joel, the boy next door, is shoplifting. In addition to all of that, Tony wonders when he, too, will have wet dreams, how to prevent uncontrollable erections, and if he will be arrested for practicing voyeurism on Joel's sister, the girl next door. Tony is growing up but he feels like he doesn't have anyone to talk to about it. He develops severe stomach pains which neither a medical doctor nor a psychiatrist can cure. Having all this money has turned Tony's life upside down. .
Tony, like so many other adolescents, becomes confused about who he is, his place in society, and his place in his family.
