Karen Newman in It's not the end of the world suspects the worst when her father is absent from home for two days without explanation, but Karen's mother does not tell Karen and her brother and sister that a divorce is pending until they are having Sunday lunch in a restaurant with Mrs. Newman's sister and her husband. Stunned by the announcement, Karen resents her mother's failure to explain her father's absence earlier and the public place her mother chose to make the announcement. Karen's world disintegrates….

Karen resists the divorce, hoping she can bring her parents together again preserving the family unit Karen loves. Karen's brother Jeff seemingly accepts the pending divorce but it is he who forestalls it by running away from home just before Karen's father is expected to go to Las Vegas to gain his freedom. It's not the end of the world explores the deep anxieties adolescents feel when their home structure is uprooted….

[Judy Blume] does not try to solve Karen's problem, only present the aching uncertainty which Karen, and girls like her, suffer when their parents part. (p. 936)