Judy Blume’s classic novel Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing was published in 1972, and the settings are contemporary to that decade. However, because the settings are fairly basic, the novel has aged well with its school-aged readership.
The protagonist , Peter, lives with his parents and younger brother,...
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nicknamed Fudge, in an apartment in New York City. Much of the action takes place inside their apartment, which isn’t very large. In one passage, Peter says, "We don't have a separate dining room. When we have company for dinner we eat in one end of the living room.''
Central Park is another setting in which the characters frequently find themselves, and Peter has favorite areas of the park where he likes to play. In one of the pivotal scenes in the book, Fudge decides to "fly" from the jungle gym at the playground in the park; as a result, he loses his front teeth.
Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing was written in 1972 by popular children's novel author Judy Blume. Decades later, the novel is still popular and on many upper elementary school reading lists. Because of its current settings and topics, the novel has remained timeless with students.
The story takes place in New York City where the main character's family lives in an apartment building. Peter Hatcher and his family are the focus of the novel and the settings are those places typical of family life. The family's adventures take place around New York City's schools, shopping and amusement locations.
The story takes place in a relatively current time. As evidence of this, a filming studio for a commercial is mentioned as one of the places the family finds themselves during the story.
Where and when does the story take place in Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing?
One part of this question is answered very clearly in Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing, but the other is not. The book clearly states where it is set, but it does not state when it is set.
The book explicitly states that the action is taking place in New York City. The first place we can see this is on p. 4. There, Peter is talking about himself and where he lives. He says,
I live at 25 West 68th Street. … it’s got one of the best elevators in New York City.
The location is further confirmed at the start of Chapter 4 (p. 29) when Peter says “We live near Central Park.” Thus, we can clearly see that the book is set in New York City.
However, Blume never clearly states the year in which the book’s events take place. We know that the book was published in 1972 and there is nothing in the book to imply that the book is set a long time before or after that date. There is nothing futuristic in the book to suggest that it is set in the future. At the same time, there is nothing that implies that it is set in the past. The Hatcher family watches TV and goes to the movies so it is clearly not set before WWII. In Chapter 7, Peter and his group read books about traffic congestion and pollution, which implies that the book was set in the late 1960s or early 1970s when these issues were becoming important to many Americans.
We know, then, that the book is set in New York City and we can assume that it is set very near in time to 1972.