Written Pyramids

Any young Washington Post reporter or intern or copy editor--or really almost anyone who was in elementary shool after 1972, when the book was published--should have caught the blatant mistake in this article. :

"Blume, not surprisingly, won over fourth-graders with her "Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing," the first of several books about Peter Warren Hatcher, who prefers to be called "Fudge."

They could have even read the back cover of the book: (Available on Amazon.)

"Two is a crowd when Peter and his little brother, Fudge, are in the same room."

You see? One sentence and you know that Peter and Fudge are different people. Peter would have been so mad at the Washington Post. (As I imagine legions of Judy Blume fans are).

UPDATE 05/08: The Post published a correction, which indicated that the writer has not read Tales of A Fourth Grade Nothing OR The Outsiders (though to his credit, I would not have been able to tell you where The Outsiders takes place. Actually, no. He could have looked that up too).

CORRECTION TO THIS ARTICLE
Earlier versions of this article incorrectly described the setting of S.E. Hinton's book "The Outsiders." It was set in Tulsa, not in Tucson. The article also incorrectly reported the character Peter Warren Hatcher in Judy Blume's "Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing" preferred to be called "Fudge." His younger brother, Farley, used the nickname. This version has been corrected.