“Who is Judy Moody?” Good question.
I think most of all, Judy is just a real kid, and I think some of her characteristics — I mean even just having messy hair — she’s very real. She’s not good at everything. She’s terrible at spelling, and she’s always getting in trouble in class for talking out of turn. They send her to Antarctica in the back of the room, where she [has] to chill out. She’s just a very real kid, and I think a lot of kids read about Judy and recognize themselves, or feel like they can connect with her, because it’s something that a lotta — I get tons of letters from kids, and a lot of kids write to me and want to be Judy Moody’s best friend. They really recognize themselves in her and think that they would make, you know, a good pair, or good friends. I think that’s a lot of the popularity of Judy is that kids really make this connection with her.
A key thing to Judy Moody was hitting on the idea of moods, and I would go out and visit kids in libraries or classrooms, and around this age, about eight or nine, kids started to ask me if I was ever in a bad mood. They would go a little further and say, “Well
” I would say, “Yeah, of course.” We all have a bad mood sometime, and I in particular have a lot of them. They would say, “Well, can you write a book while you’re in a bad mood?” They were really thinking about moods and maybe hearing this from their parents and having it pointed out when they’re in a mood.
It got me thinking that right around this age, the idea of moods become really important to kids. I thought if this is something they’re really experiencing, wouldn’t that be great to show in literature and have somebody who isn’t always happy and isn’t always the best at everything? When she has disappointments and obstacles, sometimes she’s in a really bad mood. If they’re in the car, and Stink is really bugging her and won’t leave her alone, it puts her in a bad mood. I think that’s something that’s just so universal, that kids really started to see themselves in Judy.