Summary
The dentist tells them that Fudge will have to wait until he is six or seven years old for his adult teeth to grow in, so until then, he is missing his two front teeth. Peter starts calling him Fang, which makes his mother angry because she says it is an insult. Peter grudgingly agrees to stop, but still calls Fudge Fang secretly in his own mind.
Fudge's third birthday is approaching, and their mother wants to throw him a birthday party with some of his little friends. They invite Jennie, Ralph, and Sam, three other kids who live in their building. Their grandma comes over to help, since Mr. Hatcher has a business appointment that day. Peter's mother asks him to stay home and supervise the games as well.
The morning of the party Fudge resists being dressed in his new suit. Finally they get him into it, but he refuses to put on the nice shoes so they let him wear his old bedroom slippers. The first child to arrive is Ralph, a three-year-old who loves to eat and who Peter says is already fat. Jennie comes next, dressed very daintily in little white gloves, but wearing dirty jeans and an old sweater because her mother could not get her to put on anything else. Jennie has a biting problem, and often bites other people. Last is Sam, who is crying because he is going through a stage where he is afraid of everything. Their mothers drop them off and head back out; they will return to pick them up when the party is over in an hour and a half.
They seat the children around the kitchen table and put on party hats. Sam screams to take his off. They bring out a chocolate birthday cake, and Peter leads the singing of "Happy Birthday." The kids start grabbing the cake, and Jennie is mad that she gets a piece without a decorative rose on it so she bites Grandma's hand. Ralph finishes his cake in record time and asks for a second piece, then throws up immediately after finishing that one. Peter and Grandma take the kids into the living room while Mrs. Hatcher cleans up the mess.
Fudge opens his presents from his friends. Jennie gave him a musical jack-in-the-box, which scares Sam. Ralph gives him a windup car, but Ralph thinks it is his and grabs it away from Fudge, starting a fight. They explain to Ralph that he brought it for Fudge as a birthday gift, but Ralph still wants it. They quickly distract Fudge by having him open Sam's present, which is a picture dictionary just like the one the Yarbys gave Peter. Fudge is mad to see it again, and angrily throws it across the room shouting "NO MORE BOOK!" Sam throws a tantrum because Fudge does not like his present.
Peter begins the party games to divert attention away from the presents, and he gives each kid a balloon to dance around with. Fudge starts to jump up and down on the furniture, and the other kids follow suit. The neighbor Mrs. Rudder, who lives in the apartment under theirs, comes up to complain, but Mrs. Hatcher offers her a piece of cake and Grandma entertains her in the kitchen. The kids go into Fudge's room to jump on Fudge's brand new big-boy bed, his first that is not a crib, but Mrs. Hatcher stops them and begins to read them a story. Jennie has heard it before, and annoyingly fills in all the gaps and recites the story by heart as Mrs. Hatcher reads it. Ralph falls asleep.
As a last-ditch effort to entertain the children, Peter's mother asks him to show them Dribble the turtle. Jenny asks if the turtle can "make a tinkle," and then she shows how she herself can do it, and pees on the floor on purpose. By the time Peter's mother mops up the puddle, the parents arrive to pick up their children and the party is over. Jennie's mother is extremely embarrassed. After all the children leave, Peter's mother takes two aspirins. Peter says that three is kind of young for a party, and she agrees.
Fudge likes his new bed, but he falls out of it every night, even when they surround it with chairs. One Saturday they take a trip to the dentist, Dr. Brown, so he can check Fudge's mouth, and Peter's mother decides to make a day of it by going out to lunch and buying new shoes for the boys. Peter isn't looking forward to it. That Saturday morning, he cleans out Dribble's bowl before they leave.
At the dentist, the nurse fawns over Fudge, and Peter thinks about how sick he is of people giving Fudge special treatment just because he is little. Dr. Brown comes to take Fudge alone into the examining room, and Peter and his mother wait outside. Soon though, the nurse comes to ask for Peter's help. Dr. Brown wants Peter to open his mouth and show Fudge how the dentist checks his teeth because Fudge will not open his own mouth. Peter does, and Dr. Brown says it is a shame that Fudge cannot open his mouth as wide as Peter can. Fudge, of course, considers this a competition, so he finally does it.
They head to Bloomingdale's department store to buy new shoes, and Mr. Berman the salesman helps them. He measures Peter's feet, and Peter's mother is embarrassed to see that Peter has a hole in his sock. Peter gets new loafers and wraps them up to take home, but Fudge resists getting new shoes and throws a tantrum. Fudge shouts that he wants shoes like Peter's, but they do not make loafers for toddlers' feet. They decide to trick Fudge into thinking that Peter is getting saddle shoes too, so Fudge will try them on. It works.
Finally they head to Hamburger Heaven for lunch, and Fudge smears his mashed potatoes on the wall. He shouts "Eat it or wear it!" and dumps his bowl of peas over his head. Peter cannot help but laugh. They have to leave quickly because Fudge is behaving so badly. In the taxi home, Peter decides he will never spend a day out with Fudge again.
Analysis
There is a famous saying called Murphy's law, which states that "anything that can go wrong will go wrong." This is often true when young children are all together, and Fudge's birthday party is a great example of this. One thing after another goes astray as Peter, his mother, and his grandma attempt to keep order among Fudge and his friends. This provides some comic relief for readers, who will certainly get a laugh out of all the crazy things that happen, but it also gives readers an opportunity to empathize with the adults in this situation. Fudge alone is trouble enough, but Fudge and three of his friends is an entirely different story.
While Peter is still a child himself, every time Fudge acts out or gets into trouble, he has to become more and more of an adult. During the party he was a supervisor, constantly entertaining the kids to keep them out of trouble. During the family's day out in town running errands, he repeatedly had to be an example for Fudge of good behavior, and felt the same embarrassment as his mother whenever Fudge did not listen. Though having Fudge for a brother can be tough, it definitely helps Peter to grow and mature.
One thing that is made especially clear in these two chapters is that although he makes life difficult for him, Fudge truly does look up to Peter as his big brother. He sees Peter as a role model, someone he wants to be like, and over and over again this is the only thing that makes Fudge cooperate. Peter is proud of this; on page 66, he writes, "I smiled. I guess this kid really looks up to me. He even wants to wear the same kind of shoes." Most of the time, being a big brother to Fudge is difficult, but Peter clearly likes the feeling of being someone else's inspiration. This is one of the best things about being an older sibling, and readers who are also elder siblings will relate to how Peter feels.
This has led the family to discover one tactic that really works for controlling Fudge's behavior: making it a competition between him and Peter. At the dentist, Dr. Brown quickly thinks of a way to get Fudge to cooperate and open his mouth, so he brings Peter in and challenges Fudge to open his mouth as wide as him. Fudge immediately does what he is supposed to do without a fuss, determined to show that he can be like his big brother. The shoe store is another example of Fudge proving that he can be just like Peter. This shows how deeply these two brothers are connected, with this family bond being this book's main theme.
