Blume then wrote a sequel, Here's to You, Rachel Robinson, from Rachel's point of view about her family problems.
Provides examples of:
- Adults Are Useless: When Steph's parents undergo a trial separation and choose not to tell the kids, they have no idea how to handle Steph's justified anger when she does find out. However, eventually Rowena puts her foot down on Steph's binge eating several months later.
- Anxiety Dreams: Steph has two following her big fight with Rachel, and Bruce has them about nuclear bombs falling.
- Armor-Piercing Question: When Steph is angry at her father and refuses to spend Thanksgiving weekend with him and Bruce, he tries to talk it out with her when she's sitting outside brooding near the lake. He says that he needed space to think, hence the reason for the trial separation. Steph asks why he had to go out and think in California when Connecticut and New York were much closer. His only response is It Seemed Like a Good Idea at the Time but then says he's going to miss his flight. Steph follows up by bitterly saying that flights are more important than family now that she knows he wasn't going on a business trip. He doesn't have a response.
- Calling the Old Man Out: Steph starts doing this regularly to her parents, more so her father than her mother, for the trial separation, for having flings, and how each of them is handling it. It only stops when Steph admits that she doesn't even know if her parents love her, and Rowena has to reassure her on that point.
- Comfort Food: Steph starts binge eating, first with breakfast cereal and Thanksgiving leftovers, after learning her parents are having a trial separation. It only stops when Rowena checks Steph's ballooning weight on the scales and removes all the junk food from the house.
- Commonality Connection: The reason why Allison understands that Steph didn't tell anyone that her parents were separating is that she went through the same thing when she was adopted. She's been through it once before and knows that it sucks to be the kid caught in the middle and having parents lying to her. Allison doesn't ask Steph questions about it after Rachel callously outs it, merely comforting her and waiting for her to be ready to talk about it.
- Didn't Think This Through: Steph's parents decided not to be honest with the kids about the trial separation. Her dad just took off and left on a plane, with him even spending Thanksgiving morning away from the house, something that Steph notices because no one works on the holiday. Then he asks if Steph already knew while they're doing dishes, and Steph gets upset; he proceeds to have a fight with her mother about how she basically hid it from the family. Steph yells at both of them for lying to her and Bruce and refuses to spend Thanksgiving weekend with her father in New York. Her mother tries to apologize, but by then Steph is in no mood to listen, and while her dad tries to explain his side of the story, Steph bitterly remarks that he couldn't get away fast enough from his wife and kids.
- Disappointed in You: Steph is mad at Rachel for saying her parents will probably divorce and Steph is out of touch with reality for thinking it's just a trial separation. Allison, on the other hand, is disappointed after she stops crying. As she puts it, she hates fighting, it was none of Rachel's business, and Allison has been in Steph's shoes before as the adopted child of separated parents.
- Disproportionate Retribution: Steph starts bickering with Rachel about buying designer jeans, since Rachel isn't allowed to, and saying it would be lying if her friend cut off the tags. In response, Rachel calls her a hypocrite for being a liar and reveals to Allison that Steph's parents are separating. She also says that Steph is out of touch with reality. Much later, Rachel admits that it started because Steph told the local Alpa Bitch that the new guy was going with Rachel to the dance and she thought it meant Steph didn't like her anymore!
- Everyone Has Standards: Allison is mildly annoyed when everyone keeps asking her which side she's taking when Rachel and Steph have a falling out. She's obviously taking Steph's side because Rachel also insulted her when Allison begged them to stop arguing.
- Fist of Rage: After falling out with Rachel, Steph ends up doing aerobics at home with her mother. The instructor on the video says to imagine that 'you're punching someone that you really hate' and Steph ends up punching the air so much that her mother has to tell her to stop.
- Foreshadowing: No one has a great Thanksgiving, including Ms. Remo and the girls. All their problems come to haunt them in the spring.
- Forgiven, but Not Forgotten:
- Eventually, Rachel and Stephanie by the end of the book. They agree to bury the hatchet on realizing they both said hurtful things to each other. With that said, the next book shows that there's still some awkward distance with Rachel acting like she forgot it was her fault.
- Likewise, Steph and her parents for hiding the trial separation from her and Bruce. She's still rather stiff with her dad, but she at least softens up towards her mother.
- Happily Adopted: Allison with her parents - at least until she fears Gena's pregnancy will endanger her position in her family. However, Allison quickly realises how loved she is once again when she falls ill with the flu, and her parents fuss over her.
- Hero of Another Story: Rachel is the narrator of the Sequel, and Judy Blume stated she planned to make Allison the narrator of another book.
- Insufferable Genius: Rachel. So much that Steph calls her out for it for acting like she knows everything when she doesn't.
- Innocently Insensitive: Steph's dad when bluntly commenting on how much weight she's gained. It doesn't help mend ties between them over winter break.
- "Just Joking" Justification: Rowena when saying she "might" have a fling, and Steph tells her it's not funny.
- Karma Houdini Warranty: Rowena makes Stephanie cry for telling her that talking about "flings" with her father is none of Steph's business and she doesn't know what she's talking about. A few chapters later, she finds out that Stephanie believes that her parents no longer love her because of the trial separation. Rowena gets a Jerkass Realization about how she's been treating her daughter, and says she's been too hard on her.
- Kick the Dog: What causes Rachel's and Stephanie's estrangement. After a minor argument over whether or not getting designer clothes is lying, Rachel reveals to Allison and Steph that she knows about Steph's parents separating, and calls Steph out of touch with reality for believing her parents will get back together. Then when Allison begs them to break it up, since she knows it's not the time and place and has been through parents separating, Rachel lashes out at her as well.
- Laser-Guided Karma: It's Rachel's fault that the girls have a falling-out. Mrs. Robinson later tells Steph and her mother that Rachel is suffering without her former best friend but doesn't have the guts to talk it out or apologize. Lampshaded by Steph, who says it's good that Rachel is suffering and that if she wants to apologize, she should say so.
- No Periods, Period: Averted. Since the girls are twelve, Steph and Allison are waiting for theirs, while Rachel has already gotten hers before the start of the story. Steph gets hers on her birthday.
- No Sympathy: Rachel found out from her mother that Steph's parents are undergoing a trial separation but Steph hasn't brought it up at all, keeping a cheerful front because she doesn't know how to tell her friends that her family life came crumbling down in the matter of a few months behind her back. When she does reveal that she knows, she's cutting about the fact that Steph's parents will probably divorce, and says that her friend is out of touch with reality for insisting that it's a trial separation. Steph gets mad at her and says that Rachel may act like she knows everything but she doesn't and acting like a perfect person doesn't mean she is perfect. Long after the dust settles, Allison expresses quietly that she's disappointed how Rachel would say such a thing because Allison's adoptive parents divorced when she was younger and she knows what that pain is like.
- Nuke 'em: Bruce's greatest fear that the bombs will fall.
- Precision F-Strike: Steph calls Eric an "asshole" when he nicknames her "El Chunko".
- Rebound Best Friend: After her falling out with Rachel, Stephanie became even closer with Allison. Meanwhile, Rachel finds another friend.
- Surprise Pregnancy: Gena is going to have a boy, which makes Allison worried she will be replaced.
- With a Friend and a Stranger: Stephanie's relationship with her best friend, Rachel, starts getting complicated right after she makes friends with Allison.
