Did anyone see the interview with Judy Blume on The View yesterday? It made me remember how important her books were to me as a young person. She is now 77, and is still one of the most-banned authors in America. Even now her books such as “Forever” and “Are You There God, It’s Me Margaret?” are causing controversy. Often when she meets fans, including celebrities, they burst into tears and tell her how much her work meant to them. I think that’s a pretty amazing mark to make on the world.
Did any of her books touch you as a young person?
I didn’t read any of her children’s books but loved Wifey.
Her new adult book is called “In The Unlikely Event” and fictionalizes the events that actually happened to her in her home town as a child, where 3 commercial jets crashed within miles of her home town withing a few months. It sounds really interesting. What an eerie thing to experience!
There’s a nice interview with her in the New York Times Magazine: http://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/24/magazine/judy-blume-knows-all-your-secrets.html?_r=0
I read Forever when it came out (I was in college by then) to see what the fuss was about and I did go back and read Are you there God, it’s me Margaret and found both not very compelling, though I might well have liked them if I had read them when I was younger. Nevertheless I really admire what she did for YA lit and she has always come across in interviews and the like as a super grounded nice person. I always wanted to like her books more than I do. We had lots of them when I ran Reading is Fundamental at my kids’ elementary school and they were still very popular.
I read relatively little of this particular flavor of YA book - ordinary kids in suburbia. I like Cynthia Voigt’s books better - I find the characters and situations more interesting. I also love Lois Lowry’s Anastasia Krupnik books.
Definitely, timing was everything with her YA books; if you picked it up just as you were questioning all those crazy things that were happening in puberty, it was very meaningful.
I also loved Lowry’s Anastasia Krupnik books - my D read them as well. I have kept them all. Those and the “Happy Hollisters” series from my own childhood – though they were for a younger age group.
I remember the Happy Hollisters! My favorites were Trixie Belden. Oh, and the Hardy Boys, I wanted to be their crime-fighting sister 
Yes, I definitely remember reading “Are you there God, It’s me Margaret” when I was in elementary school. It was passed around our fifth grade Catholic School classroom. I especially liked it because the subject matter was very new to me.
I had this feeling that I had read a Judy Blume book. The memory was vague, but with research I have found to see it was actually Judy Moody. I take it the content of these books are quite different.
I was born in 1960 and I remember reading “Are you there God, it’s me Margaret”. It was one of my favorite books. I also remember “Forever”.
I loved to read. I also read all the “Happy Hollister” books. I think they belonged to my older sister. Loved Trixie Belden too.
My Mom was not educated but she recognized a love of reading in many of her children and showered us with books.
I think that is fair to say Judy Blume tackled subject matter such as periods, changing bodies, and sexual feelings. All things that kids are experiencing and talking about, but that we would like to pretend they are not.
And she let teens have sex with no consequences. No one got pregnant or STDs. And they broke up at the end of the summer.
“I must, I must, I must increase my bust.” Ingrained in my mind from 4th or 5th grade.
As I recall (and it’s been a lot of years) there was only one book (Forever) that dealt with actual teen sex. And their were plenty of consequences, but of the emotional variety.
I have read everything Judy Blume ever wrote from her “Fudge” books for little kids, to her Young Adult books to her adult books. I just received her new one yesterday.
I loved the little kids books. I loved all the YA books and I LOVED Wifey. I have probably read Wifey a dozen times. Definitely an adult book. Not as big a fan of her other adult books but hoping this new is is good.
My kids loved the younger books and they are boys. Don’t know if they read the YA ones. I give the Fudge books to nieces and nephews as gifts.
One of my favorite authors. Sorry I missed the interview.