Happy 71st to Judy Blume, the American writer whose books taught several generations of young adults that sometimes kids are as cruel as Nazis, sometimes kids are obsessed with Nazis, sometimes kids find confusing moisture in their underpants (menstruation for girls, nocturnal emissions for boys), sometimes parents get divorced, sometimes models get scoliosis, and sometimes wangs have names.
My all-time favorite Judy Blume book: Starring Sally J. Freedman as Herself, the nearest thing she ever wrote to autobiography, the plot of which is neatly summed up in this Sally J. Freedman-related rhetorical question from Jezebel:
Okay, everyone, quick poll: raise your hand if, after V-Day, you want your brother to get sick with nephritis so your dentist father can send you, your mom and your bubeh from NJ down to Miami for the winter to help him get better and you can go to school in a trailer and bike around being afraid that your neighbor, Mr. Zavosky, is Hitler, while you get your braid tugged by a boy you only later figure out you like and your grandmother calls you “mumeshana” and you dream of your dead cousins, Lila and Tante Rose, killed in the Holocaust, and you drink cocoa with whiskey because you’re trying to make the creme de cacao your Mom drank in Cuba, and then you get stung by a Man O’ War and complimented by said brother on being braver than he thought and catch Virus X and eat two bowls of chicken with rice soup, then try on some toe shoes.
My all-time favorite fan-mail story: After reading Blubber in 1980, I wrote Judy Blume a love letter, and she wrote me back, by hand, on fancy New Mexico-styled stationery.
You left out the book where Judy Blume teaches that sometimes kids deserve to get blackmailed into sexual submission because they are bullies and they will end up liking it
I love Judy too! Do you ever check out her blog, Dave?
I recently bought the audio of Starring Sally J. Freedman as Herself. I love hearing author’s read their own work.
Oops! Here’s a link to her blog!
http://judyblume.com/blog.php
Judy Blume kicks ass.
Hilarious anecdote: when I was in grade 8, my mom had a conference to go to one summer that was about an eight-hour drive from where we lived. She brought me and my friend Morgan with her so we could hang out somewhere that wasn’t Battle Creek, Michigan for a couple of days. For the drive up, she got some books on tape from the library, one of which was Summer Sisters by Judy Blume. I don’t know if you’ve read that one, but it’s not really something you want to hear while trapped in a car with your mom.
I should note that at the time, I did not find this anecdote the least bit hilarious.
omission/emission, same thing only different.
Can you please post the response letter? Or is it too embarassing?
5: Ack, I’m a dunce, fixing now.
6: I wish I could, but I’m not an organized collector, and I have no fucking idea if that letter exists anywhere in my life anymore.
Love Love Love Judy Blume. Tales of a fourth grade nothing is one of the books that turned me into a lifelong reader.
Saw her reading at the U book store about two years ago. She was great, and surprisingly good looking.
Sally J was my fave, too. I was never afraid to play in the woods by my house until I read that damn book. Oh and I started smiling while swimming underwater.
the answer is melody. m-e-l-o-d-y! and every one of you should have known.
…and ‘smart women’ is one of the hottest books ever. i sneak chapters of her ‘adult’ novels at random bookstores when i’m having a pissy day.
you know i hate to admit this but i can’t remember at what age i started reading judy blume. i remember loving it all so much and looking forward to when my kids will be old enough. how old is old enough?
I love Blume, but did she ever write a book about growing up gay? Seems the one glaring omission from her otherwise admirable body of work.
Some of the books are definitely for younger readers–Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing, Superfudge, which have teensy doses of angst but are good for any kid old enough to read.
Then there’s the next level of Judy Blume book, designed to help adolescents (12 and up) not lose their minds while they learn that life is not a fairy tale, and most of the classics name-checked in the post fall into this category.
Except for Forever and Deenie, which are for teenagers/high schoolers…
@13 Don’t forget Tiger Eyes, David. That was my favorite of her few older teen books.
Tiger Eyes! I always forget that one. By that time, I was into my S.E. Hinton phase, and whatever-her-name-was in Tiger Eyes couldn’t hold a candle to Cherry Valance and the socs.
Lesson learned from Judy Blume: don’t put cologne on your cock & balls.
I read my copy of Tiger Eyes until it fell apart. Come to think of it, I did that will almost all of Judy Blume’s books.
Part of my mom giving me “the talk” about female stuff was the gift of a copy of “Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret.” I’ve never forgotten that…
WTF, Slog? Today is Darwin’s 200th birthday and we get a posting dedicated to Judy-mother fucking-Blume?!?
Okay, this is a dumb question, but for you Sally J fans out there…
What the @*&% is the disease you get from bathhouses? Was Sally J’s dad just afriad she’d run into some anonymous gay sex?