Judy Blume

**Biological Information:**

Judy Blume was born Judith Sussman on February 12, 1938, in Elizabeth, New Jersey. Her mother’s name was Ester, a homemaker, and her Fathers name was Rudolph, a dentist. Blume was gifted with creative talents such as piano, dance lessons, reading, and creating stories in her head. She attended all-girls Battin High school then was forced to attend Boston University. However, she decided to resume her education at New York University where she met John Blume, a lawyer. They got married after the death of her father in 1959. Blume graduated with a Bachelor’s in Education in 1961. Her writing career began in the 1960s. In 1970, success was found with a coming of age story *Are you there, God? It’s me Magaret.* It was popular among young readers along with *Blubber*(1974) and *Forever*(1975).

**Themes:**

* **Coming of age/Growing up:** Blume’s stories represent growing up because her novels are realistic fiction about adolescents and how children go through changes as they encounter the challenges of life. She was inspired to write about growing up because when she was young, she wanted to read books about real life and was always curious about what real life was like for others. She writes based on real-life events and experiences.
* **Censorship:** Blume believed that it was her right to write about everything she felt was important and for children. She feared that censorship would have negative impacts on the education of children and stated that censorship grows out of fear. And parents who believe in censorship, have control over what their children read. Parents might have felt that if their children did not read about certain topics then they will not know about them as well as if children do not know about them, they will not happen(Blume,1999).

“Literature affords the distance to examine one’s self in a way that is not otherwise possible”-Curry

**Style:**

Judy Blume writes realistic fiction stories. Her books are narrated by a character in the story and uses first person. Her novels include strong character development and focus on dialogue to tell a story. Blum imagines her character then begins to write her story. While beginning a story and leading to the middle, her story leads to somewhere she did not imagine. She likes to ask questions and discover more about the characters she is writing about. Her first drafts include her writing whatever comes to her mind and “pour out of her ''. She claims to be more of a reviser than a writer. Therefore, she writes many drafts and goes through about 5 drafts for one novel. Blume states “For me, a first draft is getting all the pieces to a jigsaw puzzle, the second draft is trying to put them together, and then I paint them wonderful colors and I have polished the whole puzzle so it looks real and finished.”

**Bibliography:**

https://sites.google.com/site/smbambrick/judy-blume-bibliography

* Are you there God? it’s me, Margaret
* Bubbler
* Forever
* Freckle Juice
* Friend or Fiend? With the pain and the great one
* Fudge-a-mania
* Here's to you, Rachel Robison
* Just as long as we’re together
* Otherwise known as Sheila the Great
* The pain and the great one

https://sites.google.com/site/smbambrick/judy-blume-bibliography

**Criticism:**

Parents did not like their children reading Judy Blumes novels because they talked about how adolescents are discovering themselves and come across their sexuality, become of wear of sex, fall in love, and other life changes. However, many have said her novels have helped them through their adolescent years and learned about love, friendship, and all the emotions you experience as an adolescent.

**References:**

Alter, A. (2016, July 19). *What Judy Blume’s books meant (Published 2015)*. The New York Times - Breaking News, US News, World News and Videos. https://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/02/books/what-judy-blumes-books-meant.html

Biography.com Editors. (2015, September 24). *Judy Blume*. Biography. https://www.biography.com/writer/judy-blume

Flood, A. (2018, February 22). *Judy Blume: 'I thought, this is America: we don't ban books. But then we did''*. the Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/books/2014/jul/11/judy-blume-interview-forever-writer-children-young-adults

*Judy Blume bibliography - Judy Blume*. (n.d.). Google Sites. https://sites.google.com/site/smbambrick/judy-blume-bibliography

**By Mercedes Rios**