Judy Blume talks about her banned books

by Bethany Sanders (Subscribe to Bethany Sanders's posts) Apr 13th 2008 3:00PM

Categories: Teens & tweens, Health & Safety, Education, That's Entertainment

It's the mid-80s, and four or five freshman girls are standing huddled in the center of the mall, near the bookstore. Why? They want to read Judy Blume's Forever, but the rumor is the store manager will kick you out just for asking. Finally, the fearless Finnish exchange student stands up and walks into the store. The other girls duck low, watching to see what happens. She doesn't get kicked out, but she's told she must be 18 to buy it and to run along now.

I know this scene happened, because I was there, but I'm guessing it also happened in malls across the country. Judy Blume's books, once you got past SuperFudge and Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing, were all about the things you wanted to know about: girls, boys, growing breasts, puberty, and OMG...sex. But Forever, the one book that actually contained a sexual encounter between two 18-year-old seniors, was the one book we could never get our hands on. (Mainly because we were too embarrassed to ask our parents, who probably would have welcomed the chance at an open conversation about sex.)

Blume has five books on the "most challenged" list put together by the ALA. Watch her talk about her experience and her books here.

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Comments (3)

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

ame s 4-13-2008 @ 4:10PM

Ha, by the age of 18, that book would be pretty much redundant, eh?
I read most of Judy Blume's books as a pre-teen and young teen. Our town didn't have a bookstore (yet plenty of liquor stores and farm supply stores, go figure) and the nearest one to us was a 45 minute drive, so I didn't even realize Forever even existed. I feel totally ripped off, lol!
My 8 and 10 year old daughters have read her books for younger readers. I'm not ready for the 10 year old to read the one that mentions masturbation yet.

Shannon 4-13-2008 @ 5:14PM

I remember someone I know owned a copy of it, her mom was very open about stuff like that, and a few of us shared reading it. All in all, we were curious but not reallt changed in any way after reading it- yes, there is a scene, yes, it is a mature book, but I would almost- almost, that is, have it on a bookshelf at home to spark discussion, but make sure it was avail at an appropriate age- 12? I remember us all wanting to read dear god, it's me, margeret also because they talked about boobs and periods, too. In my house, we weren't told ANYTHING. We learned what we did from school.

dee 4-14-2008 @ 12:14PM

I guess I was lucky: my junior high library had copies of all her novels and I borrowed it from there.

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