Still reading Blume

And receiving love from her! ❤️

Remember, I posted about Judy Blume for Independent Bookstore Day, because she is now a bookstore chain owner. Well, I have been neglectful in sharing this. Because I was willing to be patient in receiving my order, until she made her rotation to her Key West store, she autographed my books for me! I am suddenly seven years old again, asking our school librarian, Mrs. Bell, again where my name was on the waitlist for Superfudge (Fudge #3). It’s the only book our small elementary school ever had to establish a waitlist for. I tell you this middle-aged woman squealed when I received my package.

I bought two I didn’t have, and one I have never read, Just As Long As We’re Together, to round it out. I’ll be back for more, and more autographs! Her bookstore chain is Books & Books, and everyone who works there is so kind; the customer service is phenomenal. I didn’t even ask for autographs, they messaged me after I ordered and asked if I wanted them.

First, here’s my deeply loved copies from childhood. My childhood books usually look unread, to a spooky degree, because I was so careful with them, my great treasures. But I reread my Judy Blumes so many times, and lent them to friends, and carried them back and forth to school again and again, that, well, they look like the abused Barbie in the Barbie movie, (I’m going on Monday, and yes, wearing pink pants. 💘)

Ah, Forever. The one with the penis.

Thanks to Starring Sally J. Freedman as Herself, I learned about the Holocaust, and many of its quite gruesome details, in elementary school. And I was a better child for it. (And the Hindenburg disaster.) Kids can learn difficult things and expand their minds. They can be trusted with all of history. I’m looking at you, Florida.

“Let children read whatever they want and then talk about it with them. If parents and kids can talk together, we won't have as much censorship because we won't have as much fear.”
― Judy Blume

And like I said, then there’s the one with the penis. Forever… I’m not being flippant just to be; that’s how conservative areas like mine seemed to view it, usually without having read it. It’s actually a lovely story about your how first time doesn’t have to be your first/only love, and that maybe you can love more than one person at a time, and that love can be fluid, especially when you’re young. Everything is so black and white when you are a teenager: “well, I gave myself to him, now I’m his, no matter what". This book even addresses that “gave yourself to him” thinking. This is one of the many reasons why I love her so much.

And yes, there is a penis. The sex is described, but there’s an amazing balance between graphic and sensitive. She wrote it so that readers would understand what was happening, in case they had never been told, but not so bluntly that it takes away from the story or it would be offputting, scary for kids unexposed to any of this material before. It just is; this is just this thing that happened in Katherine and Michael’s relationship.

And oh, if you aren’t ready for Judy Blume swearing, this is not the book for you.

That's not a bad word...hate and war are bad words, but fuck isn't.

There, got that out of the way, hope your childhood wasn’t ruined.

And then, finally, there’s this lovely hardcover:

Click on that front cover to have a good look. That painting is gorgeous and haunting. It’s by Norman Walker. The sun damage to the adorable author photo comes from reading it at the beach. Surfside Beach, to be precise, a smaller beach outside Myrtle Beach in South Carolina. Well, it was a smaller beach in the 1970’s and ‘80’s, with cottages. I’m not clicking on that link to find out that it might be saturated in hotels and that the pier is gone. Nope.

Now to the new and her autographs! (starring my laptop)

I think I might quickly reread Freckle Juice after writing this afternoon. It’s so delightful. A quick read about loving yourself and identity, about embracing the skin you’re in—and not believing everything your grabass friends tell you.

So now I have 1 (Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing), 2 (Otherwise Known as Sheila the Great), and 3 (Super Fudge) in the Fudge series; now I just need Double Fudge and Fudge-a-Mania to complete it. I loved the Fudge books because I was a lot like Peter, a smart kid with a hyperactive little brother that everyone thought was cute and required all the attention (Eric because he was ill, of course). It’s worth the world to see yourself in books. That’s why my copy of Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing looks like it has been through a war. It loved on me as much as I loved on it. Then I saw myself in Tiger Eyes because it dealt with familial death and grief…

Note: all of the book links in this post (and my other posts) go to Bookshop, which supports independent bookstores. My particular links directly support Books&Books, so you are supporting Judy Blume when you purchase through them, as well as my podcast and my writing. Win-win!