Q and A: Judy Blume
The children's book author speaks about her career and what it means to write a "banned book"
- By Jeff Campagna
- Smithsonian magazine, January 2012, Subscribe
Author Judy Blume recently received the John P. McGovern Award from the Smithsonian Associates for her contributions to the American family. Zuma Press / Newscom
For decades, adolescents have found a sympathetic voice in the books of Judy Blume, who has dealt unflinchingly with coming-of-age issues such as bullying and teen sex. She recently received the John P. McGovern Award from the Smithsonian Associates for her contributions to the American family. Blume corresponded with the magazine’s Jeff Campagna via e-mail.
What do you think it is about your writing that has made your books become such integral parts of so many people’s childhoods?
I wish I knew. I'm grateful to my readers who can probably answer this question better than I can. Someone just wrote to say that Tiger Eyes, the movie we recently shot based on my book is intimate in the same way that my books are. Maybe that's it. But thinking about this is dangerous for me–because I don't really understand it, which can lead to worrying that I'll never be able to do it again.
What are three things about you that would surprise us?
I’m phobic about thunderstorms. Writing is incredibly hard for me. I’m not the world’s best mother, though kids always assume I must be. And I love a good cupcake. (I know, that makes four things, but I’m hungry and wishing I had that cupcake.)
Name one book you wish you’d written and why?
That's a hard question. There are so many good books. Looking up at my bookshelves I see Doris Lessing's Martha Quest. That's a book that has stayed with me since I first read it. It took me to another time and place. It made me think, question. It led me to seek out and read other books.
Do you plan which important life issue you will deal with in a book?
I always have some idea of the story I’m about to tell. I knew Davey’s father would die suddenly and violently in Tiger Eyes. I knew Rachel Robinson’s brother Charles would disrupt the family in Here’s to You, Rachel Robinson. With Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret, I thought I was writing about organized religion, yet the book has become famous for dealing with puberty. Hardly anyone ever mentions religion or Margaret’s very personal relationship with God. There’s so much I don’t know when I start writing a book. That’s the best part of writing for me—the surprises along the way.
Which character from your books do you identify with the most?
Sally from Starring Sally J. Freedman as Herself. It’s my most autobiographical book. But I identify with all of my characters. A writer has to do so if she wants her readers to identify with them as well.
Four of your books are among the American Library Association’s Top 100 Banned/Challenged Books: 2000-2009. How do authors feel when they are added to this list?
I suspect many authors today are proud because those who challenge their books don’t do so unless they aren’t already popular. But when my books were first attacked in the early 1980s, there was no list and I felt no pride—only anger, sadness and a sense of isolation.
You’ve written for a wide range of ages. Have you developed a preference for a certain age group at this point?
I like the 12-and-under set and also the adult voice. Yet here I am writing a long, complicated novel from various viewpoints, all of them teenagers in the ’50s. I think it has more to do with not repeating myself than anything else. I need challenges in my work.
You’ve become an outspoken advocate for intellectual freedom.
It feels much better speaking out. Finding the NCAC (National Coalition Against Censorship) was a life-changing event. I realized I wasn’t alone—which is funny, because that’s what my readers often say to me.
Editor's Note: Due to an editing error, we originally attributed the Ramona books to Judy Blume. They were written by Beverly Cleary. We apologize for the error.
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Comments (4)
Never cared for her books, felt she equated the ability to reproduce with self worth. Margaret's anxiety was disturbing and confusing.
Posted by Toni Sims on April 14,2012 | 08:17 AM
This woman has helped destroy the innocence of children on adult matters.
When we were children we never had an inkling of sexuality—we were too busy creating hand made toys and playing in the front and back yards of our home.
She extended her personal hang-ups to children so we now have people like her insisting that we educate six-year-old children on using the "right names for the private parts of the body instead of euphemisms. Those words expressed modesty as well in which there is none in the author's fiction.
Posted by Michael Antebi on March 4,2012 | 10:51 PM
Judy Blume is the first author I know to single out Doris Lessing's semi-autobiographical Martha Quest as being an important influence. It's a marvelous book that I discovered in the library of a small house in the mountains of Tuscany where I spent a week some years ago. I read it in three successive nights and had exactly the same reaction as Blume. It transported me to another time and place -- a British colonial town in Africa in the 1930s, generally oblivious to the gathering war clouds in Europe but about to be swept into the conflict nonetheless. The novel pivots around Martha Quest's coming of age, a life that Lessing draws beautifully, in part because she knows it so well. Lessing continues Martha's story in a subsequent volume, but this first part stands perfectly by itself. Judy Blume's adolescent portraits, so well portrayed, may, as the author notes, owe a debt to Lessing's heroine, who finds her own way honestly, though not easily.
Posted by Eugene Carlson on January 12,2012 | 05:23 AM
Judy Blume’s books were an important part of my late childhood. I think what makes them so special is her ability to create relatable characters for an audience that really needs someone to relate to. Early adolescence, for a lot of us, is a period full of insecurity related to many of the issues that Blume’s characters face. Worries about being accepted by peers can make it difficult to find real people to share these things with. Young teens looking to religion for help often find little comfort. At this horribly awkward time when we’re struggling to come to terms with dramatic changes in bodily appearance, new social pressures, and emerging sexuality, religion often instills shame about normal bodily functions like menstruation and most aspects of sexuality, as if we weren’t insecure enough. God’s not very helpful at this stage, but Margaret and Blume’s other characters are. For many young people her books are a godsend.
Posted by Quinn O'Neill on December 30,2011 | 11:41 AM