Biography

Judy Blume was born on February 12, 1938 in Elizabeth, NJ to Rudolph and Esther Sussman. She married a man named John Blume and had two children, Randy and Lawrence. Her marriage lasted for 16 years. Twelve years later she married her current husband George Cooper who has a daughter from another marriage named Amanda (Contemporary Authors). She is a graduate of New York University. When Judy was younger she made up stories in her head and didn’t write them down until she got older (Judy’s Official Bio).  She was not always welcomed as an author. Her early stories were rejected by magazines. She has received a lot of criticism over her years of writing. Judy’s books are a hit with readers, but they have also been hit with criticism. Jan Dalley has said, “Her work is all very professionally achieved, as one would expect from this highly successful author, but Blume’s concoctions are unvaryingly smooth, bland, and glutinous” (Contemporary Authors Online). But she is very dedicated to her readers none the less. Judy has said in an interview with a Toronto Globe and Mai, "The way to instill values in children is to talk about difficult issues and bring them out in the open, not to restrict their access to books that may help them deal with their problems and concerns” (Contemporary Authors Online). She enrolled in New York University writing class and that is where she got her first book published, The One in the Middle Is the Green Kangaroo (Contemporary Authors).

                Judy’s most well known books include, Are You There, God? It’s Me, Margaret and the Fudge Serie, the most popular Fudge book is Superfudge. Judy Blume is one of America’s most controversial writers of young adult fiction (Contemporary Popular Writers). She relates her books to what children and young adults are going through. All of her stories are in first person, like they are saying their thoughts. Her simple dictation makes young readers connect with the charters of the book. Her books have life lesson that most young readers have to go through, like the first time they kiss a boy, or family moving. Some of her least controversial books is the Fudge series. There are five books to the series and she writes them over a thirty year span. Her sequels “expand on the original and enrich it so that the stories…add up to one long and much more wonderful story,” Van Leewen says from the New York Times Book Review (Contemporary Authors Online).It starts off with Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing, about a boy Peter and his younger brother Fudge. The four other books are Peter and his life growing up.

                Not only does Judy Blume write novels, a few of her books were made into movies and television series. Her book Forever was made into a television film in 1978, Freckle Juice was made into an animated film, and the Fudge books were made into a television series on ABC from 1994-96 and on CBS in 1997(Contemporary Popular Writers) .

                Over the years Judy Blume has found herself on a number of committees. She is the founder and trustee of The Kids Fund, a charitable and educational foundation. She serves on the boards of the Author's Guild; the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators; the Key West Literary Seminar; and the National Coalition Against Censorship (Judy’s Official Bio). She is also a long time promoter of intellectual freedom.

                The major themes of her books are teenage encounters with truth in them, like puberty, divorce, death, family and moving.

Judy Blume Video