One of my favourite scenes is early on, when nine-year- old narrator Peter and two-year-old Fudge’s parents are hosting their father’s client and his wife. (Dad works in advertising.) The visitors bring a gift for Peter: a book for a much younger child, and one that he already has. Peter is gracious about this, but Fudge doesn’t have such qualms: “He came back. He was carrying a book—my old, worn- out picture dictionary. The same as the one the Yarbys just gave me. ‘See,’ Fudge said, climbing up on Mrs. Yarby’s lap. ‘See book.’ I wanted to vanish. I think my mother and father did too. ‘See book!” Now Fudge held it over his head.” Antics continue, with the next chapter opening, “No- body ever came right out and said that Fudge was the reason my father lost the Juicy-O account. But I thought about it.” Another of the book’s greatest moments is when a little girl just straight-up pees on the floor at Fudge’s third birthday party. This is among the more accurate party scenes in literature. Judy Blume, born Judith Sussman in 1938 in New Jersey, is the author of numerous books for readers of all ages, but
New York Times religion columnist and Tablet editor (where, full disclosure, he also occasionally edited my work), who now edits religion and politics magazine Arc. Judy Blume is as close to a flawless biography as you’ll find: a briskly told, richly contextualized story of a more- than-worthy subject. Oppenheimer conducted extensive interviews with Blume, and with contacts of hers she in- troduced him to for this purpose. He received access to Blume’s private correspondence and unpublished manu- scripts, and dove deep into her works and other relevant public materials. He had as much access to Blume as any not-Blume individual might, and knew how to transform this material into a compelling narrative. What I’ve just explained about Judy Blume address- es whether it is a good book: it is. It nevertheless leaves open the question of why we need it. Judy Blume, after all, is an internationally renowned, much-discussed author whose books have shaped generations of kids, been subject to book bans, and been covered extensively in the press. What is there left to learn?
probably best-known for a 1970 children’s novel in which a girl from an interfaith household questions her beliefs, and eagerly awaits her first menstrual period. Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret cemented Blume’s reputation as an author who was not afraid to tackle subject matter some deemed too frank or too explicit for children. Before this was controversial, it was simply new as a literary approach. Writes Oppenheimer: “Judy’s innovation, when she began writing, was not to describe menstruation, first kisses, or teenagers’ orgasms; she had grown up reading about these things. She just thought these topics didn’t have to stay se- questered in books for grown-ups.” The question at the centre of Judy Blume is the usual and appropriate one for a famous artist’s biography: How did Judy Blume become the legend she is today? How did this daughter of a dentist and a homemaker, a woman who briefly trained as a teacher before settling down as a law- yer’s wife, become a literary legend, a published author a mere year after starting a night class in creative writing for children? The lack of sexual repression in her upbringing, her access as a child to literature on mature themes, and the bookishness of mid-century America all contributed
A great deal, it turns out. Judy Blume is an effort to re- claim its subject from a constrained legacy. Blume is not just a world-famous, bestselling, and beloved novelist. She’s also a great artist, as well as an adult who’s led a full, complicated life and merits consideration as such.
JUDY BLUME: AN ICON
SOME FANS OF BLUME may retain her writing clearly in their minds. In my case, a refresher was needed, as I had fond but dim childhood memories of Margaret and Deenie. I wanted to remind myself what her sentences and storytelling were like. So I read Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing to my six-year-old, figuring she’d be too young to get much out of the middle-grade books, but might relate to the big-sibling narrator. It is just on a different plane from everything else we’ve read together, spot-on in both the intra-kid drama and the grown-ups’ (kid-appropriate) workplace travails.
44 SPRING 2026
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