Five minutes into watching Judy Blume Forever, the new documentary about the beloved American children’s book author, and I’m in tears. There was something about watching Blume, now in her 80s, look back at her personal and professional life with trademark frankness and humour that made me emotional.
The documentary — alongside a recent, well-received film adaptation of her bestselling book, Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret — has put Blume in the spotlight again. And though the screen adaptation won’t be theatrically released in India, it has die-hard fans like myself in the subcontinent basking in what’s being called a ‘Blume Renaissance’.
I first read Blume as a 12-year-old who had only just moved to Chennai. While I can’t quite remember which of her books I read first, I do vividly recall how I felt when I read them. Understood. I was a fish out of water at my new school and as a late bloomer myself, I identified with 12-year-old Margaret Simon, the protagonist of Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret. I found comfort in her intense desire to develop breasts and get her first period, which she conveyed to God through her nightly prayers. Because what else is God there for, if not to help those in need?
A timeliness that’s timeless
When one speaks of the universality of stories, I’m always reminded of those that Blume told. That I, a girl growing up in 90s Chennai, felt a sense of kinship with a Jewish girl in New Jersey from the 70s, is something that I continue to marvel at. But as a children’s book author myself, I wondered if Blume’s books were still a rite of passage for adolescent readers today.
Aashti Mudnani, owner of Lightroom Bookstore in Bengaluru, tells me that while Blume’s titles don’t fly off the shelves now, people do ask for them. “Her books aren’t ones we get asked about a lot, but one has to see how much more is available to read right now. The readers we meet today tend to be more mature than we were at that age,” says Mudnani, adding that, “But I do feel that the books are still read, and enjoyed.”
I bought a stack of Blume’s books from Lightroom — her beloved Fudge series, Margaret, Forever and Tiger Eyes — in anticipation of the documentary (now streaming on Amazon). But I was initially hesitant to read them. There’s nothing like realising that the books you idolised as a child suddenly seem dull, dated, or worse: problematic. Had Judy Blume’s books stood the test of time?
But as award-winning YA author Jason Reynolds observes in the documentary, “I don’t think Judy Blume wrote her books to be timeless. I think she wrote her books to be timely. And they were so timely that they became timeless.”
And I’d imagine that her books are timely for the young people reading them, no matter which decade they come of age in. Because Blume remembers what it was like to be on the cusp: not a child anymore, but not yet grown up. Unlike other adults tend to, Blume doesn’t brush children’s questions away, but instead answers them with candour. Young readers find relief in the fact that they have finally met an adult who isn’t lying to them. Who gets them, and doesn’t talk down to them.
“Judy Blume wrote her books to be timely. And they were so timely that they became timeless.”
‘You wrote this book about me’
One of the most moving parts of the documentary was listening to Blume read a selection of readers’ letters from across decades. ‘You don’t know me, but you wrote this book about me,’ is something that children have written to her time and again. A part of ‘The Judy Blume Papers’ at Yale University, which documents the author’s life and work (1952-2017), these letters are a testament to the power of children’s books, which are often neglected. Blume ruefully admits the number of times she has been asked, “When are you going to write a real book, Judy?” As though children’s books don’t count as literature.
It’s too convenient to reduce Blume’s books to one-line blurbs — the book about masturbation, the book about sex, the book about breasts and periods. And it’s these themes that have made her books among the most challenged and banned. But that does them such disservice. Her books are really about young people trying to make sense of themselves and the world around them.
Watching the documentary made me reflect on how much Blume has shaped my own choices, especially around how I discuss sex and puberty with my children — with honesty and frankness. Blume taught me early on that there was nothing to be ashamed of when it came to our bodies. It’s something other parents are grateful to the author for — her books often act as a bridge to their children, particularly when it comes to more complex themes.
Kamala Aithal, a Markets Risk Consultant in Mumbai, says that Blume’s book Forever, which deals with first love and sex, helped her deal with her own daughter’s first relationship. “The book dealt with all the layers of relationships at a younger age: how they are not really ‘forever’, protected sex, the need for communication, and how not to make the other person the single-point agenda. Reading it made it easier for both of us to openly talk about things. It helped get rid of a lot of my own inhibitions.”
When I read Forever as a teenager, all I took in was the thrill of Katherine and Michael’s romance. But when I reread it now, Blume’s politics shines through. The protagonists’ grandmother is a supporter of the pro-choice organisation Planned Parenthood, and leaves pamphlets for her granddaughter to look at. Seventeen-year-old Katherine, though in the throes of first love, shows great maturity and makes an appointment at their clinic to get her first pelvic examination and birth control.
Judy Blume with Abby Ryder Fortson (left) and Rachel McAdams, cast members in ‘Are You There God? It’s Me Margaret’
Making sense of the world
Even though her readers in India might not be able to exercise such agency when it comes to their own reproductive health, they relate to other situations. Ruhee Shah, 19, who is studying BA LLB, shared that even at the age of 12, the differences between her own life and that of the characters in the book were apparent. “But the themes she writes about like gender discrimination, racism, and fear of assault in books like Tiger Eyes are experienced everywhere,” she says.
It’s too convenient to reduce Blume’s books to one-line blurbs — the book about masturbation, the book about sex, the book about breasts and periods. And it’s these themes that have made her books among the most challenged and banned. But that does them such disservice. Her books are really about young people trying to make sense of themselves and the world around them, as they deal with parental pressure, grief, their feelings about religion, and complicated friendships.
In the song ‘Judy Blume’, artist Amanda Palmer’s homage to the author, she soulfully sings of the comfort her characters provided over the years:
All of them lived in my head, quietly whispering:
‘You are not so strange’.”
Or immoral. Or dirty. Or alone.
And man, there was such solace in that.
The writer is a children’s book author (‘Loki Takes Guard’) and columnist based in Bengaluru.
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