[Throughout] Blume's novels the age-old image of the female, a dependent, ineffectual creature whose importance can only be derived from a man, remains drooped over its pedestal. Conservative watchdogs accuse Blume of iconoclasm; but in fact her portrayal of young women helps perpetuate both the female stereotype and the status quo. Her adolescents may sprout breasts, but in a more fundamental sense they do not develop. Bland, passive, and unfocused, they are locked in Neverland where the future is a...

One hesitates to speculate on what the theme of the next book for the pre-adolescent market will be for a writer whose muse seems to be Haim Ginott rather than Calliope. One can be assured, however, that it will mirror what people have been talking about lately in Darien and Short Hills and San Fernando, that it will be rendered with a cheerful, reassuring suburban sameness, and that it will have the same relationship to a truly significant exploration of social problems that a Stanley Kramer film does. It&...

On my first exposure to Blume, a few years ago, I turned out to be immune to Blume fever. Her realism struck me as shallow, and I was put off by her knack for observing unpleasant details. Recently, I read her again, determined to find her magic formula, and I am now ready to amend my views. In a Judy Blume book, realism is everything. True, it has no great depth, but it is extraordinarily convincing. True, she includes unpleasant details—things we all notice but usually don't mention—y...

Margaret is 12 years old and has just moved with her parents from New York to Farbrook, New Jersey. She soon makes friends with three other girls and they call themselves 'the four PTS's' (Pre-Teen Sensations). They share secrets, gossip on the phone for ages, and worry about acquiring busts, boyfriends, bras and their periods…. Basically, [Are You There, God? It's Me, Margaret] is a very funny book with plenty of incidents to keep a girl, and only a girl, reader of 11 or ...

Katherine had liked Michael when they met at a party, she was delighted when he asked for a date, and she knew it was only a question of time until they became lovers…. They are deeply in love, wholly committed. Forever. And then, due to parental insistence, Kath goes to work in a summer camp and finds she is attracted to another man. And that's it—the end of forever. No preaching (Blume never does) but the message [of Forever …] is clear; no hedging (Blume never does) but a cand...