"Newspapers are very big on facts, I think," muses Davis (Davey) Wexler, the 15-year-old daughter left behind after her father was shot in the chest [in Tiger Eyes]. "But not on feelings. Nobody writes about how it feels when your father is murdered." Judy Blume does. And even if your father hasn't been murdered, even if you're no longer 15, and even if you'd rather think about something else, she puts you inside that girl: a luminous-eyed (thus the title) br...

[Blume's] Tiger Eyes, should slip past the censors. There is no explicit sex and there are no objectionable words. It is her finest book—ambitious, absorbing, smoothly written, emotionally engaging and subtly political. It is also a lesson on how the conventions of a genre can best be put to use. The plot of Tiger Eyes is a staple of juvenile novels. A family member dies and the survivors must reconstitute themselves. Standard props are used: A lovable cat and a comical younger brother pop up ...

How does a girl feel when her father is shot? When he bleeds to death in her arms? Beginning with the father's funeral, Judy Blume [in "Tiger Eyes"] follows her 15-year-old heroine, Davey, step by step…. The love interest that is a frequent feature in Judy Blume's work is muted. Davey's friend Wolf, a college student (wise for his years and also wounded in spirit), helps her deal with her problems, even though the two have met only in brief encounters; still he is a...