A Tribute to Norma Klein by Judy Blume Summary

Norma was Judy's first friend who also wrote, and they had a lot in common, including that they both "rushed into reading adult novels at eleven or twelve, to find an alternative to the idealized, sanitized, sentimentalized books meant for readers our ages" (page 195). Judy and Norma met in the early 1970s and bonded on their way to a meeting of children's book writers. Judy was charmed when she read an advance copy of Norma's "Mom, the Wolfman, and Me". A few years later, they found themselves together on the "most censored list". Norma's work was banned because of the nontraditional families she wrote about and because she wrote about young characters' sexuality. Norma tried to write about real life and found nothing objectionable in writing the truth. One...