Judy blume

Many Generation Xers, especially us girls, spent a good chunk of our childhoods/early adolescences with Judy Blume. The author of such preteen classics as "Blubber" and "Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret" dared to write about subjects -- puberty, bullying, teen sexuality -- that most people only whispered about, if they ever addressed them at all. It's just that kind of daring, of course, that usually gets an author in literary hot water, which is why Ms. Blume ranks at No. 2 on the American Library Association's list of top 10 most frequently challenged authors from 1990 to 2004. Blume can claim five titles on the list of 2007's most frequently challenged books ("challenged" signifying that some person or group filed a formal request to restrict access to the material), a pretty astonishing feat since all of them were published more than three decades ago. Her most well-known offender, and the book that ranks at No. 13, is "Forever," a young-adult novel that takes a very candid look at two teenagers negotiating a romantic and sexual relationship. Read More »

Every generation of women since the 1970s has most likely read at least one of Judy Blume's classic coming of age tales, if not every single adorable, doe eye-opening one. There was Iggie's House (theme: racism), Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret (periods), It's Not the End of the World (parents getting divorced), Blubber (mean girls), and that teenage sexuality tome, Forever. Oh and of course there were the little kid books: Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing, Superfudge and Otherwise Known as Shelia the Great, all widely stocked in school libraries. But even though to date it's sold four million copies, a lot of people still draw a blank when it comes to her scandalous "dirty book," Wifey. Read More »