Judy Blume

Judy Blume (born 12 February 1938) is an American novelist best known for frank, funny books about growing up, including Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret. (1970) and Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing (1972).

Born Judith Marcia Sussman in Elizabeth, New Jersey, she graduated from New York University in 1961 with a degree in early education. Her first book was the picture book The One in the Middle Is the Green Kangaroo (1969), followed by Iggie's House (1970) and Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret., published by Bradbury Press in 1970. Further titles include Then Again, Maybe I Won't (1971), Freckle Juice (1978), Deenie (1973), Blubber (1974), Forever... (1975), Superfudge (1980) and Tiger Eyes (1981). For adults she wrote Smart Women (1983), Summer Sisters (1998) and In the Unlikely Event (2015).

Her books have sold more than 82 million copies in 32 languages. They have also been among the most challenged in American schools and libraries: five appeared on the American Library Association's list of the most frequently banned books of the 1990s, with Forever in seventh place. She became an anti-censorship campaigner and was still on the board of the National Coalition Against Censorship in 2020. Honours include the Margaret A. Edwards Award (1996) and the National Book Foundation's medal for distinguished contribution to American letters (2004). She co-owns a bookshop in Key West, Florida.

For collectors. Her early novels were first issued in the United States by Bradbury Press; Open Library records Bradbury among the publishers of Iggie's House, Margaret, Then Again, Maybe I Won't and Forever. Early printings of Margaret are textually distinct: later editions replaced the belted sanitary towels in the story with adhesive pads. A film adaptation was released in 2023.