Judy Blume was born two days before Valentine’s Day in 1938 in Elizabeth, New Jersey. She was the second child of her parents, Rudolph and Esther Sussman. Blume loved to read as a child, and she was always imagining new stories. She went to an all-girls’ high school, and later graduated from New York University in 1961 with a bachelor’s degree in education only two years after marrying John Blume. She first started writing a few years later once her children started school, and ended up publishing thirteen books in the decade following her first publication, The One in the Middle is the Green Kangaroo. Her books have sold over eighty-five million copies and been translated into thirty-two languages.
Blume is best known for her children’s books, though they are most definitely not her only accomplishments. In fact, she has published nearly thirty books throughout the years in children’s, young adult, and adult literature.
Blume receives thousands of letters every year from her fans of all ages, and she even compiled some of them, along with her personal experiences, into Letters to Judy: What Your Kids Wish They Could Tell You.
Some of her novels geared toward more mature audiences, like Wifey, were brought on by her struggle to find happiness in marriage. She had found contentment in her third marriage before writing her adult novels, which have all been New York Times bestsellers.
She faced censorship head-on. Five of her books, Forever…, Blubber, Are You There, God?, Deenie and Tiger Eyes, were all on the American Library Association’s list of the 100 most challenged books from 1990-99. She used these challenges to fuel her passion for literature and currently serves on the board of the National Coalition Against Censorship.
She and her son, Lawrence Blume, worked together to write and produce a film adaptation of Tiger Eyes in 2012. It was the first major adaptation of one of her books.
In 2015, she published her first book since 1998, In the Unlikely Event, after three planes crashed in her hometown within two months.
Judy Blume’s work and career has not just influenced people who grew up reading her books. People of all ages have been changed by her words, and the lessons they teach will always make a difference.
Happy birthday Judy Blume, and thank you.