“Thirty or 40 years ago, teenage boys would eventually pluck up the courage to buy a copy of Playboy and pass it round,” he adds. Michael Reiss, professor of science education at University College London, says Blume’s books filled a vacuum in the 70s and 80s: although young people were taught about the factual, biological aspects of periods, puberty and sex, “what you didn’t get was setting it in any sort of personal context”. Yes, a lot of people might be getting their period and going through puberty earlier, but I don’t think emotions are changing.”

“I think it’s a misconception that they are maturing faster now. Yet she agrees with Fremon Craig that some aspects of young people’s inner lives don’t change. Williamson’s first novel, The Art of Being Normal, was widely praised for its sensitive portrayal of life as a transgender teenager, and she says rereading Blume’s books is “a nice reminder of how far we’ve moved on, that young queer people can easily find images of themselves in books”. Young adult novelist Lisa Williamson read all Blume’s books in her youth, and loved the fact that “there was no pretence they felt utterly real”. She argues that some of those details may be very different now – but the feelings are still the same. “I so very much appreciated the way she told the truth about adolescence and didn’t hold back on the details”. Finding Blume at the age of 11, before which she admits she was “basically allergic to books”, she felt the author had a “direct line to all of my private thoughts and feelings”. Kelly Fremon Craig, who wrote the screenplay and directed the movie, is adamant that these books are “timeless”. But I wonder whether the cinema will be entirely full of women of a similar age to me, reliving their adolescent angst in the dark and feeling relieved they can laugh about it all now. “Oh my God, I’ll be there on the first day!” Barr enthuses. As well as the movie, in cinemas next month Amazon Prime is releasing Judy Blume Forever, a documentary exploring the writer’s own journey from “fearful imaginative child to storytelling pioneer”.ĭirectors Davina Pardo and Leah Wolchok also focus on her fight against censorship, with her books still banned in schools and libraries in some US states for daring to talk about puberty and sex.Īll the grown-up Judy fans I speak to are quick to say they will be watching what they call “The Margaret Movie”. Photograph: Linda Nylind/The Guardianīlume, whose 29 books have sold almost 90 million copies, has never faded away, but right now, at the age of 85, she is having something of a renaissance. American author Judy Blume photographed in 2014.

Judy blume forever book