Judy Blume (b. 1938)
Filed under the name Judy · August 3, 2026
I never figured myself for the target audience of a Judy Blume book, but my kids sure were, and my grandkids after them, and that tells you something about staying power that no review could. She wrote 'Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret' and a whole shelf of other best-selling books for children and young adults, and the thing is, those books didn't just sell once to one generation and disappear like most things do. They kept getting handed down, kid to kid, decade to decade, which in my experience is the real test of whether something's built to last or just built to move product fast. I spent thirty-four years at a plant where we used to say a well-made part should outlive the man who made it, and there's something similar going on here — a book written that resonates with kids who weren't even born when it came out. That's not luck. That's somebody who understood something true and lasting about being young, and wrote it down well enough that it never really goes out of date.