Children's Book Authors: Judy Blume

As a child growing up, I have read a few of Judy's books. She is from Elizabeth, New Jersey, and has a B.S. in Education from New York University. Her children's books are basically for children in 6-8^th grade and are very controversial. Iggie's House dealt with racism, Are You There God? It's Me Margaret, about menstruation and Blubber about bullying.

When she was a child, Judy would love making up stories. Readers of a variety of ages write her every single month by the thousands! Her ideas come from her personal life, things that happen to children, what she hears, reads or from her own imagination.

It takes her an entire year to write a book. When she first began to write, people would be negative to her. Some people were angry, others discouraged her. It just goes to show you that you can't listen to other people, if you want to be happy.

Her writing is reality combined with humor. At one time, she was censored by school libraries , and today her books are still criticized for the topics she writes about. The American Library Association says that she is one of the most banned authors for children in the U.S. She has even made a collection of censored works titled Places I Never Mean't To Be: Original Stories by Censored Writers.

Judy thinks that censorship is fear, and that fear is easily multiplied getting others to follow. She believes that banning gets them to control children's lives, and their fear is sometimes hidden as moral outrage. Her books were banned for sexuality and language.

Having published books for teens and children, she now writes adult novels. Two of her novels didn't't get so much recognition, but her 1998 book, Summer Sisters sold over 3 million copies. Judy got an award from the National Book Foundation Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters in 2004.

In 1996 she received the Margaret A. Edwards Award for her young adult works. In 2000 she was awarded the Library of Congress Living Legends award. She founded The Kid's Fund which is for charity and education. She is a board member of the Author's Guild, the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators and the National Coalition Against Censorship.

She is married to George Cooper who is a nonfiction writer. They have three grown children and one grandchild. She's written 22 books.