"With the gentle authority of someone in the know, she normalized what seemed harrowing (bodily functions, friendship drama); promised excitement and adventure (first kisses, driver's licenses, a whole world of adult secrets); and wrote honestly about disappointment."
"In Oppenheimer's view, Blume pioneered and popularized a new genre: 'realism for young people.' Partly talent, he offers, and timing: the iconic children's author, whose twenty-nine books have sold more than ninety million copies, took off during the seventies, an era 'when young readers had more autonomy, when cheap paperbacks, in mall stores, made more books available to them, and when progressive librarians were keen to stock books for them.'"
Mark Oppenheimer's biography examines Judy Blume's extraordinary impact as a children's author whose twenty-nine books sold over ninety million copies. Blume's rise coincided with the 1970s when young readers had greater autonomy, affordable paperbacks became widely available in mall stores, and progressive librarians actively promoted her work. Oppenheimer argues that Blume pioneered a new genre: realism for young people. She normalized previously taboo topics like bodily functions and friendship conflicts while promising excitement through depictions of first kisses and adult secrets. Her honest treatment of disappointment filled a gap in children's literature that had not been adequately addressed. Oppenheimer developed this theory in a 1997 Times article that caught Blume's attention, leading to their acquaintance and eventually to her cooperation with his biography project.
Read at The New Yorker
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