NATIONAL BESTSELLER
An intimate and expansive look at Judy Blumeâs life, work, and cultural impact, focusing on her most iconicâand controversialâyoung adult novels, from Are You There God? Itâs Me, Margaret. to Blubber.
Everyone knows Judy Blume.
Her books have garnered her fans of all ages for decades and sold tens of millions of copies. But why were people so drawn to them? And why are we still talking about them now in the 21st century?
In The Genius of Judy, her remarkable story is revealed as never before, beginning with her as a mother of two searching for purpose outside of her home in 1960s suburban New Jersey. The books she wrote starred regular children with genuine thoughts and problems. But behind those deceptively simple tales, Blume explored the pillars of the growing womenâs rights movement, in which girls and women were entitled to careers, bodily autonomy, fulfilling relationships, and even sexual pleasure. Blume wasnât trying to be a revolutionaryâshe just wanted to tell honest storiesâbut in doing so, she created a cohesive, culture-altering vision of modern adolescence.
Blumeâs bravery provoked backlash, making her the countryâs most-banned author in the mid-1980s. Thankfully, her works withstood those culture wars and itâs no coincidence that Blume has resurfaced as a cultural touchstone now. Young girls are still cat-called, sex education curricula are getting dismissed as pornography, and entire shelves of libraries are being banned. As we face these challenges, itâs only natural we look to Blume, the grand dame of so-called dirty books. This is the story of how a housewife became a groundbreaking artist, and how generations of empowered fans are her legacy, today more than ever.