Judy Blume and Coming-of-Age Fiction

Few authors are as closely tied to the informal sex education of North American adolescents as Judy Blume. Her novels of the 1970s dealt with menstruation, body image, bullying, masturbation and first sexual relationships in an ordinary conversational voice, and copies circulated through school hallways until the spines cracked. A personal essay in a Canadian journal described that experience from a reader's side: a girl who felt behind her friends found older confidants in cardboard covers.

The same books drew complaints from parents and trustees, and they appeared again and again on lists of the most challenged titles in libraries.

The books and their subjects

• Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret (1970) follows a girl anxious about puberty, periods and belonging, with religion running through the story.
• A 1971 novel with a male narrator is told by a teenage boy dealing with bodily changes, embarrassment and family upheaval.
• Deenie (1973) centres on a girl diagnosed with scoliosis, and includes a short passage on self-touch that many readers remembered.
• Blubber (1974) examines bullying in a fifth-grade class and the cruelty of group dynamics.
• Forever (1975) portrays a first sexual relationship between two high school students, including contraception and the question of whether young love lasts.

Why the books were challenged

Objections centred on frankness. Critics felt the novels treated sexuality and the body too openly for young readers, and some objected to the portrayal of religion or of adults who were unsure of themselves. Supporters, including the author, argued that children already had questions and that honest fiction answered them. Forever drew the most sustained opposition because its characters were not punished for having sex, a departure from earlier teen fiction.

The American Library Association kept the titles on its challenged-books lists for years. Later the Margaret A. Edwards Award recognized Blume's contribution to young adult literature, with Forever among the books cited.

Fiction as informal sex education

Educators and researchers have often noted that young people gather information about sex from several places at once: peers, media, family and school. In Canada, school sexual health programs differ by province and have changed over time, which leaves room for other sources to fill gaps. Novels offer a private way to meet vocabulary and scenarios before they come up in conversation.

The essay's author recalled that clinic visits and contraception arrived through a parent, yet the novels were what first suggested that curiosity, desire and awkwardness were widespread. She also described returning to the books about twenty-five years later without any need to hide them. That account reflects one reader's experience, and other readers have reported being unsettled or bored by the same titles.