Legislation dubbed the “Parents Bill of Rights,” which passed the U.S. The kinds of novels Blume pioneered, probing how sexuality looms in teen and preteen lives, are torrid political symbols right now in Congress, state legislatures and school boards across the country. They’re a secret conversation that feels like independence. Blume’s books matter because they give teens and preteens the kind of information that leaves adults unsettled - and because they’re books, consumed privately, at one’s own pace, on one’s own terms. When I saw it at a preview screening outside Boston, I was struck by the difference between reading the book and experiencing it in a crowded theater. Now, decades later, another once-taboo Judy Blume book, Are You There, God? It’s Me, Margaret, is hitting theaters in movie form.
We passed the slender volume around, girl to girl to girl, fully aware that the adults wouldn’t approve - and also, that they couldn’t stop us. It was a story about teenagers and sexual discovery, and our friend knew precisely which pages, deep in the book, contained the passages we really wanted to read.
But at recess, she led a few of us down a grassy hill, out of sight of the playground, and lifted the cover to reveal a secret: She had taken a razor blade to the pages and carved out just enough space to fit a paperback copy of Blume’s 1975 novel, Forever. A classmate came to school one day with a hardcover version of Grimm’s Fairy Tales. I was in fifth grade, longer ago than I care to say, when I first discovered the exquisite power of a Judy Blume book.
0 kommentar(er)
