Maggie Mason and I are writing thank you notes to our five favorite authors in the #ThankAWriter project. This is letter #5. Please join us! See this post to find out how to create a Go Mighty profile and see all the other inspiring letters. Every one you write and post about on Go Mighty enters you to win the first six books in the Penguin Drop Caps series.
Judy Blume needs no introduction. If you read her books, chances are she changed your life.
Dear Ms. Blume,
You may be known most for your young adult novels, and I loved those too, but the ones that truly had an effect on me were “Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing” and the Fudge series. You taught me that kids books can be funny.
More than that, you brought such an undercurrent of substance, even amid the humor, and it is that combination that influenced me the most when I started writing books on my own.
Now, it is such a pleasure to follow you on Twitter, and I admire you always being current and in the now.
You are a treasure – thank you so much for your work.
Nathan Bransford
I wonder if you've gotten a response from any of these Thank You notes.
Holy smokes, Judy Blume! I love that you called her a treasure. Can you imagine a world without her? (And P.S. I'm still recovering from a world without Roger Ebert).
Judy Blume rocks!
abc…I'm with you on missing Ebert. He was a gifted writer and a wonderful thinker, and a generally good soul. I read all his reviews, regardless of my plans to ever see the movie.
I still have a couple of my Judy Blume books from when I read and reread them as an adolescent. One of the things I loved about her was the way she focused on the "ordinary" details that mattered most to young kids and teenagers, but the way she described these details made them interesting. That was why when I read them it really did sound like a middle schooler was telling the story, rather than a grown woman, because she truly captured that perspective.
LOVE HER!!!!
I sent her a letter at the age of twelve and again when I was forty…the love never fades! Awesome writer, awesome lady.
My last fan letter I sent, she emailed back and said she was working on a new book…I eagerly await its release!!
Oh yes! Judy Blume is great. Although I really wasn't into her Fudge series, Sorry, I loved all her other books. Plus, it was kind of cool living on the same island with her and Meg Cabot for a little while (although I only saw Mrs. Blume riding her bike twice).
Judy Blume definitely changed my life!! She wrote a lot about kids that didn't quite fit in. I didn't. Simply because I thought differently from most kids and Judy Blume just seemed to 'get it' in her books.
My favourite books of hers were…'Are you There God, It's Me, Margaret', 'TigerEyes' and 'And Then Again, Maybe I Won't.'
Love her!