From: Beth Wright Redford <bethreader>
Date: Fri, 3 Oct 2008 06:09:25 -0700 (PDT)

My fifth grade year (way back in the 1970's) was a nasty one in terms of cliquishness, exclusion, and mean girl behavior.? But just as it was getting really bad, the teacher read Blubber aloud to the class.? Some mean girl bullies in this story come out looking bad, and the real life bullying in my classroom scaled way back after that, at least for a while.? I've been a fan of Judy Blume's books ever since.

Here's a testament to the enduring appeal of Blume's books:?? with most other realistic fiction in my library, outdated fashion on the cover is enough to condemn a book to a sad life of shelf-sitting unless it's handsold by a librarian.? However, the older copies of Blume's books in my library continue to circulate even though the girls in the cover art have the wrong hairdos.? They seem to be books that young people handsell to each other.? The characters remain appealing and the situations believable, even years after the books were first published.

In another sign of Blume's enduring appeal, Forever still gets stolen off my library shelves and never returned, decades after its publication.? In fact, that's how I can tell if a YA novel has really found its audience:? when it gets stolen off my shelves, just like Forever.

Beth Wright Redford Fletcher Free Library Burlington, Vermont




      
Received on Fri 03 Oct 2008 08:09:25 AM CDT