Book Tok: The Genius of Judy Blume

Judy Blume is amazing. I knew that before reading this book:

I never get tired of reading about her. Here's a post I wrote last year after watching the documentary Judy Blume Forever.

Here's what I thought about the book:

@yabooknerdlibrarian What's your favorite Judy Blume book???? #judyblume #feministiktok #booktok #bannedbooks ♬ original sound - Jennifer @YA Book Nerd 📚📚📚

Judy Blume is Having a Moment

 

I've been a fan of Judy Blume since I was around 7 or 8. My sister loved the Fudge books. 

I just watched this documentary (from Amazon Prime) and it was amazing - as you'd expect. I learned all kinds of things about Judy Blume's life, her writing, and why she decided to write about all the things that kids/teens couldn't talk about with their parents. Or at least she couldn't talk about with her mother.

I love how the readers responded. She's known for being honest and truthful - especially about topics that people didn't (and some people to this day still) want to talk about. 

One of my favorite parts of the documentary was seeing all the letters written to her. And reading some of them. 

I love that she and her mother went to the library every week.

I love that she started writing by making up stories to her children. She started writing picture books but after rejections and a well-known author (unnamed sadly) who told her she had no talent, she started writing chapter books. 

Some of the letters shared are heartbreaking.

It's amazing how both the author and the reader wrote letters back and forth. 

I loved seeing authors and actors and other celebrities talk about her impact on them, how she influenced them and their work.

And then there's the new movie

I actually just read the book. And it was powerful, even has an adult. I wish I had read it when I was younger. It took her six weeks to create the first draft. 

Three favorites from my childhood:

Eat it or wear it!

I don't remember the original cover.  It was not a happy book, but it did make you think. 

I read this book until it fell apart. I loved the friendship and family drama. 

Now I really want to go to Key West and visit the book shop! 

RJ Julia's: Natasha Friend

Last night, I attended an author event for Natasha Friend for RJ Julia's bookstore. It was a packed house for the local author.

I've seen Natasha speak before, she came to talk at a library event at Otis Library.

Her brand new book, Where You'll Find Me came out yesterday. I've only read the first chapter, but it's great so far!

Natasha spoke about her memories from middle school (those dreaded terrible years.) She talked about how her clothes weren't right, the trouble with friends, and how she remembers it all like it was yesterday. These memories come in handy for her writing.

At the previous author event, she had told a story about meeting Judy Blume and how wrong it went. Here she retold the story, adding how she met her again. The meeting was a little better than the previous meeting, but what happened after is amazing! 

For more details - check out the back of the book!

Book Summary from Goodreads:

In this powerful and buoyant YA novel, a thirteen-year-old girl learns to navigate the shifting loyalties of friendships in middle school and deals with challenges at home.

The beginning of the eighth grade is not what Anna thought it would be. Her lifelong best friend has ditched her for the cool kids, and her mom is in the hospital after a suicide attempt. Anna finds herself where she least expects to: living with her dad, his young new wife, and their baby, and starting a new year at school without a best friend. With help from some unlikely sources, including a crazy girl-band talent show act, Anna learns that sometimes you find what you need to pull you through in the most unlikely places.

Sounds great right? I can't wait to read more!

Top Ten Tuesday: Books to Movies

This week's topic is I'd Love To See As Movies/Tv Shows. We did this post a while back, so check out my past answers too.

- meme from The Broke and the Bookish

YA:

Adult:

Mini Review: Here's to You, Rachel Robinson

*Sequel to Just as Long as We're Together *

Rachel's back together with her BFF Stephanie and their new friend Alison. Things are mostly normal between the three of them. Then Rachel's brother comes home expectantly. He's been kicked out of school. Charles isn't happy to be home and he's making his feelings obvious. It's hard for Rachel to be in the same room with him. She's trying to make the best of things, as always, but with so much going on, she's beginning to crack under the pressure.

The Good: I LOVED Just as Long as We're Together - I read that as a teen over and over again. It wasn't until college that I learned there was a sequel - but I was too afraid to read it. What if I didn't like it....that was just silly. Of course I liked the book. I liked revisiting old favorite characters. It was different coming from Rachel's perspective but I liked learning more about her. She's serious, determined, and smart. Part of me both liked and hated the ending. I wanted more. I think there should be book from Alison's POV!

The Bad: The covers (both this one and the old hardcover) are terrible - which is unfortunate.

A tribute to Judy Blume

As Wednesday was Judy Blume's birthday, I wrote up a tribute to her at my other blog.

Like Peas and Carrots

My new post at the HUB is about girls and friendship.  Here's my favorite friendship book from my youth.

You can read the post here!

Ten Things: Natasha Friend

Natasha Friend came to Otis Library this week. We had a great time chatting with her. I met her while at a Sarah Dessen signing at R.J. Julia's Bookstore. She was behind me in line with her newborn girl. I immediately asked her to come to my library and we finally found at date that worked. She was the teen author for our stop on the Connecticut Author Trail. It was a rainy night, but those who came out had a GREAT time!

Chatting about her ideas

The Book Table

Books and Goodies

The Goodies

Reading from Bounce

Here's ten things I learned about her:

1. A lot of people compare her latest book For Keeps to Gilmore Girls (not just me- read my review)

2. For Keeps is actually based on her moving during high school and a rumor started about the reasons for the move
3. She has a pretty good idea who started that rumor.
4. Judy Blume is her HERO and role model. Her story of meeting Judy Blume is hilarious.
5. She passed around Forever to her fellow classmates with the "good" pages marked.
6. She didn't have a TV growing up, which fostered her love of reading.
7. She was the girl who took stacks of books out of the library
8. Her book LUSH was number 6 on the books most challenged in 2010
9. She loved the book The Help - but waited to read it because of all the hype. She was sure she wouldn't like it as much, but she was wrong.
10. She has a new book coming out next year called My Life in Black and White - it's about a beautiful girl who was in a very serious car accident. Her face has massive scarring. She has to figure out who she is now that she's no longer beautiful.