“There was just this very peaceful, contented feeling”: Ibid., p. 134.

“To take Lyle along and have him meet Daddy would, for me, be an act”: Ibid., pp. 152–53.

“I wish I could be looking back ten years from now”: Ibid., pp. 254–55.

Chapter Twenty

Censorship

“I willed myself not to give in to the tears of frustration and disappointment I felt coming”: Judy Blume, “Places I Never Meant to Be: A Personal View,” American Libraries, June/July 1999, pp. 62–67.

“When we elected Ronald Reagan and the conservatives decided”: Alison Flood, “Judy Blume: ‘I Thought, This Is America: We Don’t Ban Books. But Then We Did,’ ” The Guardian, July 11, 2014. Accessed online: https://www.theguardian.com/books/2014/jul/11/judy-blume-interview-forever-writer-children-young-adults.

The tide against her turned practically “overnight”: Judy Blume at the Arlington Public Library event on October 22, 2015. Accessed on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PUDBcovfFjM.

the New York Times reported that challenges against books had “shot up” since the late 1970s: Colin Campbell, “Book Banning in America,” New York Times, December 1, 1981, sec. 7, p. 1.

“a best-selling author of sexually explicit books for children and young adults”: Ibid.

“We began to get letters from these people”: PS to RB, May 27, 2022.

“Thanks to Jerry Falwell and his Moral Majority I went from being called a ‘Communist’ ”: Judy Blume, “Is Puberty a Dirty Word,” New York Law School Review 38, nos. 1–4 (1993): 37–43.

“We didn’t create the law that we would have liked”: “Inside the SCOTUS Case on School Library Censorship,” WNYC, February 24, 2022. https://www.wnycstudios.org/podcasts/otm/segments/first-supreme-court-case-banned-school-books-on-the-media.

“In Florida, pornographic and inappropriate materials”: “Governor Ron DeSantis Debunks Book Ban Hoax,” FLGov.com, March 8, 2023. https://www.flgov.com/2023/03/08/governor-ron-desantis-debunks-book-ban-hoax/.

Covering it for the New York Times, reviewer Linda Wolfe described paging through Show Me!: Linda Wolfe, “The Birds and the Bees Were Never like This,” New York Times, July 13, 1975, p. 203.

“This book poses a problem for enlightened parents and sex educators”: E. James Lieberman, SIECUS Report 5, no. 1 (September 1975): 6.

“Until the Supreme Court decision of July”: Edwin McDowell, “Picture Book on Sex Is Withdrawn,” New York Times, September 19, 1982, Sec. 1 p. 61.

“I distinguish pornography in terms of intent”: CS to RB, October 26, 2022.

As part of their decision, the judges created the “Miller Test”: Miller v. California, 413 U.S. 15 (1973). https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/413/15/.

In the draft, Davey wakes up and starts touching herself: Box 115 of the Judy Blume Papers at Yale University’s Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library. Accessed April 28, 2022.

“I get Jane undressed down to her shirt and her underpants”: Judy Blume, Tiger Eyes (New York: Bradbury Press, 1981), p. 134.

“We want this book to reach as many readers as possible, don’t we?”: Judy Blume, “Places I Never Meant to Be: A Personal View,” American Libraries, June/July 1999, pp. 62–67.

“Why deprive kids in some parts of the country of what is, essentially”: Pat Scales, “Natural Born Editor,” School Library Journal, May 2001, pp. 50–53.

“Without a doubt, the upheavals of the 1960s”: Marie Winn, “What Became of Childhood Innocence,” New York Times, January 25, 1981, sec. 6, p. 15.

“Ultimately, I was not strong enough or brave enough”: Judy Blume, “Places I Never Meant to Be: A Personal View,” American Libraries, June/July 1999, pp. 62–67.

Chapter Twenty-One

Morals

“They call her a Pied Piper leading kids down the wrong path”: Gay Andrews Dillin, “Judy Blume: Children’s Author in a Grown-Up Controversy,” Christian Science Monitor, December 10, 1981, p. B4.

“How to Rid Your Schools and Libraries of Judy Blume Books”: Judy Blume, “Places I Never Meant to Be: A Personal View,” American Libraries, June/July 1999, pp. 62–67.

created a flyer with the frightening title “X-Rated Children’s Books”: Found in Box 32 of the Judy Blume Papers at Yale University’s Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library. Accessed May 11, 2022.

“Blubber is a good name for her”: Judy Blume, Blubber (New York: Dell, 1986), p. 5.

“If we’re going to do this we’re going to do it right”: Ibid., p. 130.

As Fogel told the Washington Post: Lawrence Feinberg, “School’s Use of Candid Novels Draws Parents’ Fire,” Washington Post, February 25, 1980, p. A1.

“It’s not a great piece of literature”: Ibid.

“The fact that it is not resolved is the most important part of the book”: Ibid.

“Blubber, she told her mother, is ‘the best book I ever read’ ”: Ibid.

“Blume’s books are sympathetic stories of ordinary children”: Kathleen Hinton-Braaten, “Writing for Kids Without Kidding Around,” Christian Science Monitor, May 14, 1979, p. B10.

“A growing number of iconoclasts are out to take the bloom”: Gay Andrews Dillin, “Judy Blume: Children’s Author in a Grown-Up Controversy,” Christian Science Monitor, December 10, 1981, p. B4.

“They’re trying to use us to sell more of their books”: Ibid.

“It’s the writers and advertisers who are the ones putting”: Ibid.

“Judy Blume writes what she calls ‘honest’ books for children”: Cal Thomas, “In Kids’ Books, Guess What ‘Honest’ Means,” Philadelphia Daily News, November 23, 1984.

“Arguing that Blume is just giving kids what they want is no argument at all”: Ibid.

“Congress soon passed the so-called squeal rule,” he wrote: Jeffrey P. Moran, Teaching Sex: The Shaping of Adolescence in the 20th Century (Boston: Harvard University Press, 2000), p. 205.

Chapter Twenty-Two

Notoriety

“Isolated and alone”: Judy Blume in conversation with Samantha Bee at an event at the 92nd Street Y on June 2, 2015. Accessed on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l7svP4zqCc0.

“I had letters from angry parents accusing me of ruining Christmas forever”: Judy Blume, “Places I Never Meant to Be: A Personal View,” American Libraries, June/July 1999, pp. 62–67.

“there’s a whole chapter that blows up Santa Claus”: LH to RB, October 25, 2022.

“Some sent lists showing me how easily I could have”: Judy Blume, “Places I Never Meant to Be: A Personal View,” American Libraries, June/July 1999, pp. 62–67.

“Judy Blume and I were the only women writers on the list”: Norma Klein, “On Being a Banned Writer,” The Lion and the Unicorn 10 (1986): 18–20.