Klein was “happy to be a quiet pioneer”: JF to RB, April 3, 2022.

Donelson tallied up protests against books as reported by the Office for Intellectual Freedom: Ken Donelson, “ ‘You Can’t Have That Book in My Kid’s School Library’: Books Under Attack in the Newsletter on Intellectual Freedom, 1952–1989,” High School Journal 74, no. 1 (October/November 1990): 1–7.

because there were no Black people in Old Town, “prejudice was no problem”: Ibid.

“There’s an obvious drop-off after Steinbeck,” Donelson wrote: Ibid.

“a deadly and frightening thing to observe”: Norma Klein, “On Being a Banned Writer,” The Lion and the Unicorn 10 (1986): 18–20.

In the Times, Richard Jackson called the decision “lunatic”: “Peoria, Ill. Bans 3 Books from School Libraries,” New York Times via AP, November 11, 1984, sec. 1, p. 34.

“99 percent” of callers outside of Peoria agreed with the decision: “Peoria School Board Restores 3 Judy Blume Books,” New York Times via AP, December 5, 1984, sec. A, p. 16.

“the wrong lesson, one of intolerance, distrust and contempt”: “8 Who Write Children’s Books Protest Ban on Blume Works,” New York Times, November 20, 1984, sec. A, p. 17.

“This is what I first suggested as a compromise,” she said: “Peoria School Board Restores 3 Judy Blume Books,” New York Times via AP, December 5, 1984, sec. A, p. 16.

“The first page I opened to talked about masturbation,” she explained to a reporter: Michael Hirsley, “ACLU Senses an Upturn in School-Book Censorship in South,” Chicago Tribune, December 29, 1985.

“No one is obligated to read this book”: Ibid.

she demanded that the school system remove the Harry Potter books from libraries: “Hearing to Determine Fate of ‘Harry Potter’ Book in GCPS,” Gwinnett (GA) Daily Post, April 10, 2006.

“That’s what happens when they start banning books”: “Deenie Sales Soar,” Galveston Daily News, September 10, 1985, p. 9A.

In June 1984, she received a letter from a board member: Box 32 of the Judy Blume Papers at Yale University’s Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library. Accessed May 11, 2022.

“My life changed when I learned about the National Coalition Against Censorship”: Judy Blume, “Places I Never Meant to Be: A Personal View,” American Libraries, June/July 1999, pp. 62–67.

“The intense battles around the control of sexuality”: Leanne Katz, “Introduction: Women, Censorship and Pornography,” New York Law School Review 38 (January 1993): 9–23.

“I used to feel so alone when I heard my books were being challenged”: Judy Blume, “Is Puberty a Dirty Word,” New York Law School Review 38, nos. 1–4 (1993): 37–43.

Chapter Twenty-Three

Daughters

“I gave you a lot of shit this year, didn’t I, Mother?”: Judy Blume, Smart Women (New York: Berkley Books, 1983). I worked from the 2004 reprint by Berkley Books, p. 350.

The next night they got tickets to see Apocalypse Now: Carlin Flora, “Judy Blume: Mating IQ,” Psychology Today, January 1, 2007. Accessed via the New York Public Library.

“Falling in love at forty (or any age) is s’wonderful”: Judy Blume, Smart Women, Introduction, p. IX.

“She did not understand how or why Michelle had turned into this impossible creature”: Ibid., p. 16.

“believes that Michelle is based on her (when she was that age)”: Ibid., Introduction, p. x.

“look[s] like the girl on the Sun-Maid raisin box”: Ibid., p. 6.

“No more affairs going nowhere”: Ibid., p. 93.

“She tried to think reasonably, but she couldn’t”: Ibid., p. 135.

“Did you know when we first moved to town my mother joined Man-of-the-Month club?”: Ibid., p. 140.

“I’m the one who has to suffer through it every time one of her love affairs fizzles”: Ibid., p. 144.

“One day, Margo would be sorry”: Ibid., p. 146.

“You’ve become so self-absorbed that you probably never even considered”: Randy Blume, Crazy in the Cockpit (New York: DK Publishing, 1999), pp. 5–6.

“It turned out my mother wouldn’t have noticed if I’d flown an airplane through the living room”: Ibid., p. 19.

“My mother and Norman got up early every morning to bike, snorkel, or sail”: Ibid., p. 24.

“How could she have let me come to this intellectual and cultural wasteland”: Ibid., p. 213.

“She felt a pouring out of motherly love”: Judy Blume, Smart Women, p. 351.

Chapter Twenty-Four

Libraries

“It’s really scary being a librarian right now”: AL to RB, October 12, 2022.

the breadwinner/homemaker model of marriage is still “super baked in”: SK to RB, October 14, 2022.

“Of course, [he] opened it initially to the perfect page”: Skype call with Michael Dishnow, May 2, 2023.

“at one point I made a statement to the effect, I used a curse word”: Ibid., May 2, 2023.

“the realities I knew having been in the Marine Corps overseas”: Ibid., May 2, 2023.

“They fired me… for being insubordinate”: Ibid., May 2, 2023.

“But I wasn’t in it for the money to begin with,” Dishnow said: Ibid., May 2, 2023.

“Guidance counselor Mike Dishnow was fired for writing critically”: Judy Blume, “Places I Never Meant to Be: A Personal View,” American Libraries, June/July 1999, pp. 62–67.

“From my mom’s point of view and the other seventies-era writers, it was such a step backwards”: JF to RB, April 3, 2022.

“so much worse than it was in the ’80s”: Steven McIntosh, “Judy Blume Worried About Intolerance and Book Banning in the US,” BBC.com, April 1, 2023. https://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-65142127.

“Critical Race Theory is not taught in K–12 education”: AL to RB, October 12, 2022.

“they looked over a kid’s shoulder and, excuse my language, they saw the word ‘fuck’ ”: Ibid., October 12, 2022.

“I loved that book, the kids loved it”: LH to RB, October 25, 2022.